Was it dangerous for the Shuttle to take off after a transducer was discovered to have failed?
NASA explains the role of transducers as follows: “Four ullage pressure transducers are located at the top end of each propellant tank (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen). One of the four is considered a spare and is normally off-line. Before launch, GSE normally checks out the four transducers; and if one of the three active transducers is determined to be bad, it can be taken off-line and the output of the spare transducer selected. The flight crew can also perform this operation after lift-off via the computer keyboard; however, because of the time involved from lift-off to MECO, this would probably be impractical. The three active ullage pressure sensors provide outputs for CRT display and control of ullage pressure within their particular propellant tanks. For CRT display, computer processing selects the middle value output of the three transducers and displays this single value. For ullage pressure control, all three outputs are used.” Sources:
Atlantis ducked through clouds as it roared up from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Nasa managers have packaged a complex series of repairs and upgrades into five six-and-a-half-hour spacewalks. Hubble has been hit by failures to its science instruments and to the onboard gyroscopes that are used to point the observatory at targets in the sky. But astronauts cannot shelter on the International Space Station (ISS) in an emergency, so another shuttle will be on stand-by to rescue the crew if they are endangered.At a post-launch news conference, Nasa’s Michael Moses said the shuttle had experienced two minor malfunctions during the climb to orbit: a circuit-breaker problem and a “flaky” transducer which had set off alarms. Neither had any significant effect on the launch. Several pieces of debris were spotted during lift off, but none are thought to have posed a risk to the orbiter. Officials said the scientific pay-off would be worth the risk, effort and expense of the mission. If all go
A transducer is the only instrument malfunction, but otherwise no other concerns. Four ullage pressure transducers are located at the top end of each propellant tank (liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen). One of the four is considered a spare and is normally off-line. Before launch, GSE normally checks out the four transducers; and if one of the three active transducers is determined to be bad, it can be taken off-line and the output of the spare transducer selected. The flight crew can also perform this operation after lift-off via the computer keyboard. Sources: http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?
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