Tuesday began with an evaluated single systems trainer class. So much for having a holiday - I spent a great deal of my day off reviewing for this class. This particular lesson dealt with failures in the life support systems during the on-orbit phase of flight. Luckily, it turned out to be a straightforward class. I definitely thought this lesson was easier than the equivalent class that we had on the launch and entry phases of flight. The procedures are more involved, but you have a little more time to deal with the issues.

After my time in the simulator our class had a lesson on failures in the Shuttle's electrical systems. The class was intended to prepare us for our corresponding single systems trainer malfunction classes. Personally, I found this class very confusing. It was not that the failures in the electrical systems are overly complicated, but it was that procedures associated with the problems are not easy to navigate. At least they were not easy for me to sort through. In most of the system failures that we have covered so far the error messages that you receive point you in the direction you need to go in the procedures. In many cases, the error message is very close to the title of the procedure you need to work. For example, you might get a message that says something to the effect of 'left engine tank pressure low.' You know what engines are burning, so when you get the message you can look at your tank pressures for that engine and see what is low, say a helium tank. Then you go to the procedure that is called "Helium Tank Pressure Low". Well, maybe it is a little more complicated than that, but, basically that is how things go.

But, with the electrical failures you will get several error messages at one time because lots of equipment can be affected when there are power problems. You will also get an array of status lights that indicate failures in different systems. From this conglomeration of messages and lights you are supposed to diagnose the problem. Once you decide what it is, there may or may not be a procedure with a title matching the issue at hand. You could deduce that a particular power distribution box has failed, but have to work a procedure titled something like "Three Phase Motors Stopped." Even after you find the correct procedure, there are usually one or more other procedures that you will have to work as well. The instructors insisted that it will all become clear once we get into the simulators. But, I know I was not the only member of my class who sat listening to this lesson thinking, 'huh?'

Late in the afternoon I switched gears and finished the day with a Station lesson. The class was on the hardware that is used in the Station's local area network, or rather, the Station's laptops. Unlike the Shuttle which has zillions of switches, the Station is controlled via laptops. Luckily the class started at a very basic level, since I am nowhere near to being computer savvy. The laptop I use at work is the same kind as those that are on the Station. Let's just say that I learned a thing or two about my work computer that I did not know before.

Wednesday morning we had a very interesting meeting. Mike Griffin, the new head of NASA, had an informal briefing and discussion with the astronaut office. Since taking over NASA a month or so ago, he has toured all the NASA sites and talked to the employees about the future of NASA. He was at JSC yesterday, but he also arranged to have a special meeting with us. He came to talk to us about NASA's future and his plans for implementing the new vision of returning to the Moon and going on to Mars. As you may recall, when President Bush outlined this vision, he called for retiring the Shuttle in 2010. Mike Griffin has some very definite plans to do just that. Retiring the Shuttle clearly affects the astronauts' jobs, like it will with so many people at NASA. The fact of the matter is, if the next space vehicle is to be created and put into use, the Shuttle will have to be retired. For someone whose entire life's career has revolved around flying Shuttles, it is, emotionally, a very hard thing to accept that it will go away.

Unfortunately, retiring the Shuttle in a few years more than likely means that I will never get to fly on it. And, having a new vehicle ready to go in about five or six years is not going to be an easy task. But, one can not dwell on the possibility that my class may not fly in space, since a lot of things can happen in the next few years. Plus, the NASA leadership, as well as our country's leadership feels pretty strongly that not having a method to put Americans in space is not where we want to be if we want to remain a leader among the World's space faring nations. So, I am cautiously optimistic that our leadership will support the completion of a new vehicle. One thing is for sure, though, these are very interesting and exciting times for our space program. I was very impressed with our new administrator's straightforward manner. I believe that he has the right approach and plan to get us moving towards the Moon. Can you imagine? I might actually have an opportunity to go to the moon. That thought just boggles my mind.

After the meeting with our new admistrator, our class had another class on failures in the main engines. This was the second malfunction class we had with these engines and it dealt with how you deal with failures on top of failures. Normally, a system's procedures will only be concerned with one problem at a time, since more than one issue at once is considered unlikely. However, with the main engines, since they are so critical and there are three of them that can break, the procedures deal with multiple failures to ensure that you can get to orbit safely. Needless to say, the procedures are complicated. There are times that if you do the wrong thing, you can cause an engine to catastrophically fail. And by catastrophically fail I mean break apart explosively - certainly not an outcome that you want. . . It will be, um, interesting to try to run through these procedures in the simulator. Did I mention that they are complicated procedures?

Wednesday afternoon I had a class on the architecture of the how the computer system of the Station is put together. This is the first in-depth class in our series of classes on the computer systems. As I mentioned previously, the Station has what is called a tiered approach to its computers. There are three boxes that comprise the top level tier computers. There is always one running and one powered on as a back-up. The back-up is receiving certain bits of data from the running computer in case it has to take over. The data it is receiving is all the status information on how the rest of the Station systems are configured - what is on, what is off, what valves are open, which are closed, etc. The third top level computer is off, but ready to be powered on and take over. If this happens, the third computer will not know how the Station is supposed to be, but it will be able to command its systems. Below these three computers are the lower level tiers - for each second level tier, there are two computers for redundancy. Some of them are always on in pairs and some of just have one running at a time with the back-up off, but ready to be turned, if needed, on to take over. Below that are the third level computers. These are the ones that do most of the talking to the hardware. At this level there is usually only one box, since by now all the systems are so distributed, if you lost a box, not too much hardware will be out of commission. The neat thing about all these computers is that there is built in software that will automatically swap computers if there is a problem. If a main computer goes down, then the back-up takes over. If the second computer goes down, then there is either a third, or the first computer is rebooted and tried again. It is really quite a robust system.

Thursday I started off with a class on what is termed the Station Support Computer Daily Operations Tools. That is quite a mouthful, isn't it? In NASA lingo, it is not quite so bad - SSC Daily Ops tools. OK, maybe it is still pretty long. At any rate, this class taught us how to navigate on the laptops in order to complete the day to day activities. By this I mean how to get your daily schedule; how to find your procedures; how to go through the procedures (there are some slick ways to track your progress); how to find the daily flood of information from the ground (and make sense of it all). What I really like about the station classes is that the ones like this are taught either one-on-one or in groups of two. So, you are being hands-on, performing the activities right off the bat.

After this class we had the rescheduled class on global change as seen from space. It was interesting and full of pictures of how the earth of changed since we started sending people into space. It is really quite amazing (and, sadly, so much all it is not for the better). Following this class two of us had a lesson in the full-up Station simulator on the operations of the voice systems. This was great - more hands on stuff. We had an introduction to all the hardware and then we put the hardware into use. By the end of the class we knew how to communicate with the ground and between modules within the Station. And, not only did we know how to do it, we were doing it.

Friday it was back to thinking about Shuttle operations. I had an evaluated single systems training class on entry navigation. This class/evaluation covered the use of entry hardware, such as TACANS, the Microwave Landing System, the Inertial Measurements Units, the air data probes, and the ground radar. We had several entry runs where various bits of the hardware may or may not have been working. I have to say, it has been a long time since I have had to deal with or operate any of this hardware. I did fine in the class, but I studied a lot the night before. Sometimes I think Andy wonders where his new bride is, since I always seem to have my nose stuck in a training manual.

My last class of the week was on how to use the other laptops on the Station. The class I had earlier this week dealt with running the procedures, but this class dealt with the laptops that are a direct interface with the Station's computers and hardware. I had an introduction on how you start up these laptops, how they are organized, and how you configure it for the nominal interactions with the Station.

All in all, a short, but packed week of learning. Now, it is time to go celebrate my 40th birthday.