{"id":11612,"date":"2021-06-16T20:53:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T12:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacewalkers-run-out-of-time-before-unrolling-new-space-station-solar-array\/"},"modified":"2021-06-16T20:53:55","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T12:53:55","slug":"spacewalkers-run-out-of-time-before-unrolling-new-space-station-solar-array","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacewalkers-run-out-of-time-before-unrolling-new-space-station-solar-array\/","title":{"rendered":"Spacewalkers run out of time before unrolling new space station solar array"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet works with the iROSA solar arrays during Wednesday\u2019s spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and attached a rolled-up solar array, the first of six intended to boost the lab\u2019s power back to factory fresh levels. But a spacesuit glitch and then an interference issue with the array mechanism prevented them from extending the new panel as planned.<\/p>\n

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA crewmate Shane Kimbrough already planned another spacewalk Sunday to install a second roll-out solar array, but it\u2019s not yet known how the unfinished work Wednesday might play into that timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the whole team, that was a really good job,\u201d Kimbrough radioed after returning to the station\u2019s Quest airlock. \u201cA lot of complications.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe completely agree, you guys did a fantastic job today,\u201d replied Canadian astronaut Jenni Sidey-Gibbons from mission control. \u201cIt was a complicated EVA (spacewalk).\u201d<\/p>\n

Floating in the station\u2019s Quest airlock, Pesquet and Kimbrough switched their suits to battery power at 8:11 a.m. EDT to officially kick off the year\u2019s seventh spacewalk, the 239th excursion devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998.<\/p>\n

The EVA was the first of two needed to install a pair of ISS roll-out solar arrays \u2014 iROSAs \u2014 on the far left end of the space station\u2019s main power truss.<\/p>\n

\"\"European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet suits up June 10 for a fit check ahead of a spacewalk Wednesday. Credit: NASA<\/span><\/p>\n

Delivered to the station aboard a SpaceX cargo ship earlier this month, the iROSA blankets were designed to be mounted on fixtures that were assembled like Tinker Toys and bolted to the base of the existing port 6, or P6, solar wings during two spacewalks last March by other astronauts.<\/p>\n

The space station is equipped with eight solar wings in all, four on each side of the truss, feeding up to 120 kilowatts of power into eight circuits. The two P6 arrays, installed in 2000, are the oldest on the station, supplying electricity to power channels 2B and 4B.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s spacewalk was devoted to attaching the first iROSA wing to the existing P6\/2B array with a spacewalk Sunday to install P6\/4B blanket. The iROSA panels will each generate more than 20 kilowatts of power.<\/p>\n

The first half of Wednesday\u2019s outing was blocked out for simply moving the first 750-pound iROSA out to the far left end of the power truss, a procedure that required Pesquet and Kimbrough to manually hand the rolled-up array back and forth as they inch their way outward toward the left-most P6 truss segment.<\/p>\n

But before the iROSA was released from its mounting fixture, Kimbrough reported a problem with his suit\u2019s data display unit, which shows the status of various internal systems. He returned to the airlock, connected the suit to an umbilical and reset the unit, which appeared to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n

The suit also indicated a pressure spike in its temperature control system. After an analysis on the ground, he was cleared to rejoin Pesquet and to press ahead with the spacewalk. The spacesuit operated normally for the rest of the outing.<\/p>\n

The astronauts, running well behind schedule, then carefully moved the first iROSA to its mounting point on the base of the P6\/2B solar wing. But an interference issue prevented them from separating the two halves of the array so the panel could be extended.<\/p>\n

At that point, flight controllers decided to call it a day. Pesquet and Kimbrough were told to leave the iROSA in its folded configuration, not yet plugged into station circuitry, and to return to the airlock to close out a seven-hour 15-minute EVA<\/p>\n

Once unfurled just in front of an existing 112-foot-long P6 arrays, the iROSA panels will extend 63 feet when fully unfurled, tilted about 10 degrees away from the old arrays.<\/p>\n

Unlike the station\u2019s original solar wings, which were deployed using complex motor-driven self-assembling trusses, the iROSA blankets feature carbon composite struts on either side that are rolled up and locked in place for launch. One the locks are released, the pent-up \u201cstrain energy\u201d is enough to unroll the blankets to their full length.<\/p>\n

While the iROSA will block the sun for a portion of the existing solar wing, they will generate a combined power level matching the output of the original arrays when they were first deployed 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new arrays are installed on top, over in front of the existing solar arrays,\u201d said Dana Weigel, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u201cThe exposed portion of the old arrays will still be generating power in parallel with the new arrays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose new iROSA arrays have solar cells on them that are more efficient than our original cells, they have a higher energy density, and together in combination, they generate more power than what our original array when it was new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the original arrays, the iROSA wings cannot be rolled up once released. They simply have to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have any planned contingency workarounds to fix anything just yet,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut you know NASA. If something happens, we\u2019re going to stop and look at where it is, we\u2019re going to take pictures, we\u2019re going to analyze what\u2019s going on and we\u2019ll come up with a plan to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet works with the iROSA solar arrays during Wednesday\u2019s spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV\/Spaceflight Now Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and attached a rolled-up solar array, the first of six intended to boost the lab\u2019s power back to factory fresh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}