Blue screens are hovering over the blue globe today, as navigation and life-support control computers in the ISS have crashed. The problem occurred when astronauts were installing new solar panels on the space station, and without the computers the crew can’t stay on board.

Computer failures have happened before, but have never been this serious. The computers are incapable of rebooting themselves at the moment, so will take longer to get online again.

Pulling the astronauts off and leaving the ISS empty for a while is a ‘worst-case scenario’, according to ISS programmer manager, Mike Suffredini, but he also said that it should be repairable before an evacuation is necessary, “That’s not something I’m really concerned about. I’m not thinking this is something we will not recover from.”

Engineers are currently looking into whether unplugging the new solar panels will allow the computers to reboot, and are also considering extending the current space shuttle visit as a back-up. :: NZ Herald

Blue screens are hovering over the blue globe today, as navigation and life-support control computers in the ISS have crashed. The problem occurred when astronauts were installing new solar panels on the space station, and without the computers the crew can’t stay on board.

Computer failures have happened before, but have never been this serious. The computers are incapable of rebooting themselves at the moment, so will take longer to get online again.

Pulling the astronauts off and leaving the ISS empty for a while is a ‘worst-case scenario’, according to ISS programmer manager, Mike Suffredini, but he also said that it should be repairable before an evacuation is necessary, “That’s not something I’m really concerned about. I’m not thinking this is something we will not recover from.”

Engineers are currently looking into whether unplugging the new solar panels will allow the computers to reboot, and are also considering extending the current space shuttle visit as a back-up. :: NZ Herald