The space station is preparing for more power upgrades as two NASA astronauts conduct their first spacewalk of the year on Tuesday.
The spacewalking pair will assemble and install modification kits that will allow for future solar array upgrades outside the space station. Baron and Chari will install struts and brackets that will be used to support the arrival of more ISS roll-out solar arrays, or IROSA.
During the spacewalk, Baron will be an additional crew member wearing a suit with red stripes and Chari will be identified as 2 of the additional crew in a suit without stripes. This is Barron’s second spacewalk after completing his first in December and a career-first for Chari.
Two IROSAs were deployed during previous spacewalks and once all arrays are installed, they are expected to augment six of the eight power channels on the space station, kicking the available supply from 160 kW to 215 kW.
Six solar arrays arrived at the space station on June 5 after launching on the 22nd SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply mission. The arrays are rolled like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kg) and 10 feet (3 m) wide. Four more arrays will be distributed during future missions.
While current solar arrays on the space station are still operating, they have been supplying power to the space station for more than 20 years and are showing some signs of wear after prolonged exposure to the space environment. Arrays were originally designed to last 15 years.
The agency is preparing for a second spacewalk starting at 8:50 a.m. on March 23.
Although the two crew members have yet to be announced, they will be responsible for performing several installation upgrades, including replacing an external cam and installing hoses on a radiator beam valve module, which is routed through the station’s heat-rejecting radiators. Roots to retain ammonia. proper temperature.
international cooperation in space
The space station is set to become a hotbed of activity, with a new Russian crew set to launch to the ISS on Friday, which already includes four Americans, one European and two Russians.
On March 30, NASA astronaut Mark Vande is set to return to Earth with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.
NASA said on Monday that Vande Hey will return a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from board the ISS as previously planned. The space agency sought to reaffirm Monday that it is still working closely with the Russian space agency Rokosmos on the International Space Station, despite rising geopolitical tensions.
Vande Hei, which was launched to the ISS in April 2021, will be in Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, as is customary. NASA officials did not say that there would be any significant changes to plans to return Vande Hei to the United States after landing. He will travel home via a Gulfstream jet, as other American astronauts have done before him.
For nearly a decade, Russia’s Soyuz vehicles were the only means of transporting astronauts to and from the space station. But that reliance ended after SpaceX introduced its Crew Dragon capsule in 2020, and the US regained human spaceflight capabilities.
According to Joel Montalbano, the manager of NASA’s International Space Station program, the joint operation between NASA and Roscosmos at the Russian facilities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan is “proceeding well”. “I can tell you for sure Mark [Vande Hei] Coming home” on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Montalbano said Monday.