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9.10.2014
Astronaut Reid Wiseman works outside the International Space Station during the first of three Expedition 41 spacewalks planned this October.
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A pair of NASA astronauts is looking ahead to next week’s second U.S. spacewalk. Meanwhile, a pair of cosmonauts is preparing for a Russian spacewalk planned for Oct. 22.
Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman from NASA and Alexander Gerst from the European Space Agency completed the first Expedition 41 spacewalk Tuesday afternoon. They stowed a failed pump module and installed backup power gear for the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 and Mobile Transporter. The Mobile Transporter moves gear, including the Canadarm2, along rails on the station’s backbone or Integrated Truss Structure.
They had the first part of Wednesday morning off relaxing after a 6 hour, 13 minute spacewalk the day before. Afterward, Wiseman set up power and data cables for the Cygnus hardware command panel. The Cygnus private space freighter is due for liftoff Oct. 24 to the station on the Orbital CRS-3 mission.
Gerst was in the Columbus laboratory module and contacted students from two schools in the United Kingdom by ham radio. The astronaut from Germany talked to the students about living and working in space.
After lunch time, NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore joined Wiseman and Gerst for a spacewalk debrief with flight controllers on the ground. Wilmore was the spacewalk coordinator and robotic arm operator during Tuesday’s excursion.
For the second U.S. spacewalk scheduled for Oct. 15, Wilmore will join Wiseman for external space station maintenance. Gerst will be at the controls of the robotics workstation inside the cupola coordinating the spacewalk.
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Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore will be the spacewalkers Oct. 15.
Image Credit: NASA TV
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he NASA astronauts paired up during the afternoon to review next week’s spacewalk tasks and the paths they will translate along to get to their work sites. Gerst worked on the U.S. spacesuits used during Tuesday’s spacewalk. He removed metal oxide canisters that scrub carbon dioxide, charged suit and tool batteries and finally refilled suit water tanks.
A third spacewalk is planned for Oct. 22 when Commander Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev will work outside to jettison obsolete gear and photograph the Russian side of the orbital laboratory.
They started Wednesday morning locating the tools they will use for their Russian spacewalk. At mid-afternoon the duo began preparing the replaceable elements of their Orlan spacesuits.
Flight Engineer Elena Serova began her work day collecting dosimeter readings in the station’s U.S. segment as part of post-spacewalk procedures. She then floated back to the Rassvet module to clean fan screens.
Next Serova was in the Zvezda service module checking for harmful contaminants. She then moved on to crew orientation activities before some plumbing work transferring fluids to a tank in the Pirs docking compartment. She then worked various maintenance activities throughout the Russian segment.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 14.10.2014
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All-Navy Spacewalk Team Set for Ambitious EVA-28 on Wednesday
Barry “Butch” Wilmore (left) and Reid Wiseman will perform EVA-28 tomorrow, the first U.S. spacewalk since November 2008 to feature an all-Navy crew. Photo Credit: NASA
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Just eight days after EVA-27, U.S. spacewalkers will again depart the Quest airlock tomorrow (Wednesday, 15 October) to install a replacement Sequential Shunt Unit (SSU) onto the starboard truss of the International Space Station (ISS) and remove and relocate cameras and other equipment in anticipation of next year’s movement of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) and the arrival of Commercial Crew vehicles from 2017 onwards. Expedition 41 astronauts Reid Wiseman (designated “EV1”, with red stripes on the legs of his space suit for identification) and Barry “Butch” Wilmore (“EV2”, wearing a pure-white suit) are expected to leave Quest at about 8:15 a.m. EDT and their tasks should require approximately 6.5 hours. Both men represent the U.S. Navy—Wiseman is a commander, Wilmore a captain—and this will be the first all-Navy U.S. EVA since the spacewalks of Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen on shuttle mission STS-126 in November 2008.
Quelle: AS
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Update: 15.10.2014
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Spacewalk LIVE : NASA-TV
Two hours into today's spacewalk, astronaut Reid Wiseman, assisted by Butch Wilmore, replaced the failed voltage regulator called a Sequential Shunt Unit. Ground controllers have confirmed the new unit is working. Join the conversation by following #Exp41, #ISS and #spacewalk.
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Two NASA astronauts are venturing outside the International Space Station Wednesday for a planned spacewalk to replace a failed power regulator. Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore also will relocate equipment on the station’s exterior to begin setting the stage for a reconfiguration of the orbiting complex to accommodate future commercial crew vehicles.
