Second Spacewalk Completes Preparations and Repairs
Running about half an hour ahead of time, today at 6:15 pm at EDT, Mike Fossum and Ron Garan finished up their STS-124 Mission spacewalk, which involved seven hours and eleven minutes—with it being Fossum’s fifth spacewalk and Garan’s second. Several tasks were performed to outfit the Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module, which was a major part of the spacewalk:
• Installed television cameras on the front and rear of the JPM in order to assist Kibo robotic arm operations
• They removed thermal covers from the Kibo robotic arm
• They prepared an upper JPM docking port for the Friday attachment of the Kibo logistics module
• They readied a spare nitrogen tank assembly for its installation during Sunday’s third spacewalk
• The retrieved a failed television camera from the Port 1 truss
• The Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, or SARJ, was inspected, described and photographed by Fossum
The two cameras for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo Laboratory were installed, used to judge clearances for the module’s robotic arm. Beginning the installation one hour and 22 minutes into the spacewalk, the cameras will assist the robotic arm operator in order to move payloads and other things inside the Kibo module. According to NASA, these things will be installed to an external “porch” what will be installed during a future mission STS-127.
When Fossum inspected the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint and began taking pictures, there seemed to be less damage than during the last inspection. When he removed the cover, his statement was “I do not see any sign of metal shavings like we had on the other side. This is a lot cleaner. This is not the kind of surface damage that we had on the other side. “When he closed the cover of the SARJ, he was quoted as saying the damage was actually a smear, “The inboard light gray line is grease.”
Additionally, the two spacewalkers prepared the laboratory’s “top active common berthing mechanism” in order to attach the smaller module section—the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module-Pressurized Section—previously delivered during the STS-123 mission. The external television camera that had a failing power supply was also removed during this spacewalk. Those inside the space station were also busy today, with moving the racks from the Japanese logistics module into the Kibo JPM, closing the logistics module’s hatch. The spacewalk on Friday will have it relocated Friday from its current location, which is on top of the Harmony node. At the present time, both Kibo power channels are functionally normally, having been activated.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Space Agency News. 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.
