Today was a big day for the Motion Control Systems group -- my group. Today's EVA was dedicated to our new equipment. One of our CMGs was experiencing some abnormal vibrations. This caused us to shut down the CMG before it failed. Because CMGs provide non-propulsive attitude control (ie. doesn't use the limited propellant supply), it is imperative that we have a complete set of CMGs operating. While we need at least two CMGs to maintain attitude control (sometimes we need more), having two additional to distribute the load is always a good thing. Here's what a CMG looks like.
After the EVA crewmembers installed the new CMG and made the proper connections, i was able to turn the CMG on and perform a few functional checks to ensure that all the proper connections were made. Indeed they were...the CMG came alive upon the power on command. We also did a short spin up test on my shift. When i left this evening, the CMG wheel speed was coasting back to 0 RPM (we intended to do this). Once the CMG wheel speed comes to a stop, we will spin it up to it's normal operating speed of 6600 RPM.
Tomorrow on my shift, we will use the new CMG for attitude control for the first time.
Also, tomorrow, the ISS will travel its 50000th orbit. Alas, tomorrow is a very busy and important day.
The color tomorrow is white. A white shirt with a black tie.
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