Dextre the spacewalking robot is continuing to cause problems for both astronauts in orbit, and its Canadian designers on Earth.
Since the robot was moved in preparation for a Thursday night spacewalk, its shoulder joint has refused to respond properly.
An official from the Canadian Space Agency confirmed to CTV.ca that there continues to be a problem with the shoulder joint and that engineers are looking into it.
A computer error message is preventing the Canadian Space Agency to perform a diagnostic test, flight director Ginger Kerrick told The Associated Press.
Engineers are looking at if a software patch can be used.
It is the second setback on this mission for the robot, which was designed by MDA Space Missions.
Last week, the robot was unable to power up and heat itself because of design flaw in a temporary cable that was supposed to provide power.
The problem was both embarrassing and potentially expensive for the Canadian Space Agency, as Dextre cost $200 million. Without power to heat itself outside of the warm confines of the International Space Station, the freezing temperatures of space would damage the robot.
The problem was solved by using the jerry-rigging CanadaArm 2 to restore power to Dextre.
Dextre has a height of 3.7 metres and a width of 2.4 metres. It also has two multi-jointed arms, with sensors on the wrists that give his hands a sense of touch.
The robot is designed to do regular tasks outside the station like replacing batteries and wires, and will reduce the number of dangerous space walks astronauts must perform.
Shuttle inspected
Endeavour, the ship that carried Dextre into orbit, underwent a slow and meticulous survey of its thermal tiles Friday. That type of inspection is done to look for potentially disastrous cracks in the tiles, like the ones that caused the 2003 Columbia tragedy during its re-entry.
NASA was still glowing after its Thursday spacewalk proved to be a big success. On Thursday two spacewalking astronauts used a high-tech caulk gun to squirt goo into the holes of deliberately damaged shuttle tile samples. The material reacted much like engineers expected. Bubbles formed in the putty and caused it to expand, but not too much.
On Saturday, the fifth and final spacewalk of Endeavour's 16-day mission will take place. Astronauts will be attacking the laser-tipped inspection boom they used for the thermal tiles to the space station.
With files from The Associated Press
