X-Ray Measuring Device on Shuttle Malfunctions
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Ground controllers struggled Thursday in an effort to fix an X-ray spectrometer aboard the shuttle Endeavour that malfunctioned while scanning space.
Endeavour’s crew continued to conduct medical tests and started up 28 biological tests that included flatworms, flies, miniature wasps and brine shrimp. They also got a gentle scolding for leaving the lid up and the fan running on the $23-million toilet that is being flown in space for the first time.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials encountered trouble with the shuttle’s primary payload, a $14-million X-ray spectrometer designed by astrophysicists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The twin 500-pound detectors shut down automatically when they began picking up about eight times more radiation than expected, principal investigator Wilton Sanders said.
Controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., turned the detectors on and off in an attempt to resolve the problem.
When data collection resumed, the radiation count still was higher than anticipated but not enough to shut down the system.
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