Two NASA astronauts spotted a malfunctioning backup computer on the International Space Station during a short spacewalk on Wednesday (April 23), when they were restoring the station’s computer system.
NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson performed the repair procedure fairly quickly by removing the station’s failed computer and replacing it with a spare computer in less than an hour at 9:56 am EDT (13:56 GMT)
"It looks like a wonderful day for a walk in space," astronauts reported on the radio to the Flight Control Center, before going into space. The spacewalk of the plan was supposed to take place within 2, 5 hours.
RickMastracchio and SteveSwanson replaced the computer, known at NASA as a multiplexer-demultiplexer or MDM. The device is a backup computer for routing system commands, including solar panels, robot hands control, and other critical operations. The 10-year-old MDM computer failed on April 11 during a standard test. The main computer in the system worked fine, but the NASA station manager demanded that the system be restored during a spacewalk.
"It looks like we have a new MDM," said Mastracchio, after he finished the job.
The test showed that the new computer is working properly.
“Great,” added Mastracchio.
There are only 45 MDM computers on the International Space Station. 21 of them are located on the outer orbital laboratory, the rest are installed inside the residential sector. Knowing how to replace an MDM computer is a must for astronauts.
After a quick job, the astronauts had a little time to admire the Earth. At some point, Mastracchio invited Swanson to take a look down at the sunlit Earth.
“Where are we?”, Mastracchio later asked the Flight Control Center. Answer: "Over South America."
"Great view," answered the astronaut.
