Russian cosmonauts have been in space for about seven hours on October 25 to perform several routine inspections. One of them was to examine radiator coolant found leaking on the International Space Station. The spacewalk was crucial for maintaining the ISS in excellent shape. Any anomaly could damage the entire space station, causing the loss of trillions of dollars spent on space exploration.
During the seven-hour historic spacewalk, the two Russian astronauts worked on the radar communications system in the Russian segments of the ISS. Also, the Nanosatellites are deployed to test the solar sail technology.
Besides that, another test is conducted by the cosmonauts to check the external backup radiator situated on the Nauka Multipurpose laboratory module.
The international space station is designed so that every part is separate from each other. It is joined so that the module is separated from each other. Participating countries are operating their module on the space station, which they use for various research on space. ISS is a joint venture between several countries that funded the project and sent their astronaut to the space station to experience space and perform science experiments.
Recently, the radiator has shown a problem in the coolant storage tank. It was leaking in the space and thus needed to be repaired as early as possible to avoid significant damage to the space station. The first time issue was detected on October 9, 2023.
The ground team at NASA rectified the problem, and after a close assessment, the team planned space work to repair it. As the leak was found on the Russian space module, the two Russian astronauts have been assigned the job of getting it fixed.
Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub cosmonauts have been part of the ISS team that went out of the ISS model to conduct the repair. The spacewalk lasted for seven hours and 41 minutes.
As we know, spacewalk is one of the challenging parts of being in the space station. ISS is circling the Earth at 17,500 mph speed. At this speed, a tiny object can also have significant damage to the astronaut suit that they wear during the spacewalk. Therefore, the cosmonauts are instructed to get the job done as early as possible and come back to the safe module.
Moreover, the team at NASA said the Solar sail failed to unfurl fully. Also, the Radar system panel showed an issue. The Nanosatellite solar sail was unable to open, and because of that, the cameras could not observe the satellite during its departure when it was released from the station.
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NASA also said in the report that one of the radar systems’ four panels needs to be deployed entirely in the walk. However, the report also says that the mission went as planned, and necessary adjustments were made clear later.
About the inspection of the coolant, the NASA report says an unexpected coolant bubble is released during the radiator. The fix is done during the spacewalk done by the Russian cosmonaut, and the necessary changes are made to keep the ISS functional in the normal condition.
During the assessment of the radiator, the team detected the coolant bubble was released at the leak point. In the official blog post, the team said that coolant did not come into contact with the cosmonaut’s suits. NASA takes utmost precaution to ensure the space station’s purity.
Any contaminant substance could spread inside the space station and damage the equipment. Thus, during the spacewalk, every single object, space suit, and tool used in the repair is securely brought back to the space station.
As the routine check, the cosmonauts inspected the space suits and tools used during the spacewalk to ensure no sign of coolant on the space suits. Even the tiny substance stuck to the spacesuit should be wiped off from the tools and spacesuit before bringing the suits back to the space module.
Cosmonauts cleaned the suits and every single tool after getting to the pressurized chamber. Multiple steps in the cleaning further reduce the chances of getting alian particles into the space station.
Bringing contamination to the space station could damage the internal environment. As the space station is far from the Earth, the rescue mission would not be possible at the distance where the ISS orbits. Hence, NASA’s ground team takes every precaution to keep the space station contamination-free.
Filtration is used to remove the tiny object that might have stuck to the spacesuit during the spacewalk. It quickly scrubs the atmosphere of any foreign particles and removes the contamination.
With this historical spacewalk, NASA has completed the 268th spacewalk on the International Space Station. Major spacewalks are done to fix broken parts or regular maintenance of the space station. The astronaut has performed some upgrades during the spacewalk. It was the sixth spacewalk for the astronaut Kononenko.
