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Astronauts Successfully Install Parking Spot At ISS (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: With more private spaceship traffic expected at the International Space Station in the coming years, two U.S. astronauts embarked on a spacewalk Friday to install a special parking spot for them. Americans Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins switched their spacesuits to internal battery power at 8:04 (1204 GMT) and floated outside the orbiting laboratory to begin the work of attaching the first of two international docking adaptors. The spacewalkers finished the task in just over two hours. "With that, we have a new port of call," said NASA commentator Rob Navias, as the space station flew over Singapore at 10:40 am (1440 GMT). NASA describes the docking adaptor as a "metaphorical gateway to a future" that will allow a new generation of U.S. spacecraft -- the first since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 -- to carry astronauts to the space station. The second docking adaptor is expected to be installed in 2018. Built by Boeing, the circular adaptor measures around 42 inches (one meter) tall and about 63 inches wide. The adaptors will work with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon, two spaceships under construction that are planned to ferry astronauts to the space station. The docking adaptor is more sophisticated than past equipment because it will allow automatic parking instead of the current grapple and berthing process, which is managed by astronauts.
To learn how to do it for the next space station. To learn what works well, what works poorly, and what doesn't work at all.
And perhaps this capability will extend the life of this station.
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
Is there even a successor to ISS planned?
Sure there is . . . the Chinese are working on it already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Maybe the Chinese will rent out rooms on it on Airbnb . . . ?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Man, I would hate getting a parking ticket in space.
I bet the fine is astronomical.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
"42 inches (one meter) "
And 1 meter used to be 39.37 inches
"42 inches (one meter) "
And 1 meter used to be 39.37 inches
Conversion factors are different on Earth and in Space. It's got something to do with relativity.
I think.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
That's a stretch
The comments here are the same as the old article. As a school teacher would say, compare and contrast.
We are going to do this.
Why, is it worth it?"
We did this.
Why, is it worth it?"
The about to happen/did happen is irrelevant to the content of the comments. We're basically discussing the same stuff that we did a couple of days ago.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
An inch is defined as exactly 25.4mm, based on the yard being defined as exactly 0.9144 meters.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I'm glad the headline simplified docking ports to parking spaces, as otherwise I would not have understood what it meant.... Now, where are my crayons, I have a Sarah Palin show that I need to watch.