XA/EVA Project Office Weekly Activity Report 3 August 2000
EMU O2 Contamination Recovery Status
Work is progressing on the cleaning and reassembly of three Secondary Oxygen Package (SOP) assemblies to support the STS-106 mission. To date, the third and final SOP regulator required for 2A.2b is nearing completion of acceptance testing. The first two SOP regulators have been integrated into the SOP assemblies and acceptance testing is proceeding. The first SOP assembly has completed several tests to date and is still planned for delivery to USA on 8/15 for flight processing. During the Joint EVA Working Group held Monday, July 24, 2000, a summary of the Oxygen contamination issue and recovery status was presented to representatives from Energia and Zvevda. Gas and bottle sampling and analytical assessments are continuing in support of root cause determination. Interim flight rationale, waivers for off-nominal flight processing, and hazard analyses are nearing completion and will be presented at the EVA CoFR2 on August 7.
SAFER Design Certification Review
EVA Project Office personnel participated in the Design Certification Reviews of the upgrades to the USA Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) system. The SAFER software upgrade to improve the Automatic Attitude Hold (AAH) function was determined to be acceptable based on the successful completion of the software verification and validation process. The SAFER battery capacity gauge upgrade to eliminate erratic reset/count was also determined to be acceptable based on the successful completion of peer review and certification testing. The upgraded SAFER units and SAFER batteries will be processed to support EVA on STS-106.
Additionally, the SAFER is undergoing thermal/vacuum testing to determine the cause for the overheating condition experienced during Human Thermal Vacuum (HTV) test #9 on 04/20/00. The test is expected to be completed during the week of 08/07/00.
2A.2b LPRR
The EVA Project Office supported the 2A.2b Launch Package Readiness Review on July 27, 2000. A status of EVA hardware and its readiness to support a September 8, 2000, launch was presented. No issues were reported and the EVA Project Office is ready to proceed with Orbiter integration.
Fluid Line Repair Kit
Conceptual design hardware for repairing fluid lines on the International Space Station was delivered to the Crew and Thermal Systems Division on July 28. The fluid line repair hardware delivered includes a tube cutter and two seal mechanism concepts for line replacement. Once a tube is cut and a damaged line removed, a flex hose with a mechanism at each end will be placed on the ends of the tube and the sealing mechanism will be actuated via an interface to the EVA power tool. The tube cutter and seal mechanism concepts will undergo thermal testing and vacuum chamber testing in August and will be evaluated in human thermal vacuum testing later this year.
Node2 Attached Element Multilateral EVA Design TIM
The EVA Project Office hosted a multilateral EVA design Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) at Alenia, Turin, Italy from July 17-20, 2000, to confirm hardware configurations at EVA worksites between elements that attach to Node2. Designers from NASDA, Boeing Prime, Alenia, MSFC, JSC, and Lockheed-Martin reviewed flight drawings to ensure that Node2 EVA outfitting supports both Node2 tasks and shared tasks on neighboring elements. This resulted in several Node2 EVA outfitting changes to solve various issues: i.e., NASDA H-II Transfer Vehicle thruster locations protrude into Node2 translation paths; a Japanese Experiment Module camera location altered Node2 heat exchanger worksites, a new worksite is needed to release the Node2 Flight Release Grapple Fixture when parked on Node1 near the Lab External Stowage Platform #1, etc. In addition, EVA has identified physical interference between NASDA elements and Node2 outfitting that may prevent element berthing. EVA will make the relevant Node2 EVA aids on-orbit removable, so that EVA can remove EVA interferences prior to berthing, and the remaining non-EVA hardware issues will be elevated to the Vehicle Control Board.
Gregory J. Harbaugh
Manager
