Tear found on newly-unfurled space station solar array

It looks like the space station's latest solar array is causing NASA yet more headaches, as a small tear was spotted by astronauts shortly after it was unfurled earlier today. The first of two solar arrays installed as part of this mission did unfurl without a hitch, but the second forced the astronauts to abruptly stop the deployment and inspect the damage, with a final verdict apparently still yet to be determined. This follows the discovery of some metal shavings in a motorized joint on Sunday, for which NASA already added a day to Discovery's mission in order to conduct a detailed inspection. As the AP points out, the space station needs all the juice from the new array it can get, with both the European Space Agency's soon-to-be-launched Columbus science lab and an upcoming Japanese lab dependent on it for power.

[aeo @ Oct 30th 2007 5:00PM]

Welcome to my life NASA.

[God @ Oct 30th 2007 5:09PM]

two words: duct tape.

[James @ Oct 30th 2007 7:30PM]

Duct tape doesn't work in space... it's a sad fact to come to grips with. I love duct tape.

[Alexander @ Oct 30th 2007 7:44PM]

Duct tape works just fine in space. They have used it many times.

Okay, well not exactly duct tape but something very similar.

[Ron Smith @ Oct 30th 2007 5:10PM]

yeah, that is the first set of solar arrays, they were simply being moved from their temporary construction position to the final permanent location. Also, as is there is plenty of power for the Columbus module, however they are evaluating for the JAXA module. Go to NASAspaceflight.com to get a better idea.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 30th 2007 9:34PM]

Maybe the agency shouldn't be nickel and dimed to death.

[notYou @ Oct 30th 2007 11:25PM]

Nickel and dime'd to death? There's a lot of change in the ~5.5 billion budget they've been running for the past couple of years (http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/index.html). Do you realize that 5.5bil is 5,500 millions???? How much fed taxes did you pay last year?

[Ron Smith @ Oct 30th 2007 5:11PM]

PS The AP is a horrible source of information about the space program, it is mind boggling how bad it it.

[SteveMB @ Oct 30th 2007 5:18PM]

At first I thought they were talking about tears from your eyes.

[Nate @ Oct 30th 2007 5:32PM]

ya same here

[ugg.tryptophan @ Oct 30th 2007 5:41PM]

someones crying...up there...in space...alone

[Rjay @ Oct 30th 2007 9:56PM]

Oh those pesky aliens.. always up to something.

[scott @ Oct 30th 2007 5:19PM]

I'm guessing there's a circuit break in there that will make repair pretty difficult. Did NASA build in circuit redundancy to the panel?

[scott @ Oct 30th 2007 5:19PM]

I'm guessing there's a circuit break in there that will make repair pretty difficult. Did NASA build in circuit redundancy to the panel?

[Kilton @ Oct 30th 2007 5:23PM]

Did you build in statement redundancy to your computer?

[scott @ Oct 30th 2007 5:27PM]

You bet your ass!

[scott @ Oct 30th 2007 5:27PM]

You bet your ass!

[Darkest Daze @ Oct 30th 2007 8:21PM]

As obnoxious as that reply (replies) would have normally been, I just couldn't help but laugh.

[Homer J @ Oct 30th 2007 5:37PM]

Now THERES your problem :-)

[Pierce @ Oct 31st 2007 3:29AM]

Just to clarify, this solar panel has been in orbit for a very long time (since STS-97), and was only recently folded up (STS-117) in preparation to be moved to it's final location (STS-120). It's not newly installed on this mission, just relocated.

[John Doe @ Oct 30th 2007 6:11PM]

Oops.

[Boynamedsue @ Oct 30th 2007 6:15PM]

Yeah i was picturing a native american astronaut watching a piece of litter float by.

[Crayola @ Oct 30th 2007 7:40PM]

I think those solar arrays were listed on Mattel's latest toy recall...

Possible faults include unfurling of tiny metallic elements which may be trajected into flying object traveling at millions and billions miles per hour, traces of lead paint beyond levels of toxicity for a small lab animal were also found to have contaminated the standard NASA whiter than white paintwork.

Mattel would like to apologize to the Chinese people, NASA, fishes in the sea, Greenpeace activist, the hobo beside the post box on 42nd street, Santa little helpers who had to handle such toxic material, Santa himself for damage to reputable in the eyes of impressionable little children, and parents who had spent their hard earned newly minted 'Zimbabwe' edition of US currency on such shoddy goods.

[Graham @ Oct 30th 2007 7:42PM]

With all these computer problems Nasa is having and junk, they should just make it all open source. Have the whole world work on it and add their imput. I mean heck if you had the opporitunity to help us get into space wouldnt you? Sure a hardware issue like this wouldnt do much good, but yea, this article made me think that.

[Josh L @ Oct 30th 2007 7:54PM]

Considering the number of groups in the world today that would love to see America fail in space (and everyplace else), opening NASA up to them seems to be a pretty terrible idea. NASA spends enough money and kills enough astronauts by accident, adding malicious flaws into the mix in the name of 'openness' isn't going to help anything.

I hear where you're coming from, and the idea of a Gene-Roddenberry-esque utopia in which all of humanity is united in pursuit of space travel is pretty cool. But let's work on the 'humanity is united' part first.

[soggyfritter @ Oct 31st 2007 4:26AM]

wikiSpace! A hilarious disaster in the making!

"Im in ur space station, fuxing ur astronauts."

etc.

[IndiaTech @ Oct 30th 2007 10:50PM]

Ha... Haah...

[Fruition @ Oct 30th 2007 11:24PM]

Hmm... CNN... Aren't they the ones who said the Columbia spacecraft debris was travelling at nearly 18 times the speed of light?

[FreshJulius @ Oct 31st 2007 10:38AM]

Looks like a Rotator Splint.