I hint about the only person around it doesn't have TV coverage of the things
that man got the black up now you're gonna be getting a TV picture now
they'll yes we are getting a TV picture
one all
yeah
ok I've got another the year was nineteen sixty-five astronaut head white
was the first American ever to venture out of the safety of a spacecraft for 23
minutes he was the spacecraft conducting the first extra vehicular activity or
evaa many more would follow astronauts dawn spacesuits to explore the moon
during Apollo to perform repairs in the first u.s. space station Skylab in the
nineteen seventies and to perform all inspiring meats from the space shuttle
from flying in space untethered to capturing a faulty satellite by hand
got a light but the greatest challenge for spacewalkers lies ahead with the
Assembly of the International Space Station the biggest spacecraft ever
built
astronauts will assemble the station in Earth orbit largely by hand
assisted by a new generation of space robotics hundreds of cables and lines
carrying our fluids gases and communications will be manually
connected during 75 different spacewalks for a total of over 500 hours more
spacewalking hours than NASA has conducted in its entire history it will
be one of the most exciting and difficult challenges ever confronted in
orbit for almost the past decade
nASA has been preparing for the new era of EA and arrow astronauts will turn
Earth orbit into a hands-on construction site special tools techniques and
equipment have been designed and regularly tested in space as nASA has
geared up for the job
one of the first challenges to overcome was the location of the worksite
the space shuttle will carry its orbital construction workers 250 miles above the
earth where the astronauts assembling the station will encounter new
temperature extremes for space and I think we've had the test two in the
neighborhood of 250 275 degrees below zero and in the other extreme it can be
200 or more degrees above zero to prepare for station construction space
suits were redesigned so that astronauts could lower the cooling in the suit
during the frigid orbital nights and activate fingertip meters in the gloves
astronaut mike Earnhardt tested the improved suit for a short period time
about 25 minutes or so I was up on the arm in the coldest possible place on the
shadow and it turned out these modifications were wonderful i was
completely comfortable to make better workflows for astronauts new helmet
lights new tool holders and other improvements have been added to the
spaces so some space suits can remain on the station for maintenance tasks a
resizing capability has even been added so different crew members can fit into
the same suit saving space and lowering costs in addition to suit enhancements
for spacewalks a variety of power tools pliers and wrenches and developed
specifically designed for the nuts-and-bolts worth of station assembly
NASA also has addressed the problem of how to carry those rules across the
length of the station which is equal to the size of a football field we needed a
more efficient way for the crew members to be able to transport themselves and
tools and repair parts around on the outside of the station and i sat down
with the station personnel and basically on the back of a piece of paper sketched
out what eventually became the sea the card crew and equipment translation
assembly in 1991 three versions of the cart were tested in the shuttle payload
Bay one even resembling a railroad cart the final decision was to use the manual
powered Sita cart which will allow astronauts to slide themselves and their
tools along the 350 foot trust of the station working with tools in the
weightlessness of space can present own unique challenges for astronauts
the biggest thing that is different space is that you really have to be
careful about starting a rate that is if you start to spin around you're gonna
keep spinning until you can grab something and stop that to provide an
anchor point for astronauts widget tethers portable work platforms and foot
restraints have been developed and tested and will become a standard during
station assembly the space tools and equipment will assist astronauts with a
primary task to connect hundreds of wires and cables creating a network for
our communications fluids and gases running along the outside of the station
shuttle astronauts have already practiced and tested techniques in space
to fasten peoples and connect fluid and power lines in addition the hubble space
telescope servicing missions added important experience in making cable
connections astronauts discovered that flexible bundles of cables can become as
stiff as lead pipes in the children's space and repetitive connecting tasks
can cause and fatigue when working in bulky pressurized gloves new measures
have been developed to ensure the astronauts safety during Space Station
construction as well a primary concern is staying connected to the station
unlike the Space Shuttle the station cannot retrieve an astronaut ed drifts
away astronauts have tested various types of tethers for station assembly
but should someone become disconnected from the spacecraft a special space life
