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posted by martyb on Monday June 21 2021, @12:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the moah-powah dept.

ESA/NASA complete ISS spacewalk to install first new solar array

Two astronauts went outside the International Space Station (ISS) to complete installation of the first of six new Boeing-built solar arrays — part of a program to increase the station's electrical power generation capacity as its science and research demands increase and future expansion plans continue.

The Extravehicular Activity (EVA) – officially known as US EVA-75 – began at 11:42 UTC / 07:42 EDT when Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Shane Kimbrough from NASA took their spacesuits to battery power before exiting the Quest Airlock to begin their work.

The eight original Solar Array Wings (SAWs) on the ISS, which each produce around 30 kilowatts (kW) of power for a total of about 250kW are beginning to show signs of degradation, with the oldest array now having been in space since 2000 when the P6 truss and associated arrays was delivered to the station by Shuttle Endeavour's STS-97 crew.

With over 20 years of use, and normal degradation of solar arrays, the eight SAWs now only produce around 160kW of power – against a backdrop of rising power demands from the station's increasing users.

The new arrays will bring it back up to 215 kW.

Future expansion plans? I thought it was still at risk of being deorbited after 2030.


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @01:29PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @01:29PM (#1147654)

    >> against a backdrop of rising power demands from the station's increasing users.

    Why the fuck are they allowing astronauts to mine for bitcoin?

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:53PM (#1147677)

      Why the fuck are they allowing astronauts to mine for bitcoin?

      Because it's going to the moon!!!

    • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday June 21 2021, @03:13PM

      by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @03:13PM (#1147684)

      > Why the fuck are they allowing astronauts to mine for bitcoin?

      Because they'll make enough money to fund it for decades, or at least buy a few Teslas. ALL the ISS's bitcoin mining will be solar powered and carbon neutral, no question, there simply isn't any other power connection to it, so Musk will be happy with those bitcoin so Tesla will start taking them as payment, so price will rise... and profit.

  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:13PM (#1147663)

    I like to lick it and stick it.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @10:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @10:51PM (#1147859)

      Inherited a big stash of old postage stamps (a couple of thousand bucks worth). I'll be licking and sticking for years.
      No idea what this has to do with space cells...

  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Monday June 21 2021, @02:35PM (10 children)

    by looorg (578) on Monday June 21 2021, @02:35PM (#1147670)

    Future expansion plans? I thought it was still at risk of being deorbited after 2030.

    Probably. But they are also probably going to have to keep it around there with space-duct-tape if they have to cause they can't allow China to be or operate the only space station around. So until a new space station, under their control -- ESA/NASA, is ready they are going to be patching the ISS. In the end it will probably turn into a MIR-style death trap.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @02:43PM (8 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @02:43PM (#1147672) Journal

      Maybe SpaceX can construct their own for profit space station for a rest and refueling stop on the way to the moon or Mars.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Monday June 21 2021, @02:47PM (7 children)

        by looorg (578) on Monday June 21 2021, @02:47PM (#1147675)

        I wouldn't rule out that Musk or Branson or one of those space-billionaires decide to build their own space station.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @02:54PM (1 child)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @02:54PM (#1147678) Journal

          Same. In fact, I would be surprised if they didn't in the long run. Maybe a collaboration even. Round trip frights to the moon.

          Meanwhile SLS will have its maiden flight. With an astounding launch cadence of about one launch per year with a per launch cost that can be economically kept down to the single digit billions of dollars per launch.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @10:53PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @10:53PM (#1147861)

            > Round trip frights to the moon.

            Apollo 13 forever!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @03:43PM (4 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @03:43PM (#1147692)

          Building space stations doesn't get Musk to Mars so he isn't interested, though he would happily launch them. If Branson or the like invests in Bigelow Aerospace and gets them into production then it could happen fairly quickly.

          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @04:35PM (3 children)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @04:35PM (#1147709) Journal

            Starlink doesn't get Musk to Mars either. But the profit from it does.

            Now if a space station could generate billions of dollars in annual profits, like Starlink should eventually do, Musk might view it as a way to accelerate or fund his Mars ambitions.

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday June 21 2021, @06:50PM (2 children)

              by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday June 21 2021, @06:50PM (#1147776)

              Space station can be pretty cheap - in the early days they planned to make SkyLab out of an old fuel tank (launch with the fuel, the empty can becomes the station). So it costs approx the same as a single non-reusable launch.

              • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @07:05PM (1 child)

                by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @07:05PM (#1147783) Journal

                It seems a usable space station is much more than an empty can that once held fuel. The fuel typically would be in pressure vessels within the can, and not easily removed on orbit, making the can not-empty even if the fuel/ox vessels are empty.

                --
                People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @02:59PM (#1147680)

      So until a new space station, under their control -- ESA/NASA, is ready they are going to be patching the ISS. In the end it will probably turn into a MIR-style death trap.

      MIR was not so much of a death trap except for that massive collision with their autonomous Progress. And a fire problem.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir#Safety_aspects [wikipedia.org]

      So, 5 years turned to 15 years. ISS is seems to be designed for 15 years. So, probably de-orbit will be around 2045 and by then we can expect fleets of 1000s of Starships heading for Mars.

      https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5861/what-is-the-theoretical-life-of-the-iss [stackexchange.com]
      https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-mars-city-1000-starship [futurism.com]

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @06:47PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @06:47PM (#1147775) Journal

    Is it possible that having more available power on ISS could enable new types of experiments?

    Or new modules to be added to replace ancient modules over time?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @08:37PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @08:37PM (#1147811)

      That's the problem the ISS has always had, which is finding experiments for it. There are very few experiments that can uniquely be done on the ISS that can't be done on Earth. The ISS has a sordid history of selling itself on its unique scientific merits, but it was always a house of cards. They shamelessly pushed various things like protein and crystal growth as well as other materials science, hyping the "breakthroughs" only to find out that these "breakthroughs" were done on the Earth and just run again on orbit.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @09:35PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 21 2021, @09:35PM (#1147840) Journal

        The space station was justified because the shuttle needed a place to go.

        The shuttle was justified because we needed some way to service the space station.

        It's not circular logic, it's no lose ends. We've got nothing to loose by funding both.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 22 2021, @03:51AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 22 2021, @03:51AM (#1147926) Journal

          It's not circular logic, it's no lose ends. We've got nothing to loose by funding both.

          The argument does have a bit of curvature though maybe due to some high rate spinning. Might need to recover those lose ends that flew off.

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