Discovery to take off today with a Robot as its seventh crew member
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 04 November 2010, 20:24 IST
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Washington: Finally the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space administration gave their nod to launch the space shuttle Discovery today which will begin its 11 day mission to the International Space Station. The Discovery will set on fire at 3.29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT). The thumbs up were given by the Mission Management Team (MMT) after the main engine controller problem was resolved. The decision to launch on Wednesday was called off as there were concerns about poor weather around the time of launch .There was only 20 percent chance of favorable conditions, so mission managers set another meeting to evaluate the weather early Thursday. Another reason leading to the failure of the launch on Wednesday was the erratic behavior of the main engine controller, a computer-like box that checks each engine 50 times per second on the way to space. Engineers thought the problem had been solved early Tuesday, but mission engineers were not very confident and said that the controller could not be trusted. If the weather cooperates and the controller is fixed then the shuttle will be launched today at 1005 GMT, as shuttle fueling operations takes normally three hours before launch. The Discovery will carry six astronauts, all-Americans. A humanoid robot will become the seventh crew member to board the Discovery shuttle, in a first for space exploration. R2, weighing 300 pounds and fitted with 350 electromagnetic sensors has been tested under severe conditions to check how efficiently it can operate in microgravity. Robonaut 2 (R2), created by Nasa and General Motors at a cost of $2.5 million, will become the first humanoid robot in orbit after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, on a one-way trip to the International Space Station. Its creators believe that, with enhancements, R2 will one day take on roles considered too difficult or dangerous for astronauts. Future generations of R2 could be used as space pioneers, scouting out asteroids and other worlds such as Mars. The six astronauts for the mission will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) to the station. The PMM, converted from the multipurpose logistics module Leonardo, will provide additional storage for the station crew. Besides, two space walks, for maintenance work and component installation, are scheduled. Experiments in such fields as fluid physics, materials science, biology and biotechnology will be conducted inside the PMM. Nov 7th is the deadline for NASA to launch the Discovery; otherwise the flight will be postponed to December due to unacceptable sun angles' reason.

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