This story was updated at 1:37 a.m. EDT March 17.
HOUSTON - A
new mechanical handyman perched outside the International Space Station (ISS)
is in fine shape after a Sunday health check-up as astronauts prepare to
complete its assembly in a spacewalk, mission managers said.
Astronauts
inside the station remotely tested the brakes in the arm joints of Canada's massive
Dextre maintenance robot and geared up for a Monday spacewalk to attach its
tool belt and other hardware.
"It was a
good day," said Pierre Jean, acting ISS program manager for the Canadian Space
Agency, which built the two-armed Dextre robot.
Jean said
Dextre easily passed each of its electronic systems checks, with all but one of
14 intricate joints passing brake tests earlier today. The brake on a wrist
pitch joint at the end of the robot's 11-foot (3.4-meter) left arm slipped
slightly more than the general acceptable limit, but the glitch is not expected
to be a lasting concern.
"This is
something that we're very confident that is not going to be an issue," Jean
said in a briefing here at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The 12-foot
(3.7-meter) tall Dextre (pronounced "Dexter") weighs 3,440 pounds (1,560 kilograms)
and sports two, dexterous hands designed to replace the role of a spacewalking
astronaut on simple fix-it jobs outside the space station. The more than $200-million
robot is Canada's third major contribution to the ISS and joins the
Canadian-built Canadarm2 arm and a Mobile Base System for the robotic
appendages.
Endeavour
shuttle astronauts
attached Dextre's arms during a Saturday spacewalk after an earlier
excursion to attach hands to each of the limbs. Commanded by veteran spaceflyer
Dominic Gorie, Endeavour's STS-123 crew is in the midst of 16-day mission to
deliver Dextre, the first
piece of Japan's three-segment Kibo laboratory and spare parts to the ISS over
the course of five spacewalks.
Earlier
today, newly arrived ISS flight engineer Garrett Reisman and shuttle astronaut
Robert Behnken put Dextre through its meticulous brake tests, moving the seven
joints on each of the robot's arms in tiny increments.
"We're just jumping the gun having fun moving the arms," Reisman told Mission Control. "It was really
neat for us to see [Dextre] come to life."
Reisman arrived
at the station aboard Endeavour last week and will stay aboard to relieve French
astronaut Leopold Eyharts as a member of the station's Expedition 16 crew. Eyharts
will return to Earth with Endeavour's STS-123 crew on March 26.
Behnken and
fellow spacewalker Rick Linnehan will attach more pieces to Dextre during a Monday
spacewalk, the third of five planned for the STS-123 mission, which will
include the addition of a tool carrier, a spare parts platform and the removal
of several thermal covers. The robot has fully recovered
from a power glitch, since traced to a faulty cable on its carrier
platform, which delayed its activation last week. The hefty repair robot has
gained the nickname "Mr. Dextre" from its flesh-and-blood astronaut crewmates.
"We've
worked on Dextre for about 10 years now," said Jean, adding that the station's Canadarm2
is still referred to as 'it.' "I guess as we started treating it like one of the
gang. Dextre has become kind of an entity."
NASA is
broadcasting Endeavour's STS-123 mission live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's
shuttle mission coverage and NASA TV feed.
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