Jan 26 2005
From The Space Library
NASA announced its selection of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) as part of NASA's Small Explorer Program (SMEX). Scheduled for launch in 2008, IBEX was the first mission designed to detect the edge of the solar system. IBEX planned to use two neutral atom imagers to detect the particles created from the termination shock that occurs at the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space. IBEX would also study galactic cosmic rays, which pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth's orbit. Since 1992, NASA had successfully launched six SMEX missions. (NASA, “NASA Selects Small Explorer Mission,” news release, 26 January 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jan/HQ_05026_exp_mission.html (accessed 11 May 2009).)
ISS Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan S. Sharipov successfully carried out a spacewalk to install a universal work platform at the station's Zvezda module. The excursion was Chiao's fifth spacewalk and Sharipov's first. Over a period of 5 hours and 28 minutes, the crew attached a German-built test robot, ROKVISS (Robotic Components Verification on the ISS), to the newly installed work platform. The two-jointed robot, with an on-board camera and manipulator arm, would test the application of the lightweight robotic systems that may help support the ISS and other spacecraft in the future. Chiao and Sharipov encountered some difficulty fastening the power cables of the robot's antenna, but they succeeded in their second attempt. ISS crews would be able to operate the robot using a computer, but flight controllers in Germany would operate the robot remotely, relying on the antenna. Sharipov also inspected and photographed three vents, which the station's Elektron oxygen generator and other systems used to expel waste matter. He reported white residue resembling honeycomb, on the Elektron generator's vent, and brownish residue on the other two vents. Engineers on the ground planned to analyze the photographs to determine whether the residue had caused the repeated shutdowns of the main oxygen generator of the ISS. (Tariq Malik, “First Spacewalk a Success for Space Station Crew,” Space.com, 27 January 2005, http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/exp10_eva1_050126.html (accessed 18 August 2009); Reuters, “Station Crew Leaves Outpost for Spacewalk,” 26 January 2005; Todd Halvorson, “Spacewalkers Spy Clue in Oxygen Generator Breakdowns,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 27 January 2005.)
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