After a seven-month hiatus, NASA spacewalks outdoors the Worldwide House Station (ISS) are again on.
NASA halted routine spacewalks after European House Company (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer seen a higher-than-normal buildup of water inside his helmet after a virtually seven-hour tour on March 23.
The company has now accomplished a evaluation of the incident, discovering that it was not a leak brought on by {hardware} points. As a substitute, the water was condensation brought on by excessive ranges of astronaut exertion and the cooling setting on Maurer’s extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuit, NASA officers mentioned.
Associated: Spacewalks: How they work and major milestones
With this info in hand, the company has accepted the resumption of routine spacewalks, with the subsequent one set to happen in mid-November.
“Crew security is the highest precedence of NASA and our worldwide companions,” Kathy Lueders, affiliate administrator for NASA’s House Operations Mission Directorate, said in a statement on Tuesday (opens in new tab) (Oct. 18). “I am pleased with the space station and floor groups’ work to maintain our crew members protected, for taking the time mandatory to shut out the investigation and for regularly findings methods to mitigate dangers in human spaceflight.”
The investigation ate up a lot time partially as a result of it took some time to get Maurer’s spacewalk gear again on Earth for evaluation.
Water samples and a few spacesuit {hardware} got here down on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on March 30, and on the Dragon capsule that flew SpaceX’s Crew-3 astronaut mission, which ended on Might 6, NASA officers mentioned. However Maurer’s EMU swimsuit did not land till Aug. 20, aboard the Dragon that flew SpaceX’s CRS-25 robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station.
Detailed examine of this {hardware} led to a prognosis, in addition to a repair that NASA is snug with.
“Primarily based on the findings, the workforce has up to date operational procedures and developed new mitigation {hardware} to reduce situations the place built-in efficiency ends in water accumulation, whereas absorbing any water that does seem,” NASA officers wrote within the Tuesday replace. “These measures will assist comprise any liquid within the helmet to proceed to maintain crew protected.”
Tuesday’s weblog publish didn’t give additional particulars concerning the up to date procedures or mitigation {hardware}.
Maurer’s expertise referred to as to thoughts one other spacewalk marked by a buildup of water within the helmet — that of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano in July 2013.
Parmitano handled far more water, nevertheless; it coated most of his face, inflicting the astronaut to chop his spacewalk quick and retreat again contained in the orbiting lab. (This was a doubtlessly harmful scenario. Water clings to your face in microgravity, making it very troublesome to breathe. And you’ll’t simply wipe it away when it is inside your spacesuit helmet.)
There was a one other large distinction, too: The water in Parmitano’s helmet got here from a leak, not condensation.
An investigation into the July 2013 incident traced the leak to “inorganic supplies inflicting blockage of the drum holes” in an EMU water separator. In consequence, water spilled right into a vent loop and made its manner into the astronaut’s helmet.
NASA halted non-urgent spacewalks again then as properly, till it had a deal with on the problems that precipitated Parmitano’s drawback.
Throughout his March 23 spacewalk, Maurer labored with NASA astronaut Raja Chari to prep the orbiting lab for set up of latest iROSA solar arrays.
The following spacewalk, focused for mid-November, will proceed the iROSA (quick for “ISS rollout solar arrays”) work, as will two further excursions to comply with, NASA officers mentioned.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e book concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab).
