NASA says it is looking forward to China publicly releasing the scientific results from the Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu rover that arrived on the lunar surface earlier this month.  Yesterday, NASA scientists released a photo of the duo taken by the U.S. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that has been in lunar orbit since 2009.

The photo was one of several taken by LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on December 24-25 when its orbit took it over the landing site in the Sea of Rains (Mare Imbrium).  The highest resolution image (below) was taken when LRO was nearly overhead at approximately 150 kilometers on December 25, with a pixel size of 150 centimeters.  NASA’s LRO team noted that the Yutu rover is only 150 centimeters wide, but shows up in the image because its solar arrays are effective at reflecting sunlight and the Sun was setting so the rover had a distinct shadow.

Source:  NASA website.  Caption:  LROC NAC view of the Chang’e 3 lander (large arrow) and rover (small arrow) just before sunset on their first day of lunar exploration.  LROC NAC M1132582775R, image width 576 m, north is up.  Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. 

Chang’e is China’s mythological goddess of the Moon and Yutu is her companion, a jade rabbit.   Chang’e-3 and Yutu landed on the Moon on December 14, the first survivable landing on the Moon since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976.

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), launched on September 3, 2013, also is in lunar orbit although its path does not pass over the Chang’e- landing site.  Nevertheless, it did watch for any increase in lunar dust or gases caused by the landing, but did not detect any.   LADEE’s studies were aided by two other NASA spacecraft that are orbiting the Moon, ARTEMIS P1 and P2.  They originally were part of a 5-spacecraft constellation of satellites studying interactions between the Sun and the Earth as part of the THEMIS mission.  After completing their primary missions in 2010, these two spacecraft were placed into lunar orbit to study the Sun’s interaction with the Moon and redesignated ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun).

NASA’s statement on Chang’e-3 and Yutu, issued in response to media inquiries, referenced its ongoing robotic lunar exploration activities and noted that scientists around the world view China’s spacecraft as “a new scientific opportunity.”   NASA’s full statement is as follows:

“After sending 12 humans to the moon’s surface during the Apollo Program, NASA continues to explore the moon with three current missions, all in an effort to learn more about our nearest neighbor and enable exploration to an asteroid and Mars. We welcome all countries’ peaceful exploration of space, and look forward to China’s public release of the scientific results from the Chang’e 3 mission to the moon. NASA satellites will examine the lander’s arrival from various perspectives, and scientists around the world view it as a new scientific opportunity that could potentially enhance studies and observations of the lunar atmosphere that could contribute to our journeys to those farther destinations.”

The activities of the U.S. spacecraft may help dispel a misimpression among some members of the public that the United States is not doing very much in lunar exploration while China is taking the lead.  That viewpoint was exemplified by a reporter at the State Department’s daily briefing on December 16.  Neither the reporter nor the State Department briefer were well informed about the U.S. or Chinese space programs, but the gist of the conversation was the reporter asking whether China was taking the lead and how much its global standing would therefore benefit. 

Indeed, many of the news reports about China’s achievement suggest that the United States is losing its leadership position while China is forging ahead, which is hardly the case as LRO, LADEE and ARTEMIS demonstrate today (not to mention the long history of U.S. lunar exploration including the Apollo landings).  Unfortunately, the State Department spokeswoman did not make that case.  She at least knew that China had recently landed something on the Moon and offered congratulations, but demurred on answering any of the questions saying she simply did not know and would have to check with others.

UPDATE:  NASA reports that the new pump module is working perfectly and systems have been restored to their normal configurations on both cooling loops.

ORIGINAL STORY:  NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins successfully completed the tasks needed to replace a coolant pump assembly on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) today.  NASA planned three spacewalks for this repair, but the duo were able to accomplish it in only two.

A flow control valve in one of the two coolant loops on the ISS malfunctioned on December 11 necessitating the repair.  The crew was in no danger and all critical ISS operations were transitioned to the functioning loop, but other systems had to be shut down and science experiments delayed.  The pump itself was working, but with the flow control valve malfunctioning, the ammonia in the coolant loop became too cold to be allowed to flow through a heat exchanger because it might freeze water that also flows through that equipment.  The flow control valve is inside the pump assembly, so the entire pump assembly had to be replaced with a spare, which was the assignment for Mastracchio and Hopkins.   Their first spacewalk was on Saturday and lasted 5 hours and 28 minutes.  Today’s was 7 hours and 30 minutes, including a short period of “bake out” time inside the airlock to decontaminate the crew’s spacesuits, which had come into contact with flakes of ammonia.

A brief test of the new pump assembly while the crew was still outside the station showed that everything is functioning properly, though a full-up test will not take place until later.

Mastracchio and Hopkins were assisted by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who operated the robotic Canadarm2 from inside the ISS.  For the first spacewalk, Mastracchio was attached to the end of Canadarm2.   Hopkins had that position on the second spacewalk.   Mastracchio now has eight spacewalks under his belt and Hopkins has two.

NASA was anxious to complete this repair quickly both because the Russians have a long scheduled spacewalk of their own coming up on Friday, and soon after that no spacewalks can be performed until January 9 because the Beta angle between the Sun and the ISS preclude such operations because of poor lighting conditions.

These two spacewalks were the first since July when European astronaut Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit helmet filled with water for reasons NASA still does not completely understand.   Modifications were made to the suit and Hopkins wore it on both spacewalks with no problem.   Mastracchio had a problem with the spacesuit he wore on Saturday. Water also entered the suit in that case, but NASA stressed it was unrelated to what happened with Parmitano and was due to a “spacesuit configuration” issue when the crew was back inside the airlock.  Mastracchio wore a different spacesuit today while the other one dries out.

ISS Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy will do a spacewalk on Friday to install new cameras on Russia’s Zvezda module and retrieve scientific experiments mounted on the outside the ISS.   That spacewalk is due to begin at 8:00 am Eastern Standard Time and will be carried on NASA TV.

The ISS is a joint project of the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada.  Typically there are six crew members aboard at any one time.  Right now there are three Russians (Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyurin), two Americans (Mastracchio and Hopkins), and one Japanese (Wakata).

NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are getting ready for their second spacewalk to fix a coolant loop problem on the International Space Station (ISS).  The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7:10 am ET tomorrow, Christmas Eve.  NASA TV coverage begins at 6:15 am ET.

NASA planned three spacewalks to replace the coolant pump assembly, but Mastracchio and Hopkins made quick work of their tasks during the first spacewalk on December 21.   That spacewalk lasted 5 hours and 28 minutes instead of the planned 6 hours and 30 minutes, but they completed so many of the steps that NASA expects them to complete everything during the second spacewalk tomorrow and a third will not be necessary.

A long-planned Russian spacewalk is scheduled for Friday for unrelated tasks.   After that, no spacewalks can take place until January 9 because of the Sun’s Beta angle relative to the ISS which does not allow proper lighting conditions for such operations.

Tomorrow’s spacewalk was delayed by a day to allow the astronauts to get a backup spacesuit ready to replace the one Mastracchio wore on December 21.   NASA has not released many details, but something happened after the astronauts were back inside the airlock that allowed water to enter Mastracchio’s suit.  It is now drying out and can be used in future spacewalks, but not tomorrow’s.

This will be the eighth spacewalk for Mastracchio and second for Hopkins.

International Space Station (ISS) astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins had a successful spacewalk today, but the next in the series to fix a coolant loop problem has been delayed by one day to Tuesday, December 24.  The delay will allow time to resize a backup spacesuit for Mastracchio because the one he wore today had a “configuration issue.”

The spacewalk proceeded very well, with tasks accomplished ahead of schedule.  The crew is changing out a coolant loop pump assembly because a flow control value was not correctly regulating the temperature of ammonia used as a coolant.   After about four and a half hours, Mastracchio, a veteran of six spacewalks, and Hopkins, a spacewalk rookie, had disconnected the large, cumbersome troublesome pump assembly and gotten