General Information

Serial #

292A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Ferrous metal gear

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

N/A

Width

N/A

Height

2.1 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

3.6 cm

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Space Technology

Category

Manned spacecraft

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

SPAR

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

City

Toronto

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Tested in May, 1978

Canada

Canadian designed and built Canadarm was Canada’s contribution to U.S. Space Shuttle Program and successful commercial venture for Canada’s space industry. First RMS was manufactured by Canadian firms under contract to NRC and was given to NASA. NASA then purchased additional units to equip all orbital vehicles. Spar Aerospace, the Canadarm’s primary contractor, designed and built the Canadarm in Toronto to exacting criteria for precision movement, manual and automatic operations, safety, reliability, and weight. Although it had never been tested in the harsh environment of Space, the Canadarm worked flawlessly straight out of the box.

Function

Parts from mock-up of various section of Canadarm, used and tested by engineers and technicians.

Technical

These pieces reflect the concentrated testing that took place on the Canadarm models represented in this artifact number series. The following passage, describing this research and development is taken from Glenn Gook’s The Canadian Designed and Built SPAR/MDA Canadarms: “Managing the number of parts and their inevitable design trade-offs turned out to be one of the most complex tasks associated with the delivery of the final product. To understand this challenge, one must realize that the final Canadarm had to be capable of operating from an even more complex machine (the Shuttle/Orbiter) with a stated reliability of 100%. Putting it more simply, it had to work first time and every time! NASA also stipulated that the arm must sustain two major component failures with no threat to the crew. Making it more difficult, this reliability had to be met in the absence of testing in the environment of space in which it was to operate. This testing could only be accomplished through the development of ground-based simulators.” (Ref.1) Two major forms of testing, or simulation, were required. The first, of which these pieces are related, allowed engineers to test the device on earth. As Gook describes, “the first earthbound simulator took the form of a specially designed steel rig on air-bearings that can be likened to air cushions. This system, located and installed at the Spar Robotics Ormont Drive plant in North York, allowed the rig to seamlessly glide across a perfectly smooth floor thereby simulating a single plane of motion. To test other planes of motion the arm would be turned 90 degrees until all planes had been tested. In this step-by-step manner the Canadarm was successfully evaluated and subsequently certified for space operation.” The second testing/simulation focused on training astronauts on the ground so they could become familiar with the arm’s response times as they would exist in a microgravity or weightless environment. (Ref.1) Tested parts were either approved for use or rejected. Parts were rejected for a number of reasons that resulted from a variety of malfunctions. Engineers documented testing outcomes on colour coded cards and attached them to the approved or rejected parts. When the NRC transferred the Canadarm models to Ingenium, the corporation received two large crates full of tested parts. These parts ranged in size from large covering plates to very, very small fittings. See worksheet for photo of crates of parts.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Incised into the side of the gear: "292A"/ On tag found with the gear: "REJECTED/ SPAR AEROSPACE PRODUCTS LTD./ 825 CALEDONIA ROAD/ TORONTO, ONTARIO M6B 3X8/ PART NO.51140E764-1 50B1/ W.O. NO. [2004]3-43095/ DEPARTMENT 133/ DESCRIPTION PLANET CLUSTER/ SER. NO. 292A/ QTY REC. 220 QTY REJ. 7/ INSPECTOR'S STAMP B.T./B [stamped]/ DATE MAY 15/78 REJ. NO. 28137/ RECEIVING INSP. DEPT. ONLY/ R/S NO./ SUPPLIER/ PURCHASE ORDER/ SPAR 2016"/ On the other side of the tag: "REASON FOR REJECTION/ BURN INDICATIONS ON GEAR TEETH/ INSPECTOR'S SIGNATURE [signed name]"/ Tag placed in supplementary information file, see References

Missing

None apparent

Finish

Dull grey metal gear.

Decoration

N/A