 Feb.
3 Spacewalk to be an
Eye-Opener
Three will leave the airlock, but only two
will come back in.
Valery Tokarev and Bill McArthur are scheduled to step into space from
the Pirs airlock at about 5:20 p.m. EST Feb. 3. With them will be a third
Russian Orlan spacesuit, empty except for amateur radio and electronic
equipment that should attract considerable attention from students and
others around the world.
The spacewalk is expected to last about six hours. Tokarev, Expedition
12 flight engineer, is the lead spacewalker, EV-1. Both he and E12 Commander
McArthur will wear red-striped spacesuits.
The third spacesuit, near the end of its useful life, will be jettisoned
by Tokarev early in the spacewalk. That suit, called SuitSat-1, will remain
in its own orbit for as much as six weeks before re-entering the Earth's
atmosphere and burning.
For the first part of that time in orbit – for perhaps a week or
two – devices in the suit will broadcast recorded ham radio messages
in Russian, Japanese, Spanish, German, French and English. Most will be
voiced by students.
The transmission, possibly for as much as several weeks or for as little
as an hour (depending on battery life), will be on 145.990 MHz FM, in
the VHF or 2-meter part of the amateur radio band. Voice transmissions
also will include suit data, mission time, suit temperature and battery
voltage.
SuitSat-1, called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian, is sponsored
by ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), an international
working group made up of volunteers from national amateur radio societies,
including the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.
Tokarev will carefully jettison the SuitSat-1 in much the same way McArthur
jettisoned the Floating Potential Probe experiment during their November
spacewalk. He will push the suit away at about a 30-degree angle upward
and about 10 degrees to the left of the back of the station.
After the spacesuit jettison, the crew will relocate a boom adapter for
the Strela, a Russian hand-operated crane, from the Zarya module to Pressurized
Mating Adapter 3. That is being done to clear the Zarya area for temporary
stowage of protective debris panels for the Zvezda Service Module, to
be delivered on STS-116.
A two-hour task at the mobile transporter, which can provide a base for
the station's robotic arm for movement along the rails on the orbiting
laboratory's main truss, is next on the schedule.
On Dec. 16 one of two trailing umbilical system cables providing power,
data and video was severed by a device designed to cut the umbilical should
it become jammed.
A second cable provides the same links to the mobile transporter. Spacewalkers
will insert a bolt to eliminate the
risk of uncommanded cutting of the second, intact cable.
To replace the severed cable, a new umbilical assembly is scheduled to
be installed during Discovery's STS-121 mission to the station.
Back on the hull of the Zvezda service module, spacewalkers will retrieve
the Biorisk experiment, which looks at microorganisms in space. Next,
they'll photograph a sensor for a Russian Micrometeoroid Measuring System.
Tokarev and McArthur will inspect and/or photograph several areas on
Zvezda's exterior, including thrusters and nearby areas. They'll photograph
a ham radio antenna and a fuel drain outlet pipe, then retrieve a Kromka
panel, part of a thruster contamination experiment.
The spacewalkers will inspect their suits, wipe off suit gloves and then
jettison the towels before re-entering Pirs and closing its hatch.
This will be the second spacewalk for Tokarev and the fourth for McArthur.
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