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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.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 21 2021, @06:47PM (3 children)
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?
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @08:37PM (2 children)
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)
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.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 22 2021, @03:51AM
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.