A physician astronaut successfully stitched a torn solar panel Saturday, in a risky and unprecedented space walk to ensure an adequate power supply at the International Space Station.
Astronaut Scott Parazynsky, MD, spent more than four hours attached to the end of a robotic boom knitting together the damaged panels with makeshift wire “cufflinks” to fix the problems caused by a snagged wire when the panels unfurled.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration had made fixing the solar arrays the top priority for the Discovery shuttle mission because without it there was a risk the tear could spread and render the power-generating wing useless. The solar array, one of three on the space station, is critical to providing extra electricity for planned European and Japanese science labs.
Parazynsky, 46, had to first cut the guy-wire that caused the problem; it quickly recoiled into a reel at the base of the wing. To avoid the electric shock risk, Parazynsky had to work with a makeshift “hockey stick,” an L-shaped tool wrapped in tape to prod the panels and help stitch through holes in the solar panels the five cufflink-like wire tabs fashioned by the astronauts aboard the ISS. Parazynski was attached by his feet to a 15-meter (49-foot) extension boom joined to the space station’s 18-meter (59-foot) robotic arm.
After the stitching operation, NASA engineers using controls remotely in Houston slowly unfurled the solar panel to its full extension of 76 meters (250 feet).
The European Columbus laboratory is due to be delivered to the ISS in December and the Japanese Kibo lab in April 2008. If there are no more problems, Discovery is scheduled to undock from the space station on Monday and return to Earth on Wednesday. It blasted off on the mission on October 23.
In celebration of this non-clinical physician accomplishment, PRN will focus on NASA physician experiences this week.