jacket has been developed called safer during flight test for safer astronaut
Mark Lee found that matter which direction he was turned the safer could
always help him find his way on you had an attitude holds you can hit the
attitude holding whether what it would do is stop you you may be stopping when
you're looking out and you know in deep space and you realize all the shuttles
and back and so you turn around once you get references then you can orient
yourself and fly back even with shuttle flights to prepare for station assembly
building a space station takes practice
the neutral buoyancy lab at the Johnson Space Center has been called the biggest
swimming pool in the world
the 6.5 million gallon facility was constructed specifically for astronauts
to rehearse spacestation assembly tasks the best way that we have found here on
the ground to replicate its best we can what it's like to actually be in zero
gravity of space and be in your space suit and do an EVP a or spacewalk is to
put a crew member into a spacesuit put them into the water at 40 feet deep the
pool is large enough to house full scale replicas of the giant space station
components providing astronauts a realistic setting for their training
during assembly the astronauts won't be alone
they will be joined by robots the shuttles canadian-built robot arm which
has demonstrated time and again its ability to deploy and retrieve large
satellites will be used to maneuver large pieces of the station for the big
tasks you get the robot to do it just like a construction site on earth you
get the crane to lift the heavy pc put in place and then once it's in place
someone comes in and does up the bolts and plugs it in and and if something's
not working right they can get in there by hand and fix it
eventually the space station will receive its own robot are also built by
canada representing the next generation in robotics it will have war
capabilities specifically designed for station assembly and me it's got more
joints more articulating in other words it has the ability to abandon more
places than the shoulder elbow and wrist that this shuttle on has the new arm
will even have the ability to attach itself on one and then disconnect on the
other end effectively inchworm me across the station a new robotic canada hand
can be attached to the end of the arm for work and intricate tasks that were
impossible for past robotics as robotic arms and hands assist during station
assembly and maintenance robotic eyes will give astronauts a new visual
advantage a small free-flying basketball-sized robot called AirCam
will be used to conduct up-close site surveys of the station and assist in
EPA's by broadcasting video back to station crews are ground control
the little robots views may cut down the amount of time humans up to spend
conducting spacewalks another set of ours called the space vision system will
provide far more than just pictures tested on several shuttle missions
the system uses targets the shuttles payload Bay cameras and a series of
computers to create an artificial image of a module providing precision
information to the robot arm operator where it should be moved the
international space station will be covered with clothes to 250 space vision
system targets to help astronauts with assembly just as astronauts rehearse on
the earth for spacewalking robotic assembly operations must also be
practiced at the Johnson Space Center astronauts use giant inflatable balloons
to stand in for Station modules giving them a chance to practice robot arm
operations in addition a domed a simulator uses computer animation to
allow astronauts to rehearse the assembly missions with realistic visuals
training in the simulators and the real-space experience gained from past
shuttle flights are all coming together preparing astronauts in the best ways
possible for the assembly work that lies ahead for considerably smarter
it's been an evolutionary process we continue to get better tools better
equipment better procedures we do have a tremendous challenge ahead of us is
going to be one more exciting . manned spaceflight for facing those challenges
there will be rewards the Assembly of the International Space Station will
create a state-of-the-art laboratory complex in space to study medicine
science and the environment a cooperative effort of 15 nations it is
the most complex international project ever conducted
ultimately the lessons learned and the technology developed from building the
station will also help blazed the trail for further exploration beyond Earth's
orbit it gives all of us working on carrying human presence father in the
solar system much more experience and experience that really we can't do it
out if you want to
back out to noon or way out into space to visit Mars one day there's really a
an unavoidable path that you have to go through to gain that experience and
space station provides that stepping stone to to go down
person around it doesn't have TV coverage of the face and it man you got
the black up now you're gonna feel better in the morning TV picture never
fail us we are getting
one all
family