NASA duo plan Tuesday ISS spacewalk to replace the mux that sux

An external comms box on the International Space Station has failed, leading NASA to schedule its first unscheduled spacewalk since 2015. After a software upgrade in March, a multiplexer/demultiplexer (MDM) data relay on the S0 truss failed on Saturday, so command routing is being handled by a backup unit for now. According …

[tfewster]

Uh-oh

Not the AE-35 unit. We know how this plays out.

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

Re: Uh-oh

Dam you tfewster. That was my first thought.

[Bandikoto]

Re: Uh-oh

It was everyone's first thought.

[Martin Summers]

Re: Uh-oh

"It was everyone's first thought."

It wasn't mine. I had to Google it. And now I feel ashamed...

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Uh-oh

"It wasn't mine. I had to Google it. And now I feel ashamed..."

In your defence, the film was premièred 50 years ago (as of next year) so most of the commtariet probably weren't even born when it first did the cinema circuit.

How many of you, like me, now feel REALLY OLD! ;-)

[AJ MacLeod]

Unscheduled?

Maybe it's just too early on a Monday morning, but I'm struggling to grasp the concept of a scheduled unscheduled spacewalk...

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Unscheduled?

"I'm struggling to grasp the concept of a scheduled unscheduled spacewalk"

Yup. Bernard Woolley wants a word with Richard.

[Francis Boyle]

Re: Unscheduled?

Sounds like something Captain Kirk would say to a computer he really didn't like.

[Anonymous Coward]

Kirk....

Especially if it implies later helping a woman to get out her space suite...

[lglethal]

Re: Unscheduled?

Shall i be that numpty that explains? Why not.

Spacewalks are planned months in advance. Even if something fails, unless its truly mission critical, you would normally just wait until the next planned spacewalk to fix it.

This is obviously something they consider very critical. They're willing to go out and fix it pretty much ASAP, which tells you all you need to know about that.

Also, It takes time to get everything ready for a spacewalk, so thats why they can say "we will go out Tuesday", so yeah its planned (to an extent) but this is not part of the advance schedule, so its not a scheduled spacewalk.

Probably whats most amazing for me here is that its been 2 years since the last time something rated as critical failed (and even then there are backups). Thats pretty damn good reliability, in whats probably the most demanding environment, we have! Big ups to all the space agencies involved!

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Unscheduled?

Pretty sure the majority of the commentariat knows this. But this is something you just have to see the funny side of. I think it's even stated in the rules somewhere. Why don't we all just have a pint and relax, and toast our colleagues in spaaace?

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Unscheduled?

"Why don't we all just have a pint and relax, and toast our colleagues in spaaace?"

I'll drink to that.

[Named coward]

Re: Unscheduled?

Considering it takes hours to put on the suit, an unscheduled spacewalk is not something one would want to contemplate...

[Robert Helpmann??]

Re: Unscheduled?

...an unscheduled spacewalk is not something one would want to contemplate...

Yeah. Watch that first step: it's a doozy!

[RyokuMas]

Letters, not numbers

Wonder if they originally intended to call it "MDM-A", then someone wait "waaaaaiiit a minute!"

[What? Me worry?]

Opportunity for an On Call article?

Not sure if it's 'dodgy' enough, but it is unscheduled! Perhaps Simon can ask Commander Whitson for an On Call Friday rundown of the spacewalk to replace the MUX. That's one I'd definitely look forward to for a friday afternoon read!

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: Opportunity for an On Call article?

Yes!

El Reg, please go for it! I'll promise not to nit pick on at least three articles. Okay, five.

[DocJames]

Obligatory

https://xkcd.com/705/

Icon for afterwards. Best not before.

[Fizzle]

Lithium Overload

Obviously the latest upgrade drew too much power and fried the battery. "On Earth as it is in space..."

Thumbs up to the intrepid travellers though.

[imanidiot]

Just another day in the office?

Have they fixed the second cooling and power umbilical yet? Last spacewalk one of them was leaking, causing the spacewalk to be cut short.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Just another day in the office?

"Have they fixed the second cooling and power umbilical yet?"

Gaffer tape to the rescue.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just wonder...

... why they install this stuff outside and not inside. Looks like a sadistic way to tell astronauts, "please, go out for a while and fix this..."

[handleoclast]

The cause is obvious

The clues are in the article. They did a firmware upgrade. Some time later it failed.

It was obviously a Netgear MDM. The firmware upgrade installed data slurping (MAC, IP, and similar technical data) and the data overload borked it.

[Charles E]

Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit. It is going to go 100 percent failure within 72 hours.

[The_H]

Expenses...

If it's a 2hr spacewalk, I'm thinking the mileage claim from the workshop to the job site is going to be a little on the high side

[hatti]

Make sure the part is for the correct year, make, model and registration of space station otherwise mounting brackets may not align. :(

[Johndoe888]

Intel Outside

Just a guess, could it be LPC clock outputs in the Atom C2000 chips

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Why?

Haven't they switched it off then on?

[Pedigree-Pete]

You'd think it would be like watching paint dry.....

...but I watched the Spacewalk on NASA TV and I for 1 enjoyed it. Have one of these team at Gnd Control and up there.. PP