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Real-life ‘Gravity’? Drama builds over spacewalks to fix space station

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Cosmic Log

Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

14 hours ago

NASA

NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio checks his spacesuit in the International Space Station's Quest airlock in advance of Saturday's outing.

Imagine a movie where astronauts are one failure away from abandoning the International Space Station, and have to deal with toxic chemicals during a spacewalk while facing the risk of drowning in their spacesuits. Oh, and it's just before Christmas.

A Hollywood producer could spin the three spacewalks that NASA is planning over the coming week as a holiday-season sequel to "Gravity," if Sandra Bullock were available. It's more likely that the replacement of one of the space station's external coolant pumps will be completely routine. But NASA is taking extraordinary measures, such as providing the two spacewalkers with jury-rigged spacesuit snorkels, just in case the fix-up job really does turn into a thriller.

Several factors, including a scary spacewalk in July involving water in a spacesuit helmet, have combined to add some extra drama to the repair operation that begins Saturday.

What went wrong on the space station?

The International Space Station is a 450-ton machine that puts out a lot of heat, and there's a complex cooling system that keeps all of the electronics aboard (not to mention the six-person crew) at their proper operating temperature. Two external ammonia-cooled plumbing loops draw the heat away from the internal water-cooled loops and radiate it out into space. Last week, one of the valves in a pump for one of the ammonia loops malfunctioned, and that caused the loop to go offline.

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Real-life 'Gravity'? Drama builds over spacewalks to fix space station

Snorkel-equipped spacewalkers start critical repair job on space station

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Cosmic Log

Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

7 minutes ago

Two NASA astronauts began a high-stakes series of spacewalks to repair the International Space Station's cooling system on Saturday, outfitted for the first time with snorkels in their helmets to keep them from drowning.

"Beautiful day," astronaut Rick Mastracchio said after the spacewalk's start at 7:01 a.m. ET. He took a moment to look down at Earth as the station passed more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) over Africa. "Quite a view," he said.

Mastracchio and fellow spacewalker Mike Hopkins are taking on three spacewalks through Christmas Day to replace a coolant pump module with a faulty valve. Last week's valve malfunction cut the station's cooling capability in half, forcing mission managers to shut down non-critical systems on the $100 billion-plus orbital outpost.

Worries about waterGround controllers couldn't get the valve back in service by remote control, which led to the current plan for three spacewalks running through Christmas Day. Replacing the refrigerator-sized module is one of the station's expected maintenance tasks but the job has been complicated by the fact that an Italian spacewalker, Luca Parmitano, almost drowned in July when water pooled up in the helmet of his U.S.-made suit.

That incident led NASA to suspend U.S. spacewalks while the station's crew and controllers worked to track down the source of the problem. They think they've identified the cause: previously undetected contamination that clogged up the system designed to remove moisture from the suit. And they've given a clean bill of health to the spacesuits Mastracchio and Hopkins are using.

"I would be surprised if we have a problem with the suits," Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, told reporters this week.

But just in case, the astronauts are wearing absorbent pads on their necks that should pick up the first signs of excess moisture in the helmet and are primed to stop the spacewalk if those pads start feeling squishy. They also have jury-rigged snorkel tubes within easy reach of their mouths in the event that water starts covering their faces.

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Snorkel-equipped spacewalkers start critical repair job on space station

Watch this astronaut chat with a talking robot in space

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If life in space ever gets lonely, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have something new to talk to.

A new video shows the first humanoid robot in space making small talk with a Japanese astronaut. In footage released by the robot's developers Friday, the robot Kirobo performs its first mission on the station talking in Japanese with astronaut Koichi Wakata to test its conversation function.

Wakata says he's glad to meet Kirobo, and asks the robotic companion how it feels about being in a zero-gravity environment.

I'm used to it now, no problem at all, Kirobo quips.

Kirobo is programmed to process questions and select words from its vocabulary to form an answer, instead of giving pre-programmed responses to specific questions.

