Second Discovery Spacewalk Completed With Some Issues
The second of five spacewalks is out of the way this Sunday, as part of Discovery’s two-week mission for the International Space Station’s construction. Beginning this morning at 0932 GMT, while finishing at 1605 GMT, bolts were removed by astronauts Scott Parazynski and Daniel Tani to prepare for the Tuesday installation of “a truss that will support a set of the station’s key solar panels.” The importance of the truss is vital as it is the largest piece of equipment yet to be moved on the ISS. In addition to the preparation for the truss, the astronauts also completed the external outfitting of the Harmony module, which is a new addition to the station.
Astronaut Tani, the flight engineer, inspected other equipment that included a major joint used to rotate the solar panels, due to some increased friction. The inspection was hopefully going to show the cause of it, especially when he used orange tape to pick up some observed discolored metal shavings from the surface of the ISS’s massive joint. According to Tani, “There’s quite a bit. I’d almost say that it looks like it’s been corroded in some way.” Not knowing the cause yet or if they are even metal-based, the only thing that is known is the fact there is a problem with the joint that rotates the station’s starboard solar arrays.
Worst scenario is that the contaminated bits could force the joint to draw too much power, resulting in its stalling, or causing major damage to its internal mechanism if it was left alone. According to NASA news, the loose debris was found when Tani was inspecting the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), which consists of a ten foot side gear that sits between two massive girders located on the right side of the station’s backbone-like main truss. Once collected, the samples will be returned to Earth onboard the Discovery when the mission is complete.
Not yet a worrisome thing, it is early yet to decide whether or not the joint’s contamination is going to effect the launching of the ESA’s Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station in December, or even affecting the launching of Japan’s Kibo laboratory components next year. NASA is not considering the findings an immediate issue yet, but feeling they have plenty of time to work on it. Their flight controllers are hoping it is nothing less than a glitch “stemmed from a slight obstruction,” such as a bolt of thermal blanket.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
