Is something wrong w the ISS?

[huxley]

This Johnson Space Center’s mission control room picture shows, in the upper left hand corner, a big screen that has words like "CATO" "BAD" and "RFG Critical Failure" !?! It was taken when the Soyuz was docking with the space station. The room seemed pretty calm?

Mission Control Center Photo (0.5 MB)

I think we would've heard something by now!

I wonder what some of the things are in the screen next to it? I know the South Atlantic Anomaly, but what are the circles over the US and Russia - other orbiting objects?

Pat

 

[Justin Horne]

Huh.. Weird.. That's probably just a daily thing... The kinda stuff that regular people like us dont know about, and that they are all too aware of...

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

I beileve the circles over the US and Asia ar essentially, for lack of a better term, danger areas

One looks like White Sands, another like Wallops Island.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by huxley
I wonder what some of the things are in the screen next to it? I know the South Atlantic Anomaly, but what are the circles over the US and Russia - other orbiting objects?

Pat

Those appear to be the reception areas of the "radio quiet" regions around the Deep Space Network site and the two NRAO radio astronomy sites, Socorro NM and Green Bank WV. They're probably restricted in what frequencies they can use when passing over those sites.

True story: A friend of mine from Marshall became known as a communications expert for no reason other than he ran one of the major usenet servers for many years (actually he'd helped write the usenet "NNTP" protocol). They put him on the ISS comm team. On a trip to Moscow, they were working on some equipment, and blew the fuse in their test meter. They had no spares. He went out and found one on the black market for $1US. They got it working

After he got home, they called complaining about the Russian suit radios -- they were unintelligable. Despite the fact he was a computer comm expert, they told him that he was supposed to listen in on a conference call with Moscow to see if he could tell what the problem with the radio was. When the time came, over the conference line he heard a woman's voice, speaking clear but accented English. He asked why. They said that the conversation they had recorded was in Russian, so they had it translated for him.

CATO, BAD, Critical Failure, they're used to this stuff by now.

 

[GlennW]

The only thing wrong with the ISS is that it has so far been a failure. Costing way more than ever thought possible and still not even finished. And with little more then caretaker crews on it since the shuttles are grounded, the promised tons of science that were to be done are not happening. These things notwithstanding, it is still one of the most incredible machines ever!

Glenn

 

[rstaff3]

The circles over the US are areas of coverage for ground support resources, such as tracking and data relay. WLPS is Wallops Is. DFRS is probably Dryden, and the middle one is most likely White Sands, although I don't recognize the exact acronym.

I assume the circles over Russia are Soyuz tracking stations.

 

[huxley]

(rant)

The problem with the skeleton crew is due to NASA's lack of rescue vehicle. NASA dumps (and I mean dumps) lavish amounts of money on a crew return vehicle (remember the X-43 venture star?) with leading edge technology that they never finished because of budget constraints (big surprise!)

ESA and Russia on the other hand is doing their part to build and maintain the ISS (thank Russia for the Soyuz and Progress!)

NASA needs to learn how to Keep It Simple Stupid! NASA can learn much from the Russian space agency. Remember earlier this year when a Russian cosmonaut brought an ink pen that hadn't gone thru NASA's rugged (read expensive) testing before the pen went up! OMG! Heaven forbid we take a stick up to the station without testing it first!

And while I'm ranting, why can't NASA and ESA people go to Mars together? Why must we send our own vehicle?

(/rant)

 

[huxley]

I don't think I have ever heard of Wallops Is? What is this?

Thanks,
Pat

P.S. I'm still a BIG supporter of the ISS too. Actually anything in space! Can't wait for MESSENGER to launch!

 

[rstaff3]

It's a NASA facility in north eastern Virginia. It has a LEO tracking station and supports atmospheric research through sounding rockets and balloons. Easy to find their site on Google.