Kirobo took off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center for the International Space Station this summer aboard a space cargo transporter. Experiments with Kirobo will continue until it returns to Earth at the end of 2014.

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Watch this astronaut chat with a talking robot in space

International Space Station – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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International Space Station The International Space Station, as seen from Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 2011. ISS insignia Station statistics COSPAR ID 1998-067A Call sign Alpha Crew Fully crewed 6 Currently aboard 6 (Expedition 38) Launch 19982020 Launch pad Baikonur 1/5 and 81/23 Kennedy LC-39 Mass approximately 450,000kg (990,000lb) Length 72.8m (239ft) Width 108.5m (356ft) Height c. 20m (c. 66ft) nadirzenith, arrays forwardaft (27 November 2009)[dated info] Pressurised volume 837m3 (29,600cuft) (21 March 2011) Atmospheric pressure 101.3kPa (29.91inHg, 1 atm) Perigee 414km (257mi) AMSL[1] Apogee 421km (262mi) AMSL[1] Orbital inclination 51.65degrees[1] Average speed 7.66 kilometres per second (27,600km/h; 17,100mph)[1] Orbital period 92.92minutes[1] Orbit epoch 14 December 2013[1] Days in orbit 5509 (20 December) Days occupied 4796 (20 December) Number of orbits 86,263[1] Orbital decay 2km/month Statistics as of 9 March 2011 (unless noted otherwise) References: [1][2][3][4][5][6] Configuration Station elements as of December 2011[update], but missing Pirs (exploded view)

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, it follows the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations, and Skylab from the U.S. The ISS is a modular structure whose first component was launched in 1998.[7] Now the largest artificial body in orbit, it can often be seen at the appropriate time with the naked eye from Earth.[8] The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets.[9] Budget constraints led to the merger of three space station projects with the Japanese Kib module and Canadian robotics. In 1993 the partially built components for a Soviet/Russian space station Mir-2, the proposed American Freedom, and the proposed European Columbus merged into a single multinational programme.[9] The ISS is arguably the most expensive single item ever constructed.[10]

The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.[11][12][13] The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.[14]

Since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000, the station has been continuously occupied for 700113000000000000013years and 700148000000000000048days, the longest continuous human presence in space. (In 2010, the station surpassed the previous record of almost 10 years (or 3,634 days) held by Mir.) The station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: Soyuz, Progress, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, the H-II Transfer Vehicle,[15]Dragon, and Cygnus. It has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations.[16]

The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roskosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.[15][17] The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.[18] The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330km (205mi) and 435km (270mi) by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It completes 15.50orbits per day.[19] The ISS is funded until 2020, and may operate until 2028.[20][21][22] The Russian Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos (RKA) has proposed using the ISS to commission modules for a new space station, called OPSEK, before the remainder of the ISS is deorbited.

According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in space. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.[23] In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given additional roles of serving commercial, diplomatic[24] and educational purposes.[25]

The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research that cannot be performed in any other way. While small unmanned spacecraft can provide platforms for zero gravity and exposure to space, space stations offer a long term environment where studies can be performed potentially for decades, combined with ready access by human researchers over periods that exceed the capabilities of manned spacecraft.[16][26]

The Station simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff. The primary fields of research include Astrobiology, astronomy, human research including space medicine and life sciences, physical sciences, materials science, space weather and weather on Earth (meteorology).[11][12][13][27][28] Scientists on Earth have access to the crew's data and can modify experiments or launch new ones, benefits generally unavailable on unmanned spacecraft.[26] Crews fly expeditions of several months duration, providing approximately 160 man-hours a week of labour with a crew of 6.[11][29]

Kib is intended to accelerate Japan's progress in science and technology, gain new knowledge and apply it to such fields as industry and medicine.[30]

In order to detect dark matter and answer other fundamental questions about our universe, engineers and scientists from all over the world built the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which NASA compares to the Hubble telescope, and says could not be accommodated on a free flying satellite platform due in part to its power requirements and data bandwidth needs.[31][32] On 3 April 2013, NASA scientists reported that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.[33][34][35][36][37][38] According to the scientists, "The first results from the space-borne Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer confirm an unexplained excess of high-energy positrons in Earth-bound cosmic rays."

