Космический обход астронавтов, утечка, детектор окончательной фиксации за пределами международной космической станции

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(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector birth air the Global Map Space on Saturday, finishing up a sequence of complex repairs to present the instrument original life.

The $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer could well more than probably resume its hunt for elusive antimatter and dark matter by midweek.

Team people spherical the sphere expressed reduction as NASA’s Andrew Morgan and Italy’s Luca Parmitano wrapped up work on the spectrometer. It used to be their fourth and remaining spacewalk since November to revive the instrument’s crippled cooling machine.

“Congratulations … the AMS pump machine is now leak tight,” tweeted the European Group for Nuclear Be taught, or CERN, which helps speed the spectrometer.

Mission Defend an eye on cautioned it used to be too soon to direct success with the narrate scheme’s premier science instrument, nonetheless favorite: “It aloof has a appropriate heartbeat.”

Final month, Morgan and Parmitano set in original coolant pumps on the spectrometer. They went lend a hand out Saturday to envision for any leaks within the plumbing.

Parmitano rapidly came all the blueprint through a leak in a single among the eight coolant lines — the first one he examined — and tightened the right. “Our day appropriate obtained a small bit extra anxious,” Mission Defend an eye on observed.

The road aloof leaked after a compulsory one-hour wait, and Parmitano tightened it all another time. At remaining, success — the leak used to be long previous. “Allow us to all buy a breath,” Mission Defend an eye on suggested. By then, the astronauts had been already halfway into their six-hour spacewalk.

Mission Defend an eye on acknowledged the leak added some undesirable “drama” to the spacewalk. “Everyone’s hearts stopped,” Mission Defend an eye on suggested the astronauts. Parmitano puzzled aloud what his heart price used to be when the leak erupted. “It both flat-lined or spiked, one among the two.”

“It used to be exhausting fought this day, in reality successfully performed. Frosty heads prevailed,” Mission Defend an eye on acknowledged as the spacewalk drew to a shut.

Barring extra peril, the spectrometer — launched to the narrate scheme in 2011 — could well more than probably dangle its coolant lines crammed with extra carbon dioxide Sunday. One pump will be turned on as early as Monday and the relaxation three Tuesday. That can even lead to the resumption of science observations by Wednesday.

NASA described the spectrometer spacewalks as the most hard for the explanation that Hubble Map Telescope restore missions a couple a long time ago. Not like Hubble, this spectrometer used to be never intended for astronaut going through in orbit, and as soon because it began faltering in 2014, it took NASA years to space a restore thought.

Morgan and Parmitano had to slash lend a hand into chrome steel pipes to circumvent the spectrometer’s damaged-down, degraded coolant pumps on a outdated spacewalk. Then they spliced the tubes into the original pumps — no easy job when working in elephantine gloves. New instruments wanted to be created for the intricate job.

“We did it. We all did it,” Morgan acknowledged as soon as he used to be lend a hand interior.

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Astronaut Jessica Meir favorite that the day ended up being extra attention-grabbing than someone envisioned. “However you guys rolled with your full punches and obtained the job performed.. … Dinner is ready,” she acknowledged.

The massive 7 1/2-ton (6,800-kilogram) spectrometer used to be launched to the narrate scheme on NASA’s next-to-remaining shuttle flight. Till it used to be shut down late remaining 365 days for the restore work, it had studied better than 148 billion charged cosmic rays. The mission is led by Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The repairs must allow the spectrometer to proceed working for the relaxation of the lifetime of the narrate scheme, or but another five to 10 years. It used to be designed to characteristic for easiest three years.

NASA’s two other astronauts on board, Meir and Christina Koch, performed two spacewalks over the final 1 1/2 weeks to upgrade the narrate scheme’s listing voltaic vitality machine.

Altogether, this scheme crew went out on nine spacewalks — or 61 hours in full. That’s better than every other scheme expedition.

Parmitano, Koch and Russian Alexander Skvortsov return to Earth in lower than two weeks.

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TheAssociated PressWell being and Science Department receives pork up from the Howard Hughes Scientific Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is totally accountable for all recount material.

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