The view from a cosmonaut's helmet camera, as Oleg Skripochka retrieves the Kontur experiment from the outside of the space station. Photo Credit/NASA TV
Two Russian cosmonauts retrieved and installed external science experiments and fastened a work platform in place during a long spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Monday.
Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Skripochka confined their activities to the station’s Russian segment during the 6.5 hour excursion.
Two of their most interesting activities included the retrieval of Kontur, an engineering experiment to assess the use of external cameras and the Internet for the control of a robot arm. Engineers have been using control stations at Russia’s Mission Control Center near Moscow and in St. Petersburg, Russia to carry out the testing since last year.
The cosmonauts also collected samples from beneath the insulation covering two modules. The samples will be examined for the presence of micro-organisms in an environment that initially seems much too harsh for even a simple form of life to thrive.
Though they got off to a late start Monday, Yurchikhin and Skripochka proved to be able multi-taskers. avoiding problems until the very end of their outing.
The cosmonauts’ final task was the relocation of a video camera on the the station’s newest Russian module, the Rassvet docking and mini-research compartment. However, the spacewalkers were unable to clear away a piece of insulation at the new camera site.
The two men lugged the camera into the orbiting laboratory to await a second attempt at installation on another day.