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International Space Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Space station – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew, which is designed to remain in space (most commonly in low Earth orbit) for an extended period of time and for other spacecraft to dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by lack of major propulsion or landing systems. Instead, other vehicles transport people and cargo to and from the station. As of November 2012[update] two space stations are in orbit: the International Space Station, which is permanently manned, and China's Tiangong 1 (which successfully launched on September 29, 2011, after its launch was delayed from August), which is unmanned most of the time.[1][2] Previous stations include the Almaz and Salyut series, Skylab and most recently Mir.

Today's space stations are research platforms, used to study the effects of long-term space flight on the human body as well as to provide platforms for greater number and length of scientific studies than available on other space vehicles. All space stations to date have been designed with the intention of rotating multiple crews, with each crew member staying aboard the station for weeks or months, but rarely more than a year. Since the ill-fated flight of Soyuz 11 to Salyut 1, all manned spaceflight duration records have been set aboard space stations. The duration record for a single spaceflight is 437.7 days, set by Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir from 1994 to 1995. As of 2013[update], three astronauts have completed single missions of over a year, all aboard Mir.

Space stations have also been used for both military and civilian purposes. The last military-use space station was Salyut 5, which was used by the Almaz program of the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1977.[3]

Space stations have been envisaged since at least as early as 1869 when Edward Everett Hale wrote "The Brick Moon".[4] The first to give serious consideration to space stations were Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the early 20th century and Hermann Oberth about two decades later.[4] In 1929 Herman Potonik's The Problem of Space Travel was published, the first to envision a "rotating wheel" space station to create artificial gravity.

During the Second World War, German scientists researched the theoretical concept of an orbital weapon based on a space station. Pursuing Oberth's idea of a space-based weapon, the so-called "sun gun" was a concept of a space station orbiting Earth at a height of 5,100 miles (8,200km), with a weapon that was to utilize the sun's energy.[5]

In 1951, in Collier's weekly, Wernher von Braun published his design for a wheel-shaped space station, which referenced the "rotating wheel" idea first proclaimed Potonik however these concepts would never leave the concept stage during the 20th century.[4]

During the same time as von Braun pursued Potonik's ideas, the Soviet design bureaus chiefly Vladimir Chelomey's OKB-52 were pursuing Tsiolkovsky's ideas for space stations. The work by OKB-52 would lead to the Almaz programme and (together with OKB-1) to the first space station: Salyut 1. The developed hardware laid the ground for the Salyut and Mir space stations, and is even today a considerable part of the ISS space station.

The first space station was Salyut 1, which was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. Like all the early space stations, it was "monolithic", intended to be constructed and launched in one piece, and then manned by a crew later. As such, monolithic stations generally contained all their supplies and experimental equipment when launched, and were considered "expended", and then abandoned, when these were used up.

The earlier Soviet stations were all designated "Salyut", but among these there were two distinct types: civilian and military. The military stations, Salyut 2, Salyut 3, and Salyut 5, were also known as Almaz stations.

The civilian stations Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 were built with two docking ports, which allowed a second crew to visit, bringing a new spacecraft with them; the Soyuz ferry could spend 90 days in space, after which point it needed to be replaced by a fresh Soyuz spacecraft.[6] This allowed for a crew to man the station continually. Skylab was also equipped with two docking ports, like second-generation stations, but the extra port was never utilized. The presence of a second port on the new stations allowed Progress supply vehicles to be docked to the station, meaning that fresh supplies could be brought to aid long-duration missions. This concept was expanded on Salyut 7, which "hard docked" with a TKS tug shortly before it was abandoned; this served as a proof-of-concept for the use of modular space stations. The later Salyuts may reasonably be seen as a transition between the two groups.

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Space station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HSF – International Space Station

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Space station updates have moved.

