Russian cosmonauts staying in the International Space Station recently halted their spacewalk ventures to install a robotic arm for the station due to a problem that occurred two hours into their mission. One of the cosmonaut's spacesuits saw a "voltage fluctuation" that alerted the team, and this resulted in the mission getting canceled right then and there.
Cosmonauts See Problem in Spacesuit, Cancels Spacewalk
According to a report by Gizmodo, the recent spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts that set out to do their mission earlier this Wednesday got canceled after a problem occurred while on the mission. A voltage fluctuation from cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev's spacesuit began to manifest due to low battery.
The cosmonaut was ordered to go back to the airlock after reporting his case to Mission Control. However, Artemyev continued to wrap things up for their mission, and this is when Mission Control forcefully asked him to go back and abandon what he was doing.
The power interruption or low batteries for a spacesuit is crucial for crewmembers, and it would first have the cosmonaut to lose his communications to Mission Control, then it may result to fan failure. Losing the fans in the suit would no longer ensure air circulation inside, causing the cosmonaut to have trouble breathing.
Spacesuit Problems Are Massive and Shouldn't be Ignored
According to NASA TV's live stream of the spacewalk, Mission Control terminated the mission at around two hours and 17 minutes into the mission, and it called back the two cosmonauts to the airlock. The abandoned mission's equipment was safely stowed for the next spacewalk that would install the European technology on the ISS.
NASA, Spacewalks, and Missions
A spacewalk is where an astronaut, cosmonaut, and other space crewmembers would go out of their vehicles or spacecraft to float around in space and do their mission or perform in the said environment. There are different purposes of the spacewalk, with some focusing on installing new equipment or technology to spacecraft or identifying problems in different modules.
The list goes on for the spacewalk missions available for the world now, and it does not focus on astronauts from NASA only.
SpaceX is one company that aims to perform a spacewalk with its civilian crewmembers, along with Jared Isaacman, set to happen in the coming months.
The Polaris Dawn mission would yet again fly with the Crew Dragon and have the team perform the first commercial spacewalk in history, signifying that space is for all.
Spacewalks are crucial as crewmembers put their lives on the line, and it is like having one foot planted in the grave as soon as they walk out of their chambers or vehicles for the venture. Even the smallest issue or anomaly would trigger the cancellation of their mission, something which the cosmonauts are fully aware of and would not risk in space.
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Written by Isaiah Richard
