We Won’t Be Seeing Spacewalks for a While Thanks to Some Leaky Helmets

NASA officials said on May 17 that after water was discovered in the helmet worn by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer on a March 23 spacewalk, it will review its extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) spacesuits.

All except the most critical spacewalks are on hold, implying that astronauts will not go outside to do extravehicular activities (EVAs) until the International Space Station makes immediate repairs.

This is the second occasion that spacewalks have been halted due to an unforeseen water leak. The first was in July 2013, when the situation was significantly more serious.

What Happened in the 2013 Incident?

Space.com reported that ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano had a serious water leak during that 2013 mishap, which covered the majority of his face. Due to the water volume Parmitano was reporting, his spacewalk with NASA's Chris Cassidy was cut short about an hour after it began. Parmitano was unharmed.

During that time, NASA halted all spacewalks while conducting an investigation.

According to the mishap report, the immediate technical cause of the 2013 event was "inorganic materials causing blockage of the drum holes" in an EMU water separator. Water then spilled into a vent loop as a result of this.

What Did NASA Do To Mitigate This Problem?

NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) wrote in April 2017 that the materials intruded because a water filtration system at Johnson [Space Center] had not been managed to control for silica. As a result, silica-laden water was used to prepare flight hardware filters that were eventually used in four on-orbit spacesuits.

The report noted that the space agency addressed the silica issue and developed backup plans for astronauts in the event of leaks. To absorb extra water, astronauts began using a "helmet absorption pad" at the back of the helmet in 2014. A breathing tube was also placed inside the helmet if water clung to the face, a common occurrence in microgravity.

There Has Been a Slew of Problems in Spaceflight Lately

Aside from a leaky helmet, the space industry has recently faced a number of problems.

As previously reported, NASA's InSight Mars Lander has been working on limited power since layers of dust accumulated on its solar panels and became stuck there.

Currently, it only generates a tenth of the daily energy produced compared to when the mission started. In 2018, its battery charge was enough to run an electric oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Today, such an oven could only be used for 10 minutes, according to mission manager Kathya Zamora Garcia.

Another report mentioned that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is receiving and executing commands from Earth, as well as gathering and returning science data.

However, the readouts from the attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which manages Voyager 1's orientation in space, do not match what the spacecraft is actually doing.

The AACS keeps Voyager's high-gain antenna pointed at Earth, allowing it to send data to NASA.

The report mentioned that the AACS looks to be functional, but the telemetry data it sends back is inaccurate.