NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jessica Meir are scheduled to embark on a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on June 30 to replace a faulty wrist joint on the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which has been in operation since April 2001. The repair is part of the 280th spacewalk in support of International Space Station (ISS) assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
The issue arose on May 27, when one of the arm’s wrist joints demonstrated elevated motor current and refused to move as commanded. Engineers from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) characterized the problem and determined that a spare wrist joint pre-positioned on the station’s truss would need to be installed by hand outside the airlock.
Canadarm2 is a critical component of the ISS, capturing cargo ships, ferrying astronauts around the station, and performing maintenance tasks. Despite being over 17 meters long and weighing about 1,500 kilograms, it has kept working for more than a decade past its original design life due to its modular design and spare parts inventory.
This repair is not the first time Canadarm2 has been serviced in space. Astronauts have replaced one of its wrist roll joints in June 2002 and swapped both Latching End Effectors after they showed signs of wear in late 2017 and early 2018.
The repair mission follows a maintenance pattern that has been baked into the program since launch. The spare wrist joint was waiting on the truss for this procedure, which is part of the agency’s efforts to keep the arm operating until its planned end-of-life around 2030.
Astronaut Chris Williams and Jessica Meir will exit the station’s Quest airlock at 8:35 a.m. EDT on June 30 and spend six-and-a-half hours replacing the faulty wrist joint with a spare one. The procedure is being supported by ESA flight engineer Sophie Adenot and NASA’s Jack Hathaway, who will operate Canadarm2 to position the work site during the repair.
This mission highlights the importance of spacewalks in maintaining the ISS and its robotic systems. It also showcases Canada’s contribution to the ISS partnership and the spinoff technologies developed from the Canadarm program, including neuroArm, an MRI-compatible surgical robot.
Source: https://spacedaily.com/sd-in-april-2001-the-crew-of-shuttle-endeavour-bolted-a-canadian-built-robotic-arm-to-the-outside-of-the-international-space-station-knowing-that-pieces-of-it-would-eventually-wear-out-and-twenty-fi