12-December-2007, 05:14 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 11,478
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CBS News Space Place
Quote:
6:15 PM, 12/11/07, Update: Tanking test planned to help pinpoint ECO sensor problem
[...]
Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale said today engineers will tap into the engine cutoff - ECO - sensor circuitry near a control unit in the shuttle's aft engine compartment to hook up test instrumentation that should help locate any bad wiring or connectors in the 100 feet or so of cabling between the box and the sensors at the base of the external tank.
The tanking test is tentatively planned for next Tuesday.
"We think that we have some instrumentation we can put in an appropriate place in these circuits to observe what happens as we fill the tank," Hale told reporters during an afternoon teleconference. "If the erroneous condition repeats, which is what we think will happen, we can capture the location in the circuit of that opening with the use of some equipment and a technique known as time domain reflectivity, TDR.
"We have a high degree of confidence of pinpointing the location of where we're having our problems and once we know the location ... we'll be able to concentrate our go-forward efforts, presumably put together a fix and go fly. And again, our go-fly date is no earlier than Jan. 2. It could definitely be a little bit later than that, depending on the troubleshooting and the repair work involved."
[...]
Among candidate problem areas: Broken or damaged wires; a recessed connector pin/socket; contamination in a connector; wire splice damage; and a combination of problems leading to a tolerance "stack up" in a feed-through connector.
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"If the erroneous condition repeats[...]"
Here's hoping it does.
Many details in the article.
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