After four spacewalks and a series of glitches, the International Space Station now sports a pair of cameras pointing at Earth.<\/p>\n
The fourth spacewalk from Expedition 38, performed by Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, wrapped up the installation of two high-definition cameras that experienced connectivity issues last month. A spacewalk on Dec. 27 tried to resolve the issue, but ongoing technical problems kept them from finishing. <\/p>\n
Subscribe Today to the Monitor <\/p>\n
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition <\/p>\n
After exitingthe Pirs docking compartment, the men headed to the Zvezda service module, where they installed a high-resolution video camera and a medium resolution still camera to capture Earth imagery. The high-res camera checked out, but the medium-resolution camera again experienced telemetry issues. <\/p>\n
Dr. Kotov and Dr. Ryazanskiy also retrieved scientific gear outside the stations Russian segment. <\/p>\n
Their spacewalk lasted for 6 hours and 8 minutes, wrapping up at 3:08 p.m. EST yesterday (Jan. 27). The spacewalk a month before lasted two hours longer, clocking in at 8 hours and 7 minutes. Though they failed to complete the cameras' installation, they did set the record for the longest Russian spacewalk. The previous record-holders were Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin, who conducted a 7 hour and 29 minute excursion on Aug. 16. <\/p>\n
On Dec. 27, Kotov and Ryazanskiy installed the cameras, but then had to remove them when Russian flight controllers on the ground reported that they could not receive necessary telemetry information. <\/p>\n
The cameras are part of a commercial agreement between a Canadian firm and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Their goal is to provide views of Earth from the ISS for Internet-based subscribers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation notes that the still camera has a resolution of five square meters, and the video camera has a resolution of one square meter. <\/p>\n
The spacewalkers also retrieved a cassette container attached to Pirs, part of a materials exposure experiment. They then removed a worksite interface adapter attached to a portable data grapple fixture on the Zarya cargo module. The adapter removal work should ensure that future operations with the Canadarm2 robotic arm will not be impeded. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See the original post here:<\/p>\n
Say cheese! Space station cameras now looking at us in high-def. (+video)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After four spacewalks and a series of glitches, the International Space Station now sports a pair of cameras pointing at Earth. The fourth spacewalk from Expedition 38, performed by Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, wrapped up the installation of two high-definition cameras that experienced connectivity issues last month. A spacewalk on Dec Continue reading