A very good start

The primary spacewalk to service the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) couldn’t have gone higher. Lead spacewalker ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is imaged right here hitching a experience on the Worldwide House Station’s 16-metre lengthy robotic arm to kick off the primary of 4 ventures to service the particle physics detector on 15 November.

Whereas all spacewalks are a fastidiously deliberate and detailed affair, the 4 spacewalks for AMS are exceptionally tough because the bus-sized darkish matter detector was by no means designed to be maintained in area. However after three profitable years of delivering floor breaking science, the choice was made to increase its lifetime. 

The cooling pumps for AMS-02 want upkeep and with out them it is going to not be capable of gather information on the cosmic rays which can be bombarding our planet. The primary query spacewalk designers needed to reply whether or not this was even doable. 

The primary spacewalk proved it was not solely doable, however because of the planning and skilled that started as early as 2017, Luca and his spacewalking companion Andrew Morgan might obtain greater than scheduled – setting them in good stead for the following section. 

The spacewalk started, as all of them do, with “prebreathing” for as much as two hours. Just like scuba divers, astronauts can endure from the ‘bends’: shortly altering strain can flip the nitrogen in human our bodies into bubbles with severe signs. To keep away from this, astronauts breathe pure oxygen to purge their our bodies of nitrogen.

Luca and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan left the depressurised Quest airlock at 13:10 CET (12:10 GMT), with Luca grabbing the experience to AMS on the robotic arm managed by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir whereas Drew ferried handrails and gear by hand to the worksite. 

The primary process of this spacewalk was to take away the particles protect protecting AMS, with an estimated three hours portioned for this process. Luca and Drew managed to jettison the particles protect to dissipate safely in Earth’s ambiance properly forward of schedule.

Luca and Drew additionally put in three handrails within the neighborhood of AMS to organize for the following spacewalks and eliminated zip ties on the AMS’ vertical assist strut.

Amazingly, the duo had been nonetheless properly forward of the six hours deliberate for the principle process of eradicating the particles protect. 

When time permits, mission management give spacewalkers some “get forward” duties. Though there have been no get-ahead duties deliberate for this spacewalk the duo was thus far forward of schedule that mission management agreed they proceed work initially deliberate for the second AMS spacewalk. Luca eliminated the screws from a carbon-fibre cowl beneath the insulation and handed the quilt to Drew to jettison as soon as once more.

The pair cleaned up, took some pictures of their killer views, gathered instruments, and made their means again to the airlock, clocking in 6 hours and 39 minutes for this promising begin to AMS upkeep.

The following spacewalk is scheduled for 22 November. Watch the spacewalk through ESA Web TV. 

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