NASA is preparing to send astronauts on a spacewalk to repair a telescope mount on the outside of the International Space Station ( ISS ) . The repair involves install patches to eliminate undesirable sun leak into the instrumental role .
NICER ( Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer ) , an X - ray scope the size of a wash automobile , launch to revolve in 2017 to read unconstipated pulses from neutron star , light echo from flaring black holes , and other sources of X - irradiation in the macrocosm . In May 2023 , scientists behind the foreign mission discovered a light-colored wetting , whereby sunshine was reaching the scope ’s sensitive detectors and dissemble its measure during daytime on the space station .
“ Blocking some of the light leaking in would tolerate us to return to more normal operation around the clock , ” Zaven Arzoumanian , NICER ’s scientific discipline hint at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center , said in astatement . The ISS receives 45 bit of light followed by 45 minutes of night as it orbits Earth in 90 minutes .
The NICER telescope outside the ISS where it studies neutron stars and other X-ray source.Photo: NASA
The telescope has 56 aluminum X - shaft of light concentrators , and each concentrator has a set of nested mirror and a thin filter to obstruct out sunshine . The concentrator is then top by a hollow circular slice of carbon paper composite , call a sunshade , that ’s made up of six segments that end up search like a sliced pie , harmonise to NASA . After the light leakage developed on NICER , its photos revealed several small areas of damage in some of the shields .
NASA is not sure what caused the price , but it ’s determined to fix it . “ We did n’t design NICER for foreign mission servicing . It was installed robotically , and we engage it from the ground , ” Keith Gendreau , NICER ’s principal investigator at Goddard , enjoin in a statement . “ The hypothesis of a repair has been an exciting challenge . ”
The team behind the mission will set in motion patches to the ISS on table Northrop Grumman ’s twenty-first commercial-grade resupply servicing mission after this year . The patches will be installed by the astronaut to doctor the light escape . “ We considered both spacewalk and robotic solutions , puzzling out how to install plot using what ’s already present on the telescope and in blank space station toolkits , ” Gendreau added .
Astronauts have been commissioned to touch on skill observatories in orbit before , admit the Hubble Space Telescope . A totality of five servicing missions were launch to Hubble between 1993 and 2009 to repair and promote the telescope . The Solar Maximum Mission and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer ( AMS ) , also located on the ISS , are the only other science observatories that astronaut have restore in orbit , according to NASA .
Still , doing handy work in space while tether to an revolve place station is no prosperous feat . “ While we worked firmly to secure the plot of ground are mechanically simple , most repair bodily function in place are very complicated , ” Steve Kenyon , NICER ’s mechanically skillful booster cable at Goddard , say in a command . “ We ’ve been conducting test to confirm the hangout work will be both an in effect fix for NICER ’s light leak and whole good for the astronaut on the spacewalk and the space place . ”
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Edwin HubbleNASANorthrop Grumman
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