Training today has started with a class on the SAMS payload: that’s the Space Acceleration Measurement System, a series of interconnected sensors throughout ISS that for over ten years have been characterizing the microgravity environment on Station. The internal cameras might be off past working hours, but the SAMS ground controllers always know from the acceleration telemetry whether it’s bedtime on orbit or if there’s still activity onboard!
The rest of the day I’ll mainly be planning Friday’s training run in the pool. As I already mentioned, we’ll be practicing a contingency scenario in which we have to swap a pump module. That’s a vital component, because it keeps cooling fluid running in one of our two external thermal control system loop. With one pump module down, we loose a lot of redundancy on Station, starting with half of the power supply. Replacing a pump module is a 3-EVA task, but on Friday we’ll only practice one of them, EVA number 2. Prep work will already have been done and we’ll be ready to slide the failed pump module out of its location and install a spare one.
A pump module has failed in the past! In the picture you can see a failed unit being stowed in the Shuttle payload bay during STS-135 two years ago. It gives you an idea of its size. And some units, like batteries, are even bigger!
06/08/2013