Please go to the Space Station page on the NASA Web for continuing international space station coverage.

Space travelers living on Mars for extended periods will need to grow plants, which provide food and generate oxygen. But the decreased gravity and low atmospheric pressure environment will stress the plants and make them hard to grow.

Greenhouses in the Station's Destiny Laboratory and in the Zvezda Service Module grow plants in a controlled environment. Station crews tend the plants, photograph them and harvest samples for return to Earth. Researchers can use the resulting data to develop new techniques for successfully growing plants in space.

NASA is also concerned about health hazards posed by space radiation. A spacecraft bound for Mars will be exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, and it will have to protect the humans inside from exposure.

On the station, sensors inside the crew areas monitor radiation levels. NASA scientists, who have maintained radiation data since the beginning of human space flight, continue to learn about the dangers it poses. Researchers use the station to test materials that could be used for Mars-bound spacecraft.

Will it ever be safe for humans to live on Mars? Researchers are learning more every day, thanks to the results of ISS experiments.

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HSF - International Space Station

Christmas Day spacewalk? Astronauts will go outside to fix space station. (+video)

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are now scheduled to conduct three spacewalks to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump on the station's exterior.

Three spacewalks over five days, with a final outing Christmas Day that ties the bow on a badly needed space-station repair job?

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This might not have been the way NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Air Force Col. Mike Hopkins originally planned to spend Christmas. But that's the schedule they face now that the agency has decided to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump on the station's exterior.

Mission managers made the call on Tuesday afternoon, determining that it was more prudent to replace the pump with one of three spare units the station carries than continue pursuing a work-around engineers had devised for bringing the pump back into full service.

The pump sends ammonia through one of two external cooling loops designed to remove heat from the station's interior as well as from equipment on the station's exterior.

On Dec. 11, ground controllers noticed that the fluid was too cool. Temperatures were sufficient to continue cooling equipment outside the station's modules. But the ammonia also circulates through a heat exchanger inside the station, accepting the excess heat from a water-based loop that keeps hardware, labs, and living spaces in the station cool.

Engineers isolated the problem to a flow-control valve used to regulate the ammonia's temperature and devised a way to use a different valve to do the job.

"The engineering teams did just an amazing job of sorting through all kinds of options to try to recover the valve and look at other ways to manage the flow," said Michael Suffredini, the International Space Station program manager.

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Christmas Day spacewalk? Astronauts will go outside to fix space station. (+video)

Christmas Day spacewalk? Astronauts will go outside to fix space station.

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Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are now scheduled to conduct three spacewalks to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump on the station's exterior.

Three spacewalks over five days, with a final outing Christmas Day that ties the bow on a badly needed space-station repair job?

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

This might not have been the way NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Air Force Col. Mike Hopkins originally planned to spend Christmas. But that's the schedule they face now that the agency has decided to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump on the station's exterior.

Mission managers made the call on Tuesday afternoon, determining that it was more prudent to replace the pump with one of three spare units the station carries than continue pursuing a work-around engineers had devised for bringing the pump back into full service.

The pump sends ammonia through one of two external cooling loops designed to remove heat from the station's interior as well as from equipment on the station's exterior.

On Dec. 11, ground controllers noticed that the fluid was too cool. Temperatures were sufficient to continue cooling equipment outside the station's modules. But the ammonia also circulates through a heat exchanger inside the station, accepting the excess heat from a water-based loop that keeps hardware, labs, and living spaces in the station cool.

Engineers isolated the problem to a flow-control valve used to regulate the ammonia's temperature and devised a way to use a different valve to do the job.

"The engineering teams did just an amazing job of sorting through all kinds of options to try to recover the valve and look at other ways to manage the flow," said Michael Suffredini, the International Space Station program manager.

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Christmas Day spacewalk? Astronauts will go outside to fix space station.

NASA plans spacewalks to repair International Space Station

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After an exhaustive effort to come up with a workaround to fix a balky valve in one of the International Space Station's two coolant loops, NASA managers decided Tuesday to change gears and press ahead with at least two and possibly three spacewalks to replace a refrigerator-size ammonia pump module.

