Space
Russian Spacewalkers Install Camera Platform, Inspect Space Station
Mark Hoffman
First Posted: Aug 22, 2013 05:41 PM EDT
Two Russian cosmonauts wrapped up a 5-hour, 58-minute spacewalk at 1:32 p.m. EDT Thursday, completing the replacement of a laser communications experiment with a new platform for a small optical camera system, the installation of new spacewalk aids and an inspection of antenna covers.
Clad in Orlan spacesuits, Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin began their second spacewalk within the span of a week when they opened the hatch to the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment at 7:34 a.m.
As the two spacewalkers moved out to the first worksite on the Zvezda service module, they carried a combination EVA workstation and biaxial pointing platform upon which a small optical camera system will be installed during a future spacewalk.
With the laser communications experiment removed and temporarily stowed with its protective cover, the two spacewalkers began to install the camera platform before noticing that its base plate was not properly aligned. Initially, Russian mission controllers told the spacewalkers to stand down on the installation, and Yurchikhin carried the platform back into the Pirs airlock. However, after determining that the alignment issue with base plate of the EVA workstation and biaxial pointing platform could be corrected after its installation, Russian flight controllers directed the spacewalkers to retrieve the platform from the airlock and install it at as planned on the starboard side of Zvezda. Two cameras, scheduled to be delivered to station aboard a Progress cargo craft in November, will be mounted on the platform during a spacewalk planned for December.
For the duration of Thursday’s spacewalk, Cassidy and station Commander Pavel Vinogradov were isolated to the Poisk module and their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, while Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency were free to move about the U.S. segment of the complex.
Nyberg spent much of her day working with the InSpace-3 experiment, which examines colloidal fluids classified as smart materials, transitioning to a solid-like state in the presence of a magnetic field. The InSPACE-3 team believes the knowledge gleaned from this investigation may contribute to new technologies and new manufacturing processes based on the idea of having these nanoparticles act as self-assembling building blocks for larger structures.
Parmitano meanwhile rerouted an exhaust port on the Amine Swingbed. This technology demonstration is testing a smaller, more efficient carbon dioxide removal system. Size and efficiency are key factors as NASA begins building the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that will take astronauts deeper into space than ever before. -- NASA
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NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
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First Posted: Aug 22, 2013 05:41 PM EDT
Two Russian cosmonauts wrapped up a 5-hour, 58-minute spacewalk at 1:32 p.m. EDT Thursday, completing the replacement of a laser communications experiment with a new platform for a small optical camera system, the installation of new spacewalk aids and an inspection of antenna covers.
Clad in Orlan spacesuits, Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin began their second spacewalk within the span of a week when they opened the hatch to the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment at 7:34 a.m.
As the two spacewalkers moved out to the first worksite on the Zvezda service module, they carried a combination EVA workstation and biaxial pointing platform upon which a small optical camera system will be installed during a future spacewalk.
With the laser communications experiment removed and temporarily stowed with its protective cover, the two spacewalkers began to install the camera platform before noticing that its base plate was not properly aligned. Initially, Russian mission controllers told the spacewalkers to stand down on the installation, and Yurchikhin carried the platform back into the Pirs airlock. However, after determining that the alignment issue with base plate of the EVA workstation and biaxial pointing platform could be corrected after its installation, Russian flight controllers directed the spacewalkers to retrieve the platform from the airlock and install it at as planned on the starboard side of Zvezda. Two cameras, scheduled to be delivered to station aboard a Progress cargo craft in November, will be mounted on the platform during a spacewalk planned for December.
For the duration of Thursday’s spacewalk, Cassidy and station Commander Pavel Vinogradov were isolated to the Poisk module and their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, while Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency were free to move about the U.S. segment of the complex.
Nyberg spent much of her day working with the InSpace-3 experiment, which examines colloidal fluids classified as smart materials, transitioning to a solid-like state in the presence of a magnetic field. The InSPACE-3 team believes the knowledge gleaned from this investigation may contribute to new technologies and new manufacturing processes based on the idea of having these nanoparticles act as self-assembling building blocks for larger structures.
Parmitano meanwhile rerouted an exhaust port on the Amine Swingbed. This technology demonstration is testing a smaller, more efficient carbon dioxide removal system. Size and efficiency are key factors as NASA begins building the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that will take astronauts deeper into space than ever before. -- NASA
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone