back to article 2018's first spacewalk bugged by software

Apart from a slightly irritating software bug, it seems NASA's first spacewalk for 2018 went smoothly. The point of the spacewalk was to replace a component on Canadarm2, one of the International Space Station's robotic arms. The Latching End Effector (LEE) is the “hand” at the end of the arm, used to grapple and release cargo …

  1. gecho

    Speaking of Robotic Hand

    I haven't heard anything regarding whether the Dextre add-on for the Canadarm2 is getting any use at all on the ISS. Maybe it is more of an experiment itself rather than a tool. The Mobile Base System that the arm can ride on doesn't seem to get mentioned much either.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Speaking of Robotic Hand

      It's getting some use, here's a story from last March about it helping to position stuff ready for a spacewalk.

    2. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Speaking of Robotic Hand

      Dextre (and the arm itself) does a ton of stuff, like loosening bolts and installing stuff, and moving stuff around, but it gets ZERO media coverage. It's very frustrating.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Angel

    On the shoulders of giants

    "...Canadarm2, one of the International Space Station's robotic arms."

    Now that more than one arm is available, several wonderful new things have become possible:

    Orbital hand jive

    Cosmic sign language

    Giving other space stations a big hug

    Ultimate arm wrestling

    Highest 'high-five' in history

    Giving the whole world the 'double deuce'

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: On the shoulders of giants

      Fist bumps

  3. jmch Silver badge
    Trollface

    Reboot time

    "Rebooting the robotic arm cleared the problem, but that set back the astronauts by roughly an hour"

    So no complaining about your laptop reboot time, now!

    1. Keith Oborn

      Re: Reboot time

      I was on a BA 777 coming home from Brazil a year ago: they had a fault, and cleared it by switching the whole aircraft off and on three times (no: on the ground!).

      That good old Big Red Switch fix still rules, on earth as in heaven ;-)

  4. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Devil

    YOU ARE BEING LIED TO!

    Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle, flight engineers for Expedition 54, spent 7 hours and 24 minutes on the replacement, after retrieving the 200kg replacement LEE from the external pod it's occupied since 2009.

    It's a cover up! What actually happened is that they issued the command "open the pod bay doors", in order to access the LEE AE35 unit, and got the error message, "I'm sorry, I can't do that."

    They were then forced to head for the ISS main computer room with a large axe, and give it a reprogramming it'll never forget.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: YOU ARE BEING LIED TO!

      I can see this is a relationship we're all going to have to work on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: YOU ARE BEING LIED TO!

        Especially if the ISS computer starts saying "Talk to the hand!"

  5. macjules

    Works for London Buses as well

    Early start this morning and got the Number 211, which is a Boris Bus. About 2 minutes in the bus dies and the driver is telling everyone to get off and wait for the next one, due to a 'software error'. Suggested he switch of the computer and then the ignition, wait 1 minute and switch it back on again.

    Everything worked.

  6. TheRealRoland
    Coat

    >Rebooting the robotic arm cleared the problem, but that set back the astronauts by roughly an hour.

    As with anything in space, even rebooting an arm just goes slower, right?

    The one with the environmental controls on it, please.

  7. Allan George Dyer
    Joke

    "Rebooting the robotic arm cleared the problem, but that set back the astronauts by roughly an hour."

    I blame Daylight Saving Time.

  8. Adrian 4

    On a Thameslink train, had to wait while the driver rebooted the train to open the pod bay doors.

    Because the train uses GPS to work out which side of the train has a platform.

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