Wiseman, the lead spacewalker for Wednesday’s excursion, and Wilmore switched their suits to battery power at 8:16 a.m. EDT, signaling the start of the spacewalk. Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, who joined Wiseman for a 6-hour, 13-minute spacewalk on Oct. 7, will coordinate the spacewalk activities from inside the orbiting complex.
For the highest priority task of the spacewalk, Wiseman and Wilmore exited from the Quest airlock and translated out to the starboard side of the station’s integrated truss structure. There they replaced a failed power regulator known as a sequential shunt unit, which failed in May. The unit regulates power from the 3A solar array. The station has since operated normally on seven of its eight power channels, but replacing the unit provides the station team with more flexibility and redundancy in managing the primary power system and assures enough power for all the planned science.
Timing was a factor for the replacement of the sequential shunt unit. The spacewalkers needed to remove the failed suitcase-sized unit and install its replacement while the station passed through the Earth’s shadow and electricity was not being generated by the solar array.
The remainder of the spacewalk will focus on moving equipment installed on the port side of the station’s truss in preparation for the relocation of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module, or PMM, currently expected to take place next summer. The relocation of the PMM and the installation of international docking adapters scheduled to be delivered to the complex in 2015 will configure the station for future commercial crew vehicles and provide an additional berthing port for commercial cargo spacecraft.
Wiseman and Wilmore will remove an external TV camera from the bottom of the P1 truss segment. Since that camera has lost its zoom capability, the spacewalkers will replace it on the top of P1 with a new camera.
The astronauts then will detach an articulating portable foot restraint and tool stanchion from P1 and move it inward to the centerpiece of the station’s truss structure, the S0 truss, to get it out of the way for the relocation of Leonardo.
Finally, the Wireless Video System External Transceiver Assembly, or WETA, which receives all the video signals from spacewalking crew members, will be transferred from the P1 truss to the top of the Harmony node.
Wednesday’s spacewalk is the 183rd in support of station assembly and maintenance. This is the second spacewalk for Wiseman and the first for Wilmore.
Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev are scheduled to begin the first Russian spacewalk of Expedition 41 on Oct. 22 at 9:24 a.m. The two cosmonauts will exit from the Pirs docking compartment to jettison obsolete hardware and photograph the exterior of the station.
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Frams: NASA-TV
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Update: 22.10.2014
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Cosmonauts Complete Third October Spacewalk, October 22, 2014
Russian spacewalkers Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev.
Image Credit: NASA TV
Russian spacewalkers Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev.
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Spacewalker Maxim Suraev works outside the Poisk mini-research module in January 2010.
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Russian spacewalkers Max Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev closed the Pirs docking compartment hatch at 1:06 p.m. EDT ending the third spacewalk for Expedition 41. The cosmonauts were outside the International Space Station for three hours and 38 minutes. Two U.S. spacewalks took place Oct. 7 and 15.The duo’s first task was to remove the Radiometriya experiment that was installed on the Zvezda service module in 2011 and which is no longer required for data collection. They jettisoned it for a later reentry into the atmosphere where it will burn up. The experiment gathered data to help scientists predict seismic events and earthquakes.
The veteran cosmonauts moved on to another external experiment and removed its protective cover. They photographed the Expose-R experiment before taking a break during the orbital night period.
After orbital sunrise, they took more photographs of the work area, translated back to Pirs and placed the protective cover inside. The European Space Agency study exposes organic and biological samples to the harsh environment of space and observes how they are affected by cosmic radiation, vacuum and night and day cycles.
Suraev and Samokutyaev then removed hardware from Pirs and collected samples of particulate matter on the outside of the docking compartment. Dubbed the TEST experiment, the samples will be analyzed on the ground for chemical and toxicological contaminants including microbes.
The Russian spacewalkers then translated over to the Poisk mini-research module on the space-facing side of the Russian segment. Once there, they reached a pair of rendezvous antennas no longer needed that were blocking translation paths for future spacewalks. They removed both antennas and jettisoned them from the orbital laboratory.
Finally, the cosmonauts conducted a detailed photographic survey of the exterior surface of the Russian modules.
This was Suraev’s second spacewalk of his career. His first was in January of 2010 during Expedition 22 when he spent five hours, 44 minutes outside the station setting up Poisk for future vehicle dockings. Suraev's two spacewalks total 9 hours, 22 minutes.
This was also Samokutyaev’s second spacewalk. He worked outside the station in August 2011 for six hours, 23 minutes installing science and communications gear and relocating a cargo boom during Expedition 28. Samokutyaev's two spacewalks total 10 hours, 1 minute.
Wednesday’s spacewalk was the 184th in support of station assembly and maintenance.
Quelle: NASA
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