Tue, Mar 18, 2008
ISS Will Soon Have Its Own Robot
Dextre's good to go... now, it just needs its "eyes" and
"hands." STS-123 Mission Specialists Rick Linnehan and Robert L.
Behnken were hard at work Monday evening, outside the orbiting
complex formed by the docked International Space Station and space
shuttle Endeavour.
The two astronauts began the third spacewalk of the STS-123
mission at 1851 EDT. The primary goal of the excursion was the
outfitting of Dextre, the final element of the station’s
Mobile Servicing System. As ANN reported, Dextre was
powered on Sunday morning, after some early stumbling blocks.
With Mission Specialist Mike Foreman coordinating spacewalk
activities from inside the orbiting complex, Linnehan and Behnken
installed a spare parts platform and tool handling assembly for
Dextre. Among other tasks, they also checked out and calibrated
Dextre’s end effector, and moving some spare parts.
As part of the third of five planned spacewalks during
Endeavour's stay at the ISS, Dextre also received its "eyes" -- two
cameras, located at waist-level on the 11.5-foot robot, according
to The Canadian Press. In addition, the spacewalkers installed the
MISSE-6 materials experiment on the outside of the European Space
Agency’s Columbus laboratory.
Space shuttle Endeavour Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Expedition
16 Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman operated the station’s
robot arm during the spacewalk.
Behnken and Foreman are also slated to carry out the
mission’s fourth spacewalk at 1828 EDT. Thursday. The two
will perform tasks that include a shuttle tile repair test and
change out of a circuit breaker on the station.
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