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HomeTech/ScienceNASA's ISS-RapidScat instrument being looked at after two power anomalies

NASA’s ISS-RapidScat instrument being looked at after two power anomalies

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPasadena, CA – Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, are assessing two power system-related anomalies affecting the operation of NASA’s ISS-RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station. RapidScat measures surface wind speeds and directions over the ocean.

RapidScat is currently deactivated and in a stable configuration. A RapidScat project anomaly response team has been formed, working in conjunction with the space station anomaly response team. RapidScat will remain deactivated as the investigation continues.

Artist's rendering of NASA's ISS-RapidScat instrument (inset), which launched to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johnson Space Center)
Artist’s rendering of NASA’s ISS-RapidScat instrument (inset), which launched to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johnson Space Center)

On August 19th, the RapidScat team was notified by the International Space Station payload operations center at Marshall that the station’s Columbus Module experienced an anomaly with one of the two units aboard the station that distribute electrical power to the module.

The anomaly resulted in the loss of power to several payloads aboard the space station, including RapidScat.

Later that day, as JPL mission managers attempted to reactivate RapidScat, one of the outlets on the power distribution unit experienced an electrical overload. That outlet powers the station’s RapidScat, High-Definition Earth Viewing Experiment (HDEV) and Solar Monitoring Observatory (SOLAR) payloads.

On August 23rd, the crew manually isolated RapidScat’s external payload site from its Columbus module power circuit. Ground teams then successfully restored power to the affected power distribution unit outlet, and SOLAR and HDEV powered up successfully, with no sign of electrical overload. This action isolated the outlet overload to the RapidScat site. It is not yet known if the fault is on the Columbus or RapidScat side of the power supply interface.

Mission managers are handling the incidents as two separate anomalies: loss of power to multiple payloads connected to the power distribution unit, and the electrical overload on the unit’s outlet during the attempted reactivation of RapidScat.

RapidScat’s survival heaters are currently on (the heaters receive power from a different Columbus power circuit). The heaters are designed to keep the instrument within allowable flight temperatures indefinitely.

RapidScat, launched on September 21st, 2014, was developed as a speedy and cost-effective replacement for NASA’s QuikScat satellite. RapidScat’s all-weather measurements of ocean surface wind speed and direction contribute to improved weather and marine forecasting, including hurricane monitoring, as well as to climate studies.

ISS-RapidScat is a partnership between JPL and the International Space Station Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, with support from the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Other mission partners include the Kennedy Space Center, Florida; NASA Marshall; the European Space Agency; and SpaceX.

For more information on ISS-RapidScat, visit:

http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/RapidScat/

http://www.nasa.gov/rapidscat

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