Astronauts Rick Mastracchio, a spacewalk veteran, and first-time flier Mike Hopkins are scheduled to begin the first spacewalk, or EVA, Saturday around 7:10 a.m. EST (GMT-5). The second EVA is planned for Monday with the third, if necessary, on Christmas day.

The decision to carry out multiple spacewalks to repair coolant loop A means a delay for the planned launch of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket carrying the company's Cygnus cargo capsule. Orbital engineers rolled the rocket to its seaside pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island, Va., flight facility early Tuesday for a possible launch try Thursday night.

The flight now will be put on hold until next month.

"Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft, atop its Antares rocket, now will launch no earlier than Jan. 13," NASA said in a statement. "The postponement of the Antares launch will allow ample time for the station crew to focus on repairing a faulty pump module that stopped working properly on Dec. 11."

While the station's six-member crew is not in any danger because of the coolant system problem, research activities have been curtailed and, more important, the lab has lost redundancy in a critical system. If a problem took down coolant loop B, the crew could be forced to evacuate and return to Earth aboard their Soyuz ferry craft.

"Our best position to be in is to have both those loops up and running and available to us," Kenny Todd, a senior space station manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said earlier. "While we're sitting at one loop, I think we're somewhat vulnerable, and so clearly, from a program perspective, our intention would be to move sooner rather than later to recover that functionality."

The space station is equipped with two independent external coolant loops that use ammonia to dissipate the heat generated by the lab's electrical systems. Cooling is critical for station operations and while one loop can support critical systems and keep the lab operational, both are needed to avoid powerdowns of non-essential equipment.

The problem with coolant loop A developed last week when the flow control valve inside the station's starboard/loop A ammonia pump module malfunctioned, allowing the temperature of the coolant to drop below safety limits.

That did not affect loop A's ability to cool major electrical components mounted in the station's solar power truss. But to carry away heat generated by systems inside the station's habitable modules, where ammonia is not allowed, the coolant must flow through "interface heat exchangers" where it picks up heat carried by water that flows through cold plates where electrical gear is mounted.

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NASA plans spacewalks to repair International Space Station

Snorkels in Space

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. After a spacewalking astronaut nearly drowned in his helmet in July, NASA has a plan to protect its crew when they venture into the vacuum of space this weekend: snorkels and absorbent towels.

NASA has determined that as many as four urgent spacewalks are necessary to fix a broken cooling line that led to the shutdown of several systems at the International Space Station, the space agency said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Station managers decided to send two American astronauts out as soon as possible to replace a pump with a bad valve.

The catch: Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned in July, when more than a gallon of water leaked into his helmet, filling it like a fishbowl. Should water start pooling up again, NASA says it will be ready -- thanks to a hack worthy of TV's "MacGyver."

- Allison Bolinger, NASA's lead U.S. spacewalk officer

Some smart engineers on the ground said, hey, this looks like a snorkel youd use for scuba diving, explained Allison Bolinger, NASA's lead U.S. spacewalk officer. NASA realized that a water-line vent tube could be snipped down and attached with Velcro within the spacesuit, between a water restraint valve and the astronaut, she explained.

The crew members themselves fabricated the snorkels on Sunday.

This is your last resort if water is in your suit you can lean down and use this to breathe, Bolinger said.

The space agency also installed absorptive pads in the back of each helmet, which will soak up any water that shows up like a sponge. The spacewalkers have been trained to tilt their heads back periodically to test the pad, she said; if it sucks up around 6 and a half ounces of water, it will feel squishy -- a sure sign of trouble.

Thats a sign there is a problem in the EMU and its time to come inside, Bolinger said.

The absorptive pads were designed on the ground and shipped up to the space station in a recent cargo craft. But while waiting for their arrival, NASAs engineers looked at other ways to MacGyver towels from material on board the space station: space diapers.

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Snorkels in Space


  1. Space Station