Container. Astronauts prepare the International Space Station to install new solar panels

Two astronauts from NASA They made a Space walk Sunday to install the supporting structures for New solar panels, More efficient and that this year will arrive International Space Station (ISS). Kate Robins and Victor Glove S.Away from the orbital lab with several 2.5-meter bags filled with hundreds of pounds (kilograms) Metal struts and rods. The equipment was so bulky that it had to be disassembled like furniture to fit the opening.

“We know they’re very cramped there,” the wireless mission control center said.

With a load greater than normal, the astronauts headed to the other end of the station, trying not to collide with anything in the process. There are the oldest and most degraded solar panels in the post.

According to NASA, more personnel will arrive and conduct experiments at the base. The six new panels, which will arrive in two shipments Space x Over the next year or so, they should Increase the electrical capacity of the International Space Station by up to 30 percent.

Robins and Glover had to assemble and fasten the parts together for the first two solar panels, and they are scheduled to ship in June. The current eight panels have a lifespan of 12-20 years, and most of them have exceeded life expectancy and are deteriorating.

Boeing will provide the new panels, which are about half the size of the existing panels, however They save the same energy thanks to advances in photovoltaic technology. They will be placed at an angle with the old ones, which will continue to work. In 2017 a prototype was tested at the station.

A new trip to the moon?

Sunday’s march was the third for Robins, an infectious disease specialist, and Glover, a Navy pilot. both of them They have options to travel to the moon. The two are among the 18 newly appointed astronauts to the program. NASA Artemis. Those who will travel to the moon will be out of that group.

Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, Congratulations last week Glover, The The first African American astronaut to reside on the space station. NASA published the conversation via a video call on Saturday.

Harris said, “What you’re doing is history, I’m so proud of you.” Glover replied that like the other first times, he wouldn’t be the last. “We want to make sure that we can keep doing new things,” he said.

Robins will be out again on Friday with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to finish the structural preparations, ventilate the ammonia refrigerator lines and reposition them.

Glover and Noguchi were among the four astronauts who arrived in November on the SpaceX spacecraft. Robins arrived in October from Kazakhstan with two Russians. They are all set to return to Earth this spring.

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