From the ISS Science Newsletter:
On June 17 and July
26, NASA tested the Surface Telerobotics exploration concept, in which
an astronaut in an orbiting spacecraft remotely operates a robot on a
planetary surface. In the future, astronauts orbiting other planetary
bodies, such as Mars, asteroids or the moon, could use this approach to
perform work on the surface using robotic avatars.
·During the June 17
test, Expedition 36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA remotely
operated the K10 planetary rover in the Roverscape – an outdoor robotic
test area the size of two football fields located at NASA Ames –
hundreds of miles below on Earth's surface from his post aboard the International Space Station
(ISS). For more than three hours, Cassidy used the robot to perform a
survey of the Roverscape’s rocky, lunar-like terrain. The July 26 test
picked up where Cassidy left off. Fellow Expedition 36 Flight Engineer
Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency remotely-controlled the
rover and began deploying a simulated Kapton film-based radio antenna.
·The
primary goal of the Human Exploration Telerobotics project is to
understand how human and robot activities, such as Surface Telerobotics,
can be coordinated to improve crew safety, enhance science activities
and increase mission success while also reducing cost, risk and
consumables, such as fuel and oxygen, during future exploration
missions.
K10 Black planetary rover at NASA Ames Research Center
No one drowned in space, and the crew is fine but for a little while it was bit dicly. Luca Parmitano, the first Italian to preform a spacewalk was on his second spacewalk of his career. He report that there was some water on the back of his head. The amount of water started to increase, and it moved to the front of his helmet and got into his mouth, nose, and eyes. Luca was outside the ISS in his spacesuit with his EVA (extravehicular activity) crew-mate Chris Cassidy. Both these guys are cool customers, Luca is a Major and former test pilot in the Italian Air Force who enjoys skydiving and SCUBA diving. One thing to point out about Luca that in 2007, he was awarded the Medaglia al Valore Aeronautico d'Argento (Decoration for Aeronautical Valor in Silver) by the President of the Italian Republic, after safely landing his AMX in emergency due to a bird strike. This was not Luca's first or last brush with death. There is a reason he was selected as an astronaut. His partner outside the space station was Commander (US Navy, not of the ISS) Chris Cassidy, the second Navy SEAL in space. Chris is a combat veteran with 10 years of experience in the SEALS and two Bronze Stars for Valor during operations in Afghanistan. While the FCT (Flight Control Team in Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX) talked with Luca with some troubling shooting steps to try to figure out where the water was coming from Chris chimed in, that it could be urine, right after Luca said he drank some. This helped ease some of the tension in the FCR (Flight Control Room), even in space jokes about peeing are still funny.
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 flight engineer takes a picture while outside the ISS for EVA 23 Photo Credit: NASA
"ISS mission management team leader Kenneth Todd, joined by flight
director David Korth and EVA officer Karina Eversley, confirmed the
seriousness of the problem at an afternoon press conference. Korth noted
that EVAs are already dangerous. For Parmitano, this experience was
like plunging one's head into a sloshing fishbowl, with no way to get it
off.
Eversley agreed that the choking hazard from inhaled water was real, and
it eventually caused flight controllers to terminate the spacewalk.
Todd said he was proud of the way the ISS team handled the
near-emergency, one they had never encountered before. "The crew was
cool and expert in reporting and diagnosing the problem. Our training on
the ground paid off, and the team kept its eye on the main
objective"—the crew's safety." From ISS Astronauts Have a Spacewalking Close Call - Popular Mechanics
For an idea of why this was dangerous look at this video Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian Commander of the ISS, made while he was up there.
Now image all that water on your face, it affects you seeing where to go, being able to talk on the radio, breathe, now it gets scary.
There are two sources of water in a spacesuit other then urine (the diaper the astronauts wear should prevent this): the EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit, aka the spacesuit) cooling system that holds about 3.8 liters of water and the water drink bag which holds about 1 liter.
In the earlier EVA# 22 when taking off Luca's suit it was reported there
was a lot of water in this helmet, special steps were given to dry out
the suit. This water was believed to come from his drink bag. The drink bag was found to be empty. He was
given a new drink bag to use on EVA #23.
I would rule out the drink bag as the issue beacuse:
A. He was given a new one
B. It only hold about 1 liter of water, the crew reported 1 -1.5 liter of water in his helmet.
C. He would have been drinking some water in the first hour of the spacewalk reducing the amount in his drink bag
The cooling system for the EMU seems to be the cause of the issue in my mind. It holds 3.8 liters of water. That's more than enough to have caused the flood in Parmitano's helmet, estimated at about 1 to 1.5 liters. The cooling water moves from the heat exchanger to inside the suit onlong the astronauts skin via the Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG). To cause this leak there has to be something wrong with the LCG or the connection that supplies the LCG.
For those of you who were not spacesuit field test engineers here is something to help you understand how spacesuits work:
How NASA Spacesuits Work: EMUs Explained (Infographic)
by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist, Space.com
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
To see the NASA press release go to This Website
Also now from NASATV see the coverage of the leak discussion:
Now the big question you are wondering where was I during all this excitement? I was in MCC, not in FCR but one of the support rooms. I was training on learning how to work the Bio-hardness, which the astronauts wear that get all their Bio data and send it to the ground for the Flight Surgeons. The job which I was training for was to make sure all the bio data made it down to the ground, and trouble shoot any problems that arise.
For current process on finding the water leak issue the very smart engineers and EVA operations personnel are still work on it. I will let you know once they find out something.
Here is "Swimming with spacemen: training for spacewalks at NASA’s giant pool". It is a great article about Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Chris Cassidy of NASA's astronaut corps training for their two EVAs (spacewalks) that happened 1 last week, and another tomorrow. It is worth reading HERE
On July 9th and 16th Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will go outside the ISS to perform two spacewalks. Each spacewalk is scheduled to last 6.5 hours. Cassidy and Parmitano will replace a space-to-ground communications receiver and wireless video equipment and install power and cables for a Russian multipurpose laboratory module that will be launched later this year. The new module will serve as a research facility, docking port and airlock for future Russian spacewalks and will replace the Pirs module.
Cassidy's call sign will be EV1 and Parmitano's call sign will be EV2. Cassidy's spacesuit will have red stripes on it. These two spacewalks will be Cassidy's 5th and 6th EVAs, but it will be Parmitano's first and second as well as him being the first Italian to perform a spacewalk.
In July there will be two EVAs (Extra-vehicular activity) where the astronauts will go out outside the International Space Station (ISS) to preform a number of maintenance tasks on the Station. I am scheduled to work the first of the two EVAs, EVA # 22. Two astronauts Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), an US Navy SEAL, and Major Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), an Italian Air Force Test Pilot will perform the EVA. Major Parmitano is going to be the first Italian to perform a spacewalk or EVA.
Commander Chris Cassidy Major Luca Parmitano
EVAs are a very complex task, first the crew has to re-size the on-board spacesuits so they can fit somewhat comfortably in the spacesuits. While on the ground they plan the EVA down to every handhold that the spacewalking crew members will use. This is a planned EVA so before these astronauts where even in space they wer training in the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory), a giant people at Johnson Space Center that is 40 feet deep, 100 feet wide and 200 ft long. It is used to simulate the weightless environment of space, and it has a mockup of the exterior of the space station in it.
Even an astronaut that does not go outside the station still has to help out with the EVA. Dr. Karen Nyberg of NASA gets to be involved. She helps the two EVA crew members get in and out of their suits and she gets to control the giant robotic arm of the space station to assist in the EVA.
Dr. Karen Nyberg
The Flight Control Team (FCT) also undergoes lots of training on the ground. One of these training exercises is a full dress rehearsal of the EVA with the FCT that is on console during that EVA. The FCT including both shifts that will be on-console are in the SIM, that means that there is a handover in the middle of the SIM, which is very rare in the SIM world.
NBL at JSC
The FCT runs through all the procedures and look for issues to fine tune their calls to the crew to make sure things will run smoothly on the ground side. Even in the dress rehearsal the training team still throws in a number of things that go wrong, but nothing that will stop the EVA early to make it run like on a real day. At the end the FCT team undergoes a in-depth debrief to talk about what each flight control position did well and what they did not do well.
All this training will prepare the FCT to respond to any problems that will arise during EVA # 22.
