Watch: Astronauts Take Complex Spacewalk to Fix Cosmic Ray Detector
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Two International Space Station (ISS) astronauts are completing a spacewalk today to fix a dark matter experiment and you can the repair operation live on NASA TV.
At 6:39 a.m. EST, Expedition 61 Commander Luca Parmitano (European Space Agency) and NASA flight engineer Andrew Morgan went outside the space station to replace a cooling system on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a cosmic ray detector. This is the first spacewalk in a series of many that will fix the experiment, which was built to find dark matter in space, Space.com noted.
Parmitano is wearing the suit with red stripes and helmet camera No. 11, while Morgan is sporting a suit with no stripes and helmet camera No. 18.
Can you spot the spacewalker in this live frame?
An hour ahead of schedule on the first #SpacewalkForAMS, @AstroDrewMorgan and @astro_luca took a brief rest before starting on the next task of installing handrails. pic.twitter.com/FfG3dJTPxu
— Human Spaceflight (@esaspaceflight) November 15, 2019
The first spacewalk will involve both astronauts positioning materials, taking out a debris cover on the AMS, and placing handrails in preparation for upcoming spacewalks. The astronauts are expected to complete the tasks in approximately six-and-a-half hours.
⏰ Set your alarms to watch a spacewalk! @AstroDrewMorgan and @astro_luca will venture outside @Space_Station to begin repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a cosmic particle detector installed outside.
📺 Tune in starting at 5:30am ET: https://t.co/8V1bnb5lYJ pic.twitter.com/AQOzlKM3A4— NASA (@NASA) November 15, 2019
According to NASA, AMS is a joint effort between NASA and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. AMS has been capturing high-energy cosmic rays, so researchers can answer important questions about antimatter, the unseen “dark matter” that makes up most of the mass in the universe and weird dark energy that’s responsible for expanding the cosmos.
NASA has not shared a date for the second AMS repair spacewalk yet.
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