Spacewalking astronauts substitute frail dwelling location batteries as allotment of years-prolonged upgrade

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy work to change batteries open air the World House Achieve on July 16, 2020.

(Image: © NASA TV)

Two NASA spacewalkers swapped out very valuable photo voltaic array batteries on the World House Achieve Thursday (July 16), nearly ending the huge alternative work wanted to defend the orbiting lab powered via no longer no longer up to 2024.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken zoomed via their tasks, taking away six getting earlier nickel-hydrogen batteries on the a ways starboard S6 truss of the ISS. The duo also attach in three lithium-ion battery replacements and placed a brand fresh excessive-definition camera open air the orbiting lab. (The lithium-ion batteries are twice as efficient as their predecessors, so most intriguing half as loads of the fresh ones are wanted.)

The astronauts concluded the 6-hour spacewalk, or extravehicular direct (EVA), at 1: 10 p.m. EDT (1710 GMT), about 30 minutes earlier than planned. Near the spacewalk’s cease, Cassidy and Behnken noticed some that you’re going to be ready to narrate oddities with the pins keeping the Quest airlock hatch in jam; the astronauts took photos for mission support a watch on to overview later. One more NASA spacewalk is planned for July 21.

Connected: Spacewalk pictures: World House Achieve will get a energy upgrade

Behnken and Cassidy, every on their ninth spacewalk, were firstly purported to buy away 5 of the six nickel-hydrogen batteries on the S6 truss. Nonetheless after 4.5 hours open air of the orbiting lab, they were an hour sooner than agenda and had time to kind out a diminutive extra work.

Calling to the duo from NASA’s Johnson House Center (JSC) in Houston, Canadian House Company astronaut Josh Kutryk relayed joyful news from floor groups.

“There could be a notion coming together down here to narrate doing the final battery,” acknowledged Kutryk, who was assigned to book the spacewalkers via their tasks. 

Minutes later, the astronauts dove in, speedy taking away the battery. The spacewalkers started joking in regards to the ease of their work: “There would possibly be bought to be one other removal. It by no technique ends.”

With laughter ringing at the support of him in mission support a watch on, Kutryk let the crew continue talking for a moment sooner than becoming a member of into the banter: “We cautiously allotment your optimism.”

It regarded the worst affirm the spacewalkers confronted was dealing with the gleaming solar while pulling the first fresh lithium-ion battery off an exterior pallet delivered by Canadarm2, a robotic arm directed by NASA astronaut Doug Hurley from contained within the ISS.

“You’ve got bought that solar,” Behnken commented while looking out at Cassidy, who was unbolting the battery while straight facing the sunshine.

“Worst solar you are going to be ready to enjoy,” Cassidy acknowledged, no longer transferring from his perch.

“Appropriate to your face,” Behnken confirmed.

Connected: The Expedition 63 mission to the World House Achieve in pictures

Cassidy performed the unbolting and in moderation eliminated his boots from a moveable foot restraint keeping him in jam. Floating free, he added, “I mediate there was an EVA questionnaire a pair of years ago asking, ‘Produce you if truth be told favor this laborious [spacesuit] visor?’ I mediate the acknowledge is yes, accurate admire in baseball.”

“Reproduction that,” Kutryk laconically answered.

Over the past 3.5 years, multiple spacewalk groups enjoy eliminated 48 frail ISS batteries and changed them with 24 fresh ones. One no longer too prolonged ago attach in lithium-ion battery shorted out in April 2019 and will doubtless be changed in some unspecified time in the future of a future spacewalk, a NASA TV broadcaster acknowledged.

The agency did not disclose a alternative date, but added that the contemporary battery is calling forward to installation on the dwelling location after being launched on a SpaceX robotic resupply mission in December 2019.

As soon as that final battery alternative is performed, the prolonged upgrade job will within the raze be entire, giving the dwelling location huge energy to continue work except its planned operational result in 2024. (A entire lot of companions, including NASA, are excited by extending ISS operations to no longer no longer up to 2028.)

Powering the placement depends upon on maintaining the batteries in upright form. The ISS passes into orbital darkness 16 instances a day because it circles our planet. When the placement’s photo voltaic panels are no longer in sing daylight, the batteries are wanted to distribute energy for experiments and total functions admire cooking. 

The contemporary lithium-ion batteries are rated to final 10 years and will due to this truth have to mute be changed less generally than the less efficient nickel-hydrogen batteries, which most intriguing enjoy about 6.5 years of recommended life. Among the older batteries are now on the exterior pallet, which would possibly later be released to burn up naturally in Earth’s ambiance. The quite a entire lot of frail batteries will doubtless be saved completely on the ISS.

This was the third spacewalk performed in some unspecified time in the future of the orbiting lab’s fresh Expedition 63, as Behnken and Cassidy also performed battery replacements on June 26 and July 1. All three spacewalks enjoy worked with lithium-ion batteries shipped to accommodate in Would possibly perchance perhaps perhaps aboard Japan’s HTV-9 robotic freighter.

Helping the crew at JSC was flight director Allison Bolinger, Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anne McClain, who served as ISS CapCom (“tablet communicator”). In dwelling, Hurley and Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner assisted with spacesuit operations.

Thursday’s tour was the 230th spacewalk total in increase of ISS assembly and operations, in step with statistics equipped in some unspecified time in the future of the NASA broadcast. 

Hurley and Behnken both arrived at the ISS on Would possibly perchance perhaps perhaps 31 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon tablet. Their Demo-2 test mission is SpaceX’s first-ever crewed spaceflight. Cassidy, Vagner and Russian cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin launched to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft April 9.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.