NASA Is Ready to Resume Spacewalks After Investigation Into Scary Water Leak

NASA astronauts are on the point of spacewalk as soon as once more. The house company put a maintain on the extravehicular actions whereas it investigated a probably life-threatening drawback with the fits, however NASA says spacewalks outdoors the International Space Station can resume.

On Tuesday, NASA announced that it accomplished an investigation into the reason for a moisture layer constructing up contained in the helmets of astronauts throughout spacewalks. The flight readiness evaluation confirmed that there have been no {hardware} failures throughout the spacesuits, and that the “cause for the water in the helmet was likely due to integrated system performance where several variables such as crew exertion and crew cooling settings led to the generation of comparatively larger than normal amounts of condensation within the system,” NASA defined.

Upon the implementation of a number of fixes, NASA scheduled three upcoming spacewalks to complete photo voltaic array installations outdoors the ISS. The first of the three spacewalks will happen round mid-November, in keeping with NASA.

The final spacewalk earlier than the pause happened on March 23, when European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer observed some water inside his visor. The astronaut took images for the bottom management staff to research, however the house company stated the problem posed no menace to Maurer’s life on the time. Maurer and NASA astronaut Raja Chari had been in a position to end their seven-hour spacewalk outdoors the orbiting station, making ready the set up of the iROSA photo voltaic array.

NASA later declared the incident as a “close-call” and instantly halted all upcoming spacewalks till the problem was investigated. The spacesuit Maurer wore on the time was returned to Earth, together with water samples, for evaluation. “During the investigation, the space station team completed a detailed test, teardown, and evaluation of the water samples and suit hardware to determine what led to the observed water, which was more than normal, in the helmet,” NASA wrote within the assertion.

Based on its findings, the staff up to date operational procedures and arrange new mitigation {hardware} to keep away from water increase contained in the helmet, in addition to the absorption of any water that will leak in.

The newest incident wasn’t the primary time astronauts found water inside their helmets whereas performing upkeep work outdoors the ISS. Back in 2013, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano observed a water leak inside his helmet that pressured an early wrap-up to the spacewalk. Parmitano was in a position to re-enter the ISS airlock safely, however he had been having issue respiratory as 1.5 liters of water had fashioned inside his helmet.

The similar spacesuit was utilized by one other astronaut two years later—and it almost drowned him in house. After finishing a spacewalk, NASA astronaut Terry Virts observed free-floating droplets of water and a humid absorption pad in his helmet.

The spacesuits being donned by astronauts on board the ISS are greater than 40 years previous, and solely 18 usable spacesuits are on the orbiting house station right this moment, in keeping with a 2017 report.

NASA started creating new spacesuits in 2019 for astronauts to put on outdoors the ISS and for the company’s upcoming Artemis missions to the Moon, however funding shortages have delayed the fits’ deployment. Instead, the house company not too long ago partnered with two personal U.S. firms, Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, to develop its subsequent technology spacesuits. However, the brand new spacesuits gained’t be prepared earlier than 2025. In the meantime, astronauts will likely be pressured to don the identical spacesuits and maybe be on the lookout for water droplets inside their helmets.

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