Canadarm2 lays track for space railway

 


SubHead:   'A unique and highly complex robot working in an extremely hostile environment': Improved mobility

Author:     Broward Liston

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The first railway in outer space was 
ready to roll yesterday after astronauts from the space shuttle 
Atlantis prepped it for its inaugural run.

  The rail car, installed outside the International Space Station 
on the crew's first spacewalk, will have a top speed of just 
three centimetres per second, but ground controllers may not 
open up the throttle all the way in their first test today 
anyway.

  The rail car is part of the 13-metre-long S-0 truss, the 
centerpiece of what is to be a 120-metre girder running the 
length of the space station. The completed girder will support 
thousands of square metres of solar panels generating power for 
use throughout the station.

  In a spacewalk lasting more than six hours, astronauts Steve 
Smith and Rex Walheim, the same team that mounted the new truss 
segment on to the station last Thursday, released launch 
restraints on the rail car, which rode to space in the shuttle's 
cargo bay.

  NASA said the Mobile Transporter, as the rail car is officially 
known, was ready for its first test today.

  "As far as speed is concerned, it's probably going to be in the 
fractions of an inch velocity -- on the order of a tenth of an 
inch per second," said Ben Sellari, the launch package manager 
at Mission Control.

  The small trolley is designed to roll the station's Canadarm2 
robotic arm from one construction site to another as work 
progresses on the station over the next several years.

  Captain Marc Garneau, president of the Canadian Space Agency, 
said Canadarm2 has so far performed flawlessly in its pivotal 
role installing the truss segment.

  The massive robotic arm, Canada's contribution to the 
multi-national space station, lifted the truss segment out and 
away from the shuttle's cargo bay and attached it on the 
station's laboratory module.

  The arm was then used for the first time to move the 
spacewalking astronauts to different work sites around the newly 
installed truss.

  Teams of engineers from the CSA and MD Robotics, the 
Brampton-based company that built the arm, were monitoring its 
work closely from the ground.

  An anomaly was detected on one of its joints several weeks ago, 
but the Canadian engineers successfully bypassed the problem 
area.

  "Canadarm2 is a unique and highly complex robot working in an 
extremely hostile environment," said Capt. Garneau. "Problems 
are bound to occur and are part of the normal course of space 
activities ... [but] Canadarm2 operations went smoothly and 
flawlessly yesterday."

  The 18-metre arm, which is powerful enough to lift entire 
station modules, was also rewired so it could draw power through 
the S-0 truss.

  Eight more truss segments will be added on future missions. And 
a handcar will be added to the rail system so astronauts can 
move more easily along the truss, which will be longer than a 
football field.



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