NASA
imposed a hiatus on spacewalks this week as engineers hunt for the source of smoke-like
smell in a U.S. spacesuit used in a recent ground test.
The
self-imposed ban was prompted by an apparent U.S. spacesuit glitch during a
Friday test at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, space agency
officials said. It could be lifted as early as this week, clearing the way for astronauts
to stage two
planned spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS) next week,
they added.
"So
far, they have not found any evidence of a combustion event, and not found any
hardware damage," NASA spokesperson Brandi Dean told SPACE.com
Tuesday.
According
to a Monday ISS status report, an astronaut smelled a smoke-like smell inside a
NASA spacesuit while working inside a test-version of the station's U.S. Quest airlock.
The exercise is a standard activity to familiarize ISS astronauts with NASA's Extravehicular
Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, Dean said.
"During
the test, the astronaut smelled just a little bit of smoke," Dean said,
adding that even a slight odor is cause for concern given the spacesuit's 100
percent oxygen environment. "They got the crewmember out of there in less
than a minute."
NASA
imposed a ban on all U.S. spacewalks as a precaution in case Friday's glitch
was a sign of a generic flaw in the agency's spacesuits.
"Thus,
the on-orbit EMUs are No Go," stated Monday's status report.
Engineers
have performed a series of tests on the afflicted spacesuit and examined its
history to root out the origin of the smoke-like smell. Some possible sources
include the suit's carbon dioxide-scrubbing canister and the off-gassing of
heated materials, though additional analysis is still under way, Dean said.
Spacesuit
engineers will present their findings to a mishap investigation board on
Wednesday, she added.
NASA hopes
to clear its U.S. spacesuits for use soon to allow ISS Expedition
16 commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Dan Tani to step outside the
space station on Nov. 20 and Nov. 24 on a pair of critical spacewalks to attach
cooling and power system lines to the Harmony connecting node.
The astronauts
will move the node and its recently
attached shuttle docking port to the front of the station's U.S. Destiny
laboratory early Wednesday using the space station's robotic arm.
Any lengthy
delays to Expedition 16 crew's planned spacewalks next week could stall an
already hefty work schedule to ready the ISS for NASA's planned Dec. 6 launch
of the shuttle Atlantis to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory.
NASA is already working to cull five days' worth of work from the station
crew's schedule to allow Atlantis's STS-122 crew to launch during December's
slim, one-week window.
"The
main thing is getting the flight rationale," Dean said, adding that once
NASA engineers agree on that, the space station should be once again clear for spacewalks
in U.S. spacesuits.
NASA
will broadcast the Harmony node's move to the tip of the Destiny lab live on
NASA TV beginning at 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's ISS mission updates
and NASA TV feed.
advertisement
