ISS - Expedition 50 Mission patch.
January 12, 2017
Expedition 50 astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet are ready for their mission’s second spacewalk that starts Friday at 7 a.m. EST. The duo will wrap up power maintenance work to connect new lithium-ion batteries and install adapter plates. Kimbrough and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson started that work last Friday during a six-hour, 32-minute spacewalk. Live broadcasting at: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Both spacewalks complement the ongoing robotics work that started at the end of December. Ground controllers have been remotely-operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm and Dextre robotic hand to remove and stow the old nickel-hydrogen batteries and the install the new batteries.
Image above: Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (center) assists spacewalkers Peggy Whitson (left) and Shane Kimbrough in the U.S. Quest airlock on Jan. 6, 2017. Image Credit: NASA.
The three cosmonauts have been staying focused on their set of Russian space research and lab maintenance. Station veterans Andrey Borisenko and Oleg Novitskiy collected blood samples for a pair human research studies looking at bone loss and stress responses caused by living in space. First-time station resident Sergy Ryzhikov explored chemical reactions caused by jet engine exhaust in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Related article:
U.S. and French Astronauts Prep for Friday Spacewalk
http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2017/01/us-and-french-astronauts-prep-for.html
Related Links:
Bone loss: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/21.html
Stress responses: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/human/22.html
Chemical reactions: http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/study/07.html
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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