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NASA is GO for U.S. Spacewalks Outside International Space Station

NASA completed a flight readiness review in October, and is “GO” to resume routine spacewalks outside of the International Space Station. The first of three planned spacewalks is targeted to begin around mid-November to continue the work to install roll out solar arrays, called iROSA.

The review marks the completion of an investigation into the cause of a thin layer of moisture being discovered in March inside ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer’s helmet after station airlock re-pressurization following a nearly seven-hour spacewalk. Mauer was conducting a spacewalk focused on preparation of new solar array installation outside the microgravity laboratory.

Following the successful spacewalk, the space station crew expedited Maurer’s helmet removal and then gathered data in coordination with ground support teams at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The agency identified the event as a close-call and immediately declared a stop to all future planned U.S. Operating Segment spacewalks pending an investigation into the cause. NASA returned to Earth water samples and some suit hardware with Soyuz 65S and NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission, as well as returned the spacesuit as part of the agency’s SpaceX CRS-25 mission for detailed analysis.

During the investigation, the space station team completed a detailed test, teardown, and evaluation of the water samples and suit hardware to determine what led to the observed water, which was more than normal, in the helmet.

The team confirmed there were no hardware failures within the suit. The cause for the water in the helmet was likely due to integrated system performance where several variables such as crew exertion and crew cooling settings led to the generation of comparatively larger than normal amounts of condensation within the system.

Based on the findings, the team has updated operational procedures and developed new mitigation hardware to minimize scenarios where integrated performance results in water accumulation, while absorbing any water that does appear. These measures will help contain any liquid in the helmet to continue to keep crew safe.

“Crew safety is the top priority of NASA and our international partners,” said Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “I’m proud of the space station and ground teams’ work to keep our crew members safe, for taking the time necessary to close out the investigation, and for continually findings ways to mitigate risks in human spaceflight.”

Based on the results of the investigation, the additional operational procedures, and mitigation hardware, the NASA management team concurred and approved return to normal operations.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Muscle and Crop Studies Helping Crews Adapt to Space Missions

Today aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 68 crew explored how to maintain healthy bodies and grow crops in the weightless environment of space. Learning to live long-term in microgravity and farther away from Earth orbit requires astronauts to sustain themselves without relying on visiting resupply missions.

Humans lose muscle and bone mass much faster in space than on Earth due to the lack of gravity bearing down on them. However, the space station crew members work out two hours every day on a treadmill, an exercise cycle, and a resistive device, to offset and counteract the effects microgravity. One experiment called Myotones, worked on today by U.S. and Japanese Flight Engineers Nicole Mann and Koichi Wakata, tracks how a crew member’s muscles adapt to space. The duo took turns marking their neck, back, leg and arm muscles, while inside the Columbus laboratory module. Afterward, the pair used the specialized Myotones device to measure the biochemical properties of the same muscles, including muscle tone, stiffness, and elasticity.

Mann then went on and partnered with fellow NASA Flight Engineer Josh Cassada strapping sensors to each other and pedaling on the U.S. Destiny laboratory module’s exercise bike to measure their aerobic capacity on orbit. Frank Rubio, also a NASA flight engineer, mixed a nutrient solution to nourish vegetables growing inside the Columbus lab for the XROOTS study. The space botany study investigates using hydronic and aeroponic methods to grow crops on spacecraft and space habitats so astronauts can feed themselves in low-Earth orbit and beyond.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Anna Kikina studied advanced Earth photography techniques that use ultrasound sensors to help target landmarks on the ground. Her fellow cosmonauts, Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin, are preparing for a new cargo mission due to launch from Kazakhstan at the end of the month. The duo tested the station’s TORU, or telerobotically operated rendezvous unit, that would be used to manually control an approaching spacecraft in the unlikely event it was unable to automatically approach and dock on its own.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: http://jscfeatures.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Mark Garcia

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