CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. You could call it the next best thing to being there.
In what promises to be a stunning space-program first, NASA spacewalkers Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega will wear "helmet-cams" during shuttle Endeavours upcoming construction mission at the International Space Station.
Armchair astronauts, consequently, will have an unprecedented opportunity to vicariously tag along as the spacewalkers scale the 13-story station during a dramatic bid to raise a $600 million electrical power tower at the growing outpost.
Tanner, Noriega and three other astronauts are scheduled to board Endeavour and blast off Thursday from NASAs Kennedy Space Center, setting sail on a two-day trip to the station, which is now occupied by its first full-time resident crew.
Over the following week, the pair plans to perform a trio of spacewalks primarily aimed at mounting a giant pair of solar panels that will stretch some 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip once unfurled in space. Their part of the job will involve scurrying up to the top of the towering station to help install a massive girder-like truss that houses the folded up arrays, the mast they will be deployed upon, and associated equipment.
Among other things, the spacewalkers will be crawling around the outside of the station to wire up the solar panels so that electricity generated by them can be routed into the outpost to run critical systems. All the while, Tanner and Noriega each will be wearing helmets outfitted with three lipstick cameras similar to those worn by professional football players, or mounted within racecars on the NASCAR circuit. Noriega said he expects that footage beamed back to Earth and broadcast on NASA TV which is carried live on SPACE.com will prove to be eye opening at the very least.
"Youre going to be able to see the true size [of the station]," Noriega told SPACE.com. Particularly breathtaking should be the view from above as the spacewalkers perched atop the outpost gaze back down to their shuttle mothership some 90 feet (27.3 meters) below. "You can see the entire orbiter and realize how far away we really are, and I think thats going to make the first big impression," Noriega said.
Identical to small cameras NASA uses to capture "inside the cockpit" and "final approach" footage during shuttle launches and landings, the helmet-cams have obvious public relations value. But both Tanner and Noriega say the wireless video system also provides the space agency with an important engineering tool.
With the station beginning to expand at a rapid pace, NASA no longer will be able to rely on shuttle cargo bay and robot arm cameras to get up close pictures when something appears to be amiss during a spacewalk.
Say, for example, spacewalkers working at the top of the station run into trouble connecting electrical cables. Without the helmet-cams, spacewalkers might have to spend a lengthy time trying to describe the apparent problem to ground controllers to come up with a remedy.
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"You dont want to clobber the airwaves describing a problem. Now with the cameras, you can quickly get the message across as to what youre seeing," Noriega said. Added Tanner: "Its a tool for engineering and operations that has been needed for a long time."
The helmet-cams, however, do present a couple of potential drawbacks.
First, for the sake of the viewing public, Tanner and Noriega will have to consciously avoid quick, jerky movements during their spacewalking work outside the station. "We promise to make all our movements nice and slow and steady so nobody gets sick looking at the pictures," Tanner joked.
An even bigger potential downside, though, is the mere fact that the entire world will have instant and unprecedented insight into the astronauts job performance. "Im not sure if thats good or bad," Tanner said, "but youll be able to follow the spacewalk right along with what were doing."
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