Posted on 10/30/2007 11:19:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
HOUSTON - Spacewalking astronauts bolted a solar power tower to the international space station on Tuesday, completing an ambitious three-day moving process that ended with elation when the beam's giant solar panels began to unfurl.
Their joy turned to concern, however, when a rip was spotted in the second solar panel.
NASA needs to get the tower up and running to prevent malfunctioning station equipment from delaying the addition of a much-anticipated European research lab.
A massive rotary joint is supposed to make sure the solar panel wings on the right side of the space station are facing the sun. But the gear, which was installed in June, has been experiencing electrical current spikes for nearly two months.
The solar panels on the 17 1/2-ton girder that was installed at its new location Tuesday were folded up like an accordion for the move, and the first one slowly was unfurled as the seven-hour spacewalk wrapped up, gleaming like gold in the sun.
The crew kept spacewalker Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock apprised of the first solar wing's unfurling as they floated back inside. Their reaction: "Wow, that's great," and "Awesome!"
"It's a good day's work right there," Parazynski said.
The astronauts abruptly stopped the unfurling of the second panel, however, as soon as they saw the rip right next to the edge. By then, the panel was about three-quarters of the way out. The astronauts beamed down photos of the torn and crumpled section so Mission Control could analyze them and determine the extent of the damage.
At Mission Control's request, the astronauts retracted the wing just a bit to ease the tension on it.
A spacewalking astronaut found black dust resembling metal shavings inside the motorized joint on Sunday. NASA has limited the joint's motion to prevent the debris from causing permanent damage, but that also limits the system's ability to generate power for the station.
Parazynski spent part of Tuesday inspecting the matching rotary joint that turns the space station's left set of solar wings toward the sun. NASA will examine images he gathered of the perfectly running unit to compare it to the malfunctioning one.
There were no shavings inside the joint, and Parazynski said everything looked pristine.
"It's right out of the shop, no debris whatsoever," he said.
Parazynski and Wheelock guided astronauts inside the station as they used a robotic arm to hook up the beam to the orbiting outpost's backbone. The spacewalkers then began installing bolts to hold the beam in place and connecting wires to provide power.
"Oh I love this job," Parazynski said as they worked 220 miles above southeast Asia. "Beautiful view."
Given the problems with the right rotary joint, NASA needs the power generated by the newly installed solar panels to proceed with the planned December launch of the European Space Agency's science lab, named Columbus.
That lab and a Japanese lab set to be delivered early next year will latch onto the new Harmony module that Discovery delivered last week.
The space agency added a day to Discovery's mission so spacewalking astronauts could conduct a detailed inspection of the troublesome joint. That work is scheduled for Thursday.
To make room for that inspection, managers canceled a shuttle thermal tile repair demonstration that was scheduled for that spacewalk. The test was added to the mission after a piece of fuel-tank foam gouged Endeavour's belly on the last shuttle flight in August.
Any repairs to the malfunctioning gear would be put off until after Discovery departs.
Discovery is now scheduled to undock from the space station on Monday and return to Earth on Nov. 7.
In this image taken from NASA television, a rip is seen in a second solar panel as it was unfurled after it was installed Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, by spacewalking astronauts Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock. The astronauts abruptly stopped the unfurling of the second panel, however, as soon as they spotted the rip. (AP Photo/via NASA television)
Where's SpaceGeekSquad when ya need 'em?
NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
Was probably packed and launched like that.
International Space Station flight engineer Clayton Anderson works at a computer in the Destiny module as he prepares for his return trip home aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in this image from NASA TV October 29, 2007. (NASA/Reuters)
It looks pliable,, creased over somehow, hope they can patch it up
Any possible fixes that they perform in an EVA?
Astronauts and ground controllers are looking at apparent damage to the P6 4B solar array spotted by the crew during deployment. NASA halted the deployment of the solar array wing to evaluate the damage. Deployment is about 75 percent complete with 25 of 31 bays deployed.
The crew has been asked to photograph the area on the solar array wing and downlink the images to the ground.
Meanwhile during post-spacewalk activities, Mission Specialist Doug Wheelock reported to the ground that he has noted a hole in one of his gloves. He is sending photos to the ground for assessment.
Spacewalkers Complete Truss Installation, Inspect Joint
Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock helped install the P6 truss in its permanent location and inspected the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joint today during STS-120’s third spacewalk. The 7-hour, 8-minute excursion wrapped up at 11:53 a.m. EDT.
Shortly after the spacewalk began, Parazynski and Wheelock went to work at the end of the port truss to help station robotic arm operators attach the P6 to its new location on P5. The two provided verbal cues to Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani and Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson as they aligned the truss. Once the 17.5 ton truss was in place, the spacewalkers secured it and attached its power source.
After completing the truss work, Parazynski inspected the port rotary joint and found no evidence of any debris. He described the joint's race rings as "nice and clean."
The spacewalkers also installed a spare main bus switching unit on a station storage platform.
Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli coordinated today’s spacewalk activities. Pilot George Zamka was the shuttle robot arm operator.
STS-120’s fourth spacewalk to perform additional inspections of the starboard rotary joint will take place Thursday.
So long as there is electrical continuity, which there probably is, they can leave it alone. Not cosmetic, but not a serious ding.
According to the manufacturer, it’s supposed to be like that./s
Okay. So it is functioning correctly, but just looks ugly.
btt
Was it made in China?
Nah, no lead or cadmium laced paint.
They have some serious clutter going there.
just a flesh wound, they’ll fix it up. as long as they can get it wired up ok, not sure what may have been damaged or how
LOL!
Duct tape it. It keeps Yugos running, no reason it can’t keep this space based Yugo going.
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