NASAS plans to ship and construct two spacewalks on the ISS in order to facilitate cargo transportation.
In an effort to better supply the International Space Station with research equipment, NASA wants spacewalks at International Space Station. ISS Operation Integration Manager, Kenneth Todd, told in an interview that NASA planned for a very long time to have such structures build on the space station.
The reason why NASA is set on building these spacewalks is because, over the year, there have been a lot of setbacks in launching some of the commercial cargo vehicles, needed to supply the space station and the astronauts on-board. And so, notable figures from the space community like astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will have to take a few steps out into space in order to install these structures. NASA wants spacewalks at international space station at it is sending its best people.
Getting ahead of the press, Flight Director Michael Lammers announced the terms for the planned spacewalks. It seems that the first spacewalk, designated as US spacewalk 32 is scheduled for assembly on the 28th of October, following closely by its sibling, US spacewalk 33, scheduled for the 6th of November. Lammers also added that the two spacewalks we’re specifically engineered for space construction. Each assembly will last approximately 6 and a half hours, the standard time an astronaut can stay outside the airlock.
ISS Manager Kenneth Todd said that although there have been some setbacks in cargo delivery, a large part of them reached the space station. Being supplied with all necessary equipment, the crew can resume all tasks at hand.
But this is not the only tasks that the brave astronauts must tend to. According to the schedule posted by NASA, the two astronauts must be careful to place a thermal cover over an array designed for dark matter detection and they also have to oil down Canadaarm2 robotic arm, which has more 57.7 feet in length. Also, they have to route some power cables in order to accommodate another docking port.
After these modifications are in place, the crew can resume their scientific research which happens to be the primary functions of the space station. For example, Kelly and Lindgren along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, performed a couple of medical scans using ultrasound technology.
With the new spacewalks into place, astronauts could expect to receive a lot more cargo, in the nearby future, making their work a whole lot easier. It is irrelevant to stress out again how important the nature of their work is to human kind and to the future of space travel.
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