A solar panel has been found to cause trouble on the space station

by Corina Ciubotaru

A routine check on the International Space Station ended up revealing a major problem. One of its solar panels seems to be in need of a fix since astronauts Daniel Tani and Scott Parazynski found metal shavings inside its rotary joint, the part that allows it to follow the Sun. Tani collected some of the debris using tape and will send it for analysis, as scientists at NASA want to know if it comes from the aluminum inner foil of the joint of some other parts of the panel. The problem came to attention after a flight controller noticed the solar panel was producing strange vibrations and used up too much energy as it rotated. This check was added last week to the two spacewalkers' mission and the findings were never expected to be this serious. They also attached a module called Harmony that would allow Europe's Columbus laboratory and Japan's own scientific lab to be linked to the Space Station in the following months. Another mission might be necessary to pull off the 21 covers of the other joints in the solar panel system and check for problems before other components of the station are added that would require much energy. For now, this joint will be fixed in a parked position until scientists solve the problem.The space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth on November 6th after a series of photos proved it was in good condition. The current space shuttle fleet will be retired in 2010.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071028/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle;_ylt=Aj0hHTQySKkQJOiKugPURQ.s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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