posted 11-14-2019 08:23 PM               

Expedition 61: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer repair spacewalks

Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station for a series of complex spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a cosmic ray detector.

At least four spacewalks currently are planned before the end of this year, the first of which will be conducted Friday, Nov. 15.

Over the course of the spacewalks, Expedition 61 commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and flight engineer Andrew Morgan of NASA will replace a cooling system and fix a coolant leak on AMS, which was delivered to the station in May 2011. The upgraded cooling system will support AMS through the lifetime of the space station.

These spacewalks are considered the most complex of their kind since the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions, which took place between 1993 and 2009. The AMS originally was designed for a three-year mission and, unlike Hubble, was not designed to be serviced once in space. More than 20 unique tools were designed for the intricate repair work, which will include the cutting and splicing of eight cooling tubes to be connected to the new system, and reconnection of a myriad of power and data cables. Astronauts have never cut and reconnected fluid lines during a spacewalk.

Parmitano and Morgan have spent dozens of hours training specifically for the AMS repair spacewalks. NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will help Parmitano and Morgan suit up for the spacewalks and will maneuver the Canadarm2 robotic arm to help position the spacewalkers around the AMS repair worksite. Parmitano has conducted two spacewalks in his career and Morgan has logged three spacewalks since his arrival on the station in July.

AMS – whose principal investigator is Nobel laureate physicist Samuel Ting – was constructed and tested, and is operated by an international team of 56 institutes from 16 countries organized under U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science sponsorship. AMS has been capturing high-energy cosmic rays to help researchers answer fundamental questions about the nature of antimatter, the unseen "dark matter" that makes up most of the mass in the universe, and the even-more-mysterious dark energy that is speeding up the expansion of the cosmos. AMS is managed by the AMS Integration Project Office at Johnson.

posted 11-15-2019 06:48 AM               

Astronauts Drew Morgan of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) ventured outside the International Space Station starting at about 6:39 a.m. EST (1139 GMT) on Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, to begin repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument.

posted 11-15-2019 12:25 PM               

Astronauts on complex spacewalk prepare AMS cosmic ray detector for repair

Astronauts working outside of the International Space Station have completed the first in a series of at least four complex spacewalks to repair a state-of-the-art cosmic ray detector.

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and astronaut Drew Morgan of NASA got off to a good start on Friday (Nov. 15) on what has been described as the most challenging spacewalks since the servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope more than a decade ago. Over the course of 6 hours and 39 minutes, the two Expedition 61 crew members began the tasks needed to replace the failing cooling system for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion science instrument that was not designed to be worked on in space.

posted 11-21-2019 11:43 PM               

Astronauts Andrew Morgan of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) ventured outside the International Space Station starting at 7:02 a.m. EST (1202 GMT) on Friday (Nov. 22) to continue repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument.

posted 11-22-2019 12:45 PM               

Astronauts cut coolant lines on 2nd spacewalk to repair cosmic ray detector

Two astronauts have completed "surgery" outside of the International Space Station, slicing small metal tubes as part of the efforts to repair a state-of-the-art cosmic ray detector.

Expedition 61 crewmates Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Drew Morgan with NASA ventured outside of the space station on Friday (Nov. 22) for a 6 hour and 33 minute extravehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk). The excursion continued the work they began one week ago to replace the failing cooling system for the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).

posted 12-01-2019 11:21 PM               

Astronauts Andrew Morgan of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) ventured outside the International Space Station on Monday (Dec. 2) at 6:31 a.m. EST (1131 GMT) to continue repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) instrument.

posted 12-02-2019 11:50 AM               

Spacewalkers splice in new pumps to repair AMS cosmic ray detector

Astronauts successfully transplanted a new coolant pump system outside of the International Space Station, completing the third in a series of at least four challenging spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector.

Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Andrew Morgan with NASA continued performing "surgery" on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on Monday (Dec. 2), two weeks after they began the complicated effort to replace the cooling system for the state-of-the-art science instrument. The AMS, which was installed in 2011 to search of "dark matter" and "dark energy," was in danger of being permanently disabled had the Upgraded Tracker Thermal Pump System (UTTPS) not been installed.

posted 01-25-2020 08:38 AM               

Spacewalkers work to verify repairs on AMS

Expedition 61 crewmates Drew Morgan and Luca Parmitano returned to working outside of the International Space Station on Saturday (Jan. 25) to verify the replacement cooling system they earlier installed for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a cosmic ray detector.

The spacewalk, which began at 7:04 a.m. EST (1205 GMT), is focused on conducting leak checks for the spectrometer's refurbished carbon dioxide coolant lines.

Morgan is designated extravehicular crewmember 1 (EV 1), wearing the suit with red stripes. Parmitano is designated extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing the suit with no stripes.

posted 01-25-2020 01:26 PM               

Astronauts on spacewalk wrap AMS repair

Expedition 61 crewmates Drew Morgan and Luca Parmitano concluded their fourth spacewalk together on Saturday (Jan. 25) at 1:20 p.m. EST (1820 GMT).

During the 6 hour, 16 minute spacewalk, the two astronauts successfully completed leak checks for the cooling system on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and opened a valve to begin pressurizing the system. Preliminary tests showed AMS was responding as expected.

Ground teams will work over the next several days to fill the new AMS thermal control system with carbon dioxide, allow the system to stabilize and power on the pumps to verify and optimize their performance. The tracker, one of several detectors on AMS, should be collecting science data again before the end of the week. The upgraded cooling system is expected to support AMS through the lifetime of the International Space Station.

Morgan and Parmitano also completed an additional task to remove degraded lens filters on two high-definition video cameras.

This was the 227th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades since 1998. For Morgan, it was the seventh spacewalk of his career, for a total of 45 hours and 48 minutes. It was the sixth for Parmitano, who now has a total of 33 hours and 9 minutes, more cumulative time than any other European.

Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 59 days, 12 hours and 26 minutes working outside the space station. This was also the ninth spacewalk for the Expedition 61 crew, more than any other increment in the history of the orbiting laboratory.