Cosmonauts preparing for spacewalk to activate space stations European
Robotic Arm

Date:
Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:04:20 +0000

Description:
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev will carry out a spacewalk on Monday to The post Cosmonauts preparing for spacewalk to activate space stations European Robotic Arm appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev will carry out a spacewalk on Monday to prepare the International Space Stations new European Robotic
Arm for use. The cosmonauts are expected to exit the Poisk modules airlock at around 14:25 UTC and will spend over six and a half hours working outside the station to complete their objectives.



Mondays spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA) , will be the first
since Expedition 67 began aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of March. Designated Russian Segment EVA 52 (or RS VKD #52
vnekorabelnaya deyatelnost in Russian), it marks the 52nd Russian EVA to be made from the ISS and is part of a series of spacewalks to commission the Nauka and Prichal modules that were added to the Russian Orbital Segment last year.

Spacewalks have played an important role in the construction and ongoing upkeep of the International Space Station, with astronauts and cosmonauts performing work outside of the outposts pressurized modules to connect equipment, install and relocate hardware or carry out inspections and
repairs. Over 240 have been made at the ISS to date, including from the stations own Russian and international airlocks as well as from visiting
Space Shuttles before their retirement.

Mondays spacewalk is the first of two planned for April to begin
commissioning the European Robotic Arm (ERA). Artemyev and Matveev will venture outside the station again next Thursday to continue work on the robotic arm. A follow-up EVA is then planned for mid-May when Artemyev and
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will put the ERA through its paces. Render of a cosmonaut using the ERA, note this does not show the Prichal module now docked to Nauka (credit: ESA)

Contributed by the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Robotic Arm is one of three remote manipulator systems (RMS) aboard the ISS that can be used to grapple and relocate objects outside the station.

It will join the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), also known as Canadarm2 , which can translate across the US segment of the station and has been instrumental in constructing and maintaining the outpost, and a smaller robotic arm on the Japanese Kibo module that is used to tend to the experiments on that modules exposed facility. There are also a pair of hand-operated Strela telescopic cranes attached to the Russian Orbital Segment. See Also Russian EVA 52 Updates Expedition 67 Updates L2 ISS Section Click here to Join L2

The ERA launched along with the Nauka module last July , having been delayed many years as the host modules launch date kept slipping. The arm had been initially planned to launch with the Science Power Platform (SPP), a module that would have provided the Russian Orbital Segment with independent power generation capabilities. Roscosmos reached an agreement with NASA to draw power from the US Orbital Segment instead, leading to the SPPs cancellation and the transfer of the robotic arm to the Nauka module.

Commissioning Nauka has been a focus for many of Russias recent spacewalks at the ISS, with Aprils work on the robotic arm marking a significant milestone for the new modules activation. Once the ERA has been made operational, it will be used to help this process by aiding the transfer of equipment from
the Rassvet module which has been in orbit for over a decade awaiting Naukas arrival.

Rassvet was delivered to the space station in May 2010 by Space Shuttle Atlantis during its STS-132 mission. This carried with it several pieces of hardware in preparation for Naukas arrival, including an experiment airlock,
a deployable radiator, and a spare elbow joint for the ERA. The robot arm
will be used to help install the radiator and airlock on Nauka later in the commissioning process. Cosmonauts prepare for a previous spacewalk aboard Poisk (credit: NASA)

For Mondays spacewalk, the cosmonauts will be wearing Orlan-MKS spacesuits. Oleg Artemyevs suit, No.5, is marked with red identification stripes, while Denis Matveev is wearing suit No.4 which has blue stripes. Both cosmonauts arrived at the station on 18 March aboard Soyuz MS-21. Artemyev is a veteran of two previous missions, having served aboard the ISS during Expeditions 39 and 40 and again during Expeditions 55 and 56. Monday is his fourth
spacewalk, while it is the first for Matveev, who is on his first space mission.

The cosmonauts will begin the EVA by exiting the Poisk airlock module
located on the zenith, or Earth-opposed, side of the Zvezda module. Poisk is one of the space stations two crew airlocks, used for Russian EVAs, while the Quest airlock is used for US spacewalks. Poisk replaced the earlier Pirs module as the stations Russian airlock and also serves as a docking module.

Preparations for the EVA began well ahead of the spacewalk itself, with the cosmonauts undergoing fitness checks, preparing and inspecting their spacesuits and the tools and equipment they will take outside with them, and installing pressurization tanks in the airlock.

The US astronauts aboard the station have provided assistance to their
Russian colleagues, gathering tools and equipment from the US Orbital
Segment. These include power adaptors, helmet lights and cameras, and tethers used to ensure spacewalkers and their equipment cannot drift off into space. Tool gathering activities took place between 6 and 7 April, with the hardware being handed over to the Russian Orbital Segment to support Mondays EVA.

Russian EVAs begin with hatch opening and end when the hatch is closed, in contrast to US EVAs which are timed based on when the astronauts spacesuits were on internal power. After egressing the Poisk airlock, the cosmonauts
will traverse to their worksites on the Nauka module, which is docked on the opposite side of Zvezda at the nadir Earth-facing port, with the aid of one of the Strela cranes. Cosmonauts perform maintenance on a Strela crane in
2012 (credit: NASA)

The cosmonauts have several key objectives to complete to bring the European Robotic Arm closer to operation. They will install an external remote control panel the EVA Man-Machine Interface (EMMI) and connect it up to the arm. Artemyev and Matveev are also tasked with removing covers that protected the ERA during launch and its early time in orbit.

The EVA will also see the cosmonauts install handrails to support future work using the robotic arm. In all, they are expected to spend over six and a half hours outside, returning to the Poisk module once the planned activities have been completed. The EVA will end with the closure of Poisks external hatch.

This spacewalk comes during a particularly busy time for the Expedition 67 crew aboard the International Space Station, who are also preparing for the departure of Crew Dragon Endeavour from the station on Tuesday. Endeavour is due to return to Earth at the end of the Axiom-1 mission , which has been the first dedicated commercial scientific mission to the outpost .

The next EVA, continuing work to prepare the European Robotic Arm, is currently scheduled for next Thursday. In the meantime, another Crew Dragon
is scheduled to arrive at the station in the form of the new Freedom spacecraft on the Crew-4 mission, which will be bringing four new astronauts to crew the US Orbital Segment. This crew rotation on the US side of the station will be completed when Dragon Endurance returns to Earth at the end
of the month.

(Lead image: Cosmonauts work outside the Nauka module during an EVA earlier this year credit: NASA)

The post Cosmonauts preparing for spacewalk to activate space stations European Robotic Arm appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/04/cosmonauts-spacewalk-european-robotic- arm/


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