NASA: Shuttle may be able to complete mission

Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri, left, pilot Dom Gorie, center, and astronaut Janice Voss share a laugh in this televised view from Endeavour's flight deck Tuesday.

February 16, 2000
Web posted at: 11:52 a.m. EST (1652 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- Using novel ways to conserve fuel on the space shuttle, NASA engineers were optimistic Wednesday that Endeavour could complete its 11-day mapping mission.

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Mission controllers brainstormed on a variety of methods to extend the critical fuel supply, such as changing how the shuttle steers, flushing instead of vaporizing wastewater, and even having a crew member peddle overtime on an exercise bike, a lighthearted but scientifically sound idea.

The astronauts have been forced to use extra shuttle fuel to keep a 197-foot radar antenna mast pointed in the right direction. Thrusters on the shuttle are being fired more often to compensate for a malfunctioning thruster on the end of the mast.

NASA earlier estimated the fuel problem could trim as much as a day from the mapping operations. But ground engineers came up 17 fuel-saving measures and by Tuesday afternoon had flight-tested and approved five of them.

"I'm optimistic that we're not going to fold our tent early," Milt Heflin, a mission operations manager, told reporters Tuesday. "But I've got to tell you also that I'm probably a couple days away from coming here and telling you that we're there. But we're well on our way."

He called the ideas "nickel, dime and quarter sort of savings."

"But if you do this over hours and days then you can build up to where you have mission completion," he said.

The radar is working so well that engineers feel comfortable giving Endeavour more room to move in orbit, reducing the number of shuttle thruster firings, Heflin said. By maneuvering Endeavour more slowly, additional fuel can be saved.

NASA also is changing the way the astronauts flush waste water from the shuttle. Engineers noticed that less fuel is used to steady the shuttle when waste water is dumped overboard through a nozzle than when the liquid is discarded through an evaporator system. So mission controllers has advised the astronauts to go with the nozzle.

At one point engineers even joked about making astronaut Gerhard Thiele pedal an exercise bike for the duration of the mission. As he was exercising, they noticed it made the shuttle tilt in the right direction.

"There was actually a noticeable difference, and if you stop to think about it, it's a bicycle and you've got this wheel, like a gyroscope in a way," Heflin said.

Will NASA be ordering up extra exercise sessions for the six astronauts?

"No, I think we'll probably stick with the normal routine," Heflin said with a laugh.

The shuttle crew had mapped more than 56 percent of the planet's terrain by early Wednesday, NASA said. The area, more than 32 million square miles, is equivalent to the Americas, Africa and Australia combined.

More than 15.5 million square miles had been mapped at least twice, roughly the same area as both Africa and Australia. Endeavour astronauts plan to map 70 percent of the Earth's landforms at least twice.

Crisscrossing the planet from a height of more than 120 miles, the shuttle is mapping an area the size of Florida every 90 seconds.

Endeavour was scheduled to land on February 22 at the Kennedy Space Center. The map is being generated for U.S. defense and intelligence agencies and was expected to be 30 times better than existing topographical maps of Earth, according to NASA.

A lower resolution map, still superior to existing charts, will be made public for scientists and civil engineers.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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