Week Starts with Spacewalk Preps and Life Science
NASA Science ·
Preparations continue for the second in the final series of spacewalks to upgrade the International Space Station’s power generation system on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Expedition 75 crew focused its research efforts on life science at the beginning of the week. The post Week Starts with Spacewalk Preps and Life Science appeared first on NASA Science .
Editors note: This blog was updated on Nov. 2 to reflect an update in coverage and spacewalk start times.
Preparations continue for the second in the final series of spacewalks to upgrade the International Space Station ’s power generation system on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Expedition 75 crew focused its research efforts on life science at the beginning of the week.
Flight engineers Joshua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and Anil Menon of NASA will install the eighth and final roll-out solar array during a spacewalk planned to start at 7 a.m. EST on Thursday. The duo will work on the orbital outpost’s starboard truss structure opposite from the port truss structure where they installed a roll-out solar array on Oct. 29 .
Upon completion of the installation job, which is expected to take about seven hours, the station’s power generating capacity will increase about 30 percent from 160 kilowatts to about 215 kilowatts. NASA+ begins its live spacewalk coverage at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday and also will stream on a variety of other platforms.
Kutryk and Menon joined NASA flight engineers Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney on Monday and studied the Canadarm2 robotic arm procedures necessary to support Thursday’s spacewalk. The quartet also called down to mission controllers for a pair of pre-spacewalk conferences. The astronauts first discussed their mission readiness with spacewalk specialists then spoke to robotics engineers afterward about any Canadarm2 concerns.
Microgravity research was still on Monday’s schedule for the astronauts as they helped researchers advance human health on Earth and in space. Kutryk strapped on the Bio-Monitor ’s sensor-packed vest and headband at the beginning of his shift and pedaled on the Destiny laboratory module ’s exercise cycle . Results may show how an astronaut’s cardiorespiratory system adapts to weightlessness informing crew health measures on future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Delaney nourished growing vascular tissues samples that were printed inside the BioFabrication Facility . Watkins verified the operation of a portable DNA sequencer used to genetically analyze antibiotic-resistant bacteria in microgravity.
Expedition 75’s three cosmonauts stayed focused on their task list of space research and lab maintenance inside the orbiting complex’s Roscosmos segment. Station commander Pyotr Dubrov continued studying how to manufacture high-purity semiconductor crystals in microgravity that are superior to those produced on Earth. Flight engineer Sergey Teteryatnikov attached electrodes to himself for a 24-hour session measuring his heart activity and blood pressure. Flight engineer Anna Kikina worked on ventilation system maintenance then worked on cargo transfers inside the Progress 96 cargo spacecraft .
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog , @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Get the latest from NASA delivered every week. Subscribe here .
The post Week Starts with Spacewalk Preps and Life Science appeared first on NASA Science .