Space Station Computer Repairs Continue

Although they were able to reboot them yesterday, the Russian modules' computers on board the International Space Station (ISS) shut down once again and remained inoperable on Friday, and the root of their malfunction has so far eluded ground control and astronauts, report The Associated Press and other news agencies.

If the computers cannot be permanently rebooted, the ISS would have to be abandoned, as the computers control the altitude and recycling systems, affecting the astronauts' food and water supplies. If the ISS is abandoned, it could either come crashing down on the Earth somewhere, sometime, or just drift away into the reaches of space.

The six computers in question, which were made under contract with Daimler in Germany, have resisted attempts to repair them. At one point on Thursday evening it looked as if the problem had been solved, but the computers soon enough shut down again and have not been revived since. They shut down right after astronauts from the Atlantis installed new trusses to the ISS via a spacewalk to give the space station more power.

However, authorities remain very confident that the malfunctions will be resolved.

"The lives of the crew are not in danger," Valery Lyndin, the spokesman for Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow, told the AP. As of yet, there are no plans to evacuate the crew of three astronauts.

"Don't get up tomorrow and expect it all to be working. [But the engineers are] making good progress to resolving this issue," Michael T. Suffredini, the Space Station programme manager, said at a briefing for reporters on Thursday, as reported by Vnunet.

Russian engineers now feel that the problem is likely to be newly installed wiring that is sending out "noise" and interfering with the computers' electromagnetic fields. However, as of yet they are unable to pinpoint which wiring is causing the "noise", if that is indeed the problem.