Portions of the International Space Station, particularly the Russian modules, are vulnerable to damage from orbital debris and meteoroids, a National Research Council panel reported January 8.
     "Overall efforts to protect the space station have been extensive and thorough," said panel chairman George Gleghorn, a retired TRW vice president. "However, the space station will be extremely vulnerable to collisions because of its size and because it will be in orbit for at least 15 years."
     The NASA-funded study concluded that most debris will strike the station at speeds somewhat slower than originally assumed. However, the debris may strike from a wider range of directions.
     Panel members expressed concern that Russian modules may be more vulnerable to damage as they are not as well-shielded as American, European, and Japanese modules. The report concluded that efforts to improve the shielding on those modules should be stepped up, as well as plans to coordinate emergency procedures among the multinational partners in the project.
     The report also recommended more work be done on creating improved shields "to withstand a broader array of potential threats" for all areas of the station, and to improve damage-control plans.
     "The success of these precautions will depend on continued international efforts to reduce the amount of new debris -- such as fragments from satellite or rocket body breakups -- left behind from other missions," Gleghorn said.

While people around the world marked the "birthday" of HAL 9000, the infamous computer from the Arthur C. Clarke novel _2001: A Space Odyssey_, NASA reported on advanced software packages that will emulate some of HAL's features on an upcoming mission.
     A set of three advanced software packages called Remote Agent will be used on the Deep Space One (DS1) mission, the first of the New Millennium technology demonstration program, scheduled for launch next year.
     The three-part Remote Agent software includes a planner to schedule spacecraft events months in advance, a fault-protection routine to diagnose and correct problems with the spacecraft as they occur, and "Smart Executive", which will issue spacecraft commands based on the plans created by the planner package.
     The combined packages will allow autonomous operation of the spacecraft during many aspects of the mission, allowing for reduced costs in mission operations. "Some estimates show a 60 percent reduction in mission costs using Remote Agent," said Dr. Nicola Muscettola, team leader for the planning software.
     The Smart Executive would be sophisticated enough to refuse to carry out commands radioed from the ground if it found errors in the commands. "If the ground's plan won't work, the Executive can say, 'Sorry, Ground, I can't do that,'" said Dr. Barney Pell of the NASA Ames Research Center.
     Pell said that should the Smart Executive misbehave, like HAL 9000, ground controllers could invoke a "surgery mode" that would "do a lobotomy" on the spacecraft.
     DS1, scheduled for launch in July 1998, will fly by the asteroid McAuliffe in 1999 and in 2000 will fly by the comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura and the planet Mars.
     The announcement coincided with the "birthday" of the famous computer from the novel and movie of the same name. According to the novel, HAL 9000 says it was created at a plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997. (The movie places HAL's creation five years earlier.)