No Heavy Breathing for Spacewalker
Cited: Reuters
Chris Cassidy, the elite Navy diver-turned-astronaut, got some advice from Nassau on his first spacewalk when they cut it short breathe easy. Apparently, near the end of his spacewalk eight carbon dioxide, a byproduct of breathing, started to build up in Cassidy’s suit. The Endeavor astronaut and his partner David Wolf were replacing batteries and solar power system aboard the international space station when the canister of lithium hydroxide began to malfunction. The poisonous gas, carbon dioxide, is supposed to be removed from the sealed spacesuit by the canister of lithium hydroxide.
Engineers believe Cassidy’s enthusiastic and strenuous start to his outing led to a failure of the canister later in the spacewalk. Cassidy was never in any danger, as the spacewalk was canceled before the carbon dioxide levels came anywhere close to being a concern.
“There’s a feature with how the lithium hydroxide works where if you go out and have a very high metabolic rate at the very beginning then the canister doesn’t work as well for the duration,” space station flight director Holly Ridings said. “Chris is a Navy SEAL,” Ridings said, referring to the U.S. Navy’s Special Forces who operate on sea, air and land. “He’s in great shape and so we really just needed to tell him, ‘Hey, we know you can do this really well and really fast, but we need the (canister) to work right, so just slow down a little and take your time.’ He took that with good humor,” Ridings said.
Cassidy and crewmate Tom Marshburn were scheduled for an extended 7 1/2-hour spacewalk a couple of days later to finish replacing batteries in the solar power system aboard the International Space Station. At the end of that week, a Russian cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with more than 2,700 pounds (1,215 kg) of equipment and supplies, as well as 1,800 pounds (810 kg) of fuel for the station’s steering thrusters.
The outing, by shuttle Endeavour’s lead spacewalker David Wolf and rookie astronaut Chris Cassidy, was called off shortly before 4 p.m. (2000 GMT) as the astronauts were replacing batteries in the station’s solar power system.
Two of four batteries were installed when Mission Control told the crew to head back to the airlock. They had been spacewalking for about six hours when Cassidy’s suit began having problems. Sensors showed a buildup of carbon dioxide. The gas, a byproduct of breathing, typically is chemically removed by a canister of lithium hydroxide.
“It seems like the canister itself is experiencing some problems,” astronaut Aki Hoshide radioed to the Endeavour crew from Mission Control in Houston.
“It’s not an imminent failure,” Hoshide added. “We just wanted to make sure that you guys are back in the airlock.” The spacewalk was the third of five planned during shuttle Endeavour’s ongoing mission at the space station. The vessel is scheduled to dock at the orbital outpost the day after the shuttle Endeavour crew departs.
FUEL TANK FOAM TEST PASSED
In addition, tests on the fuel tank earmarked for NASA’s next space shuttle launch in August show no problem with how the insulating foam is bonded to the tank, an agency spokesman stated. The test result could clear a hurdle for NASA’s next shuttle launch.
NASA ordered tests of the fuel tank scheduled for use during the shuttle Discovery’s launch to station after an unusually large amount of foam fell off the shuttle Endeavour’s tank during its launch last week.
NASA has been fastidious about in-flight debris since losing the shuttle Columbia in 2003. A piece of foam that fell off Columbia’s tank during launch smashed into the ship’s wing, breaching a heat-resistant panel. The shuttle broke apart as it flew through the atmosphere for landing 16 days later, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Most of the foam shed during Endeavour’s climb into orbit on July 15 fell off so late during ascent that there was not enough atmospheric force for free-flying debris to slam into the ship and cause damage. NASA, however, wants to be sure that whatever problem triggered the foam loss on Endeavour does not reoccur, especially while the shuttle is in the early phases of launch when debris impacts could do harm.
Engineers believe a bonding problem may have triggered the foam loss on Endeavour’s tank. Tests at the shuttle tank manufacturing plant outside New Orleans show normal adhesion of the foam on Discovery’s fuel tank, said Steve Roy, a spokesman with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which oversees shuttle fuel tank production.
“That’s what we expected to see and that’s what we saw,” Roy told Reuters.
NASA believes that additional samples from Discovery’s tank foam may aid in discovering the problem with further testing. This means that the issue has not been resolved. NASA will continue to search for the cause of the Endeavor’s foam loss.
“We have not determined the root cause yet,” Roy said.
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My Take: I think it is funny that NASA tells an astronaut to breathe easy when there is something wrong with their breathing apparatus. Thank goodness, those astronauts are trained to relax in extreme situations. Someone told me that and I would probably start breathing harder. With all the gear that those guys have to wear, it is a wonder that they can even move.
They must have to wear flame resistant coveralls under that suit as well as flame resistant underwear. I understand they even wear a diaper when they are doing a spacewalk. That makes sense, since they cannot just go into the nearest bathroom and take care of it. I just wonder if those coveralls are made by Carhartt. They do make the best flame resistant clothing.
As for their fuel tank repairs, they definitely do not want another disaster up there. The last one cost this country too much and I do not mean financially. It will be a great day when this country finally gets it safe enough for the average citizen to travel into space. Of course, I will be too old when that day arrives and my dream of going to space will remain just that, a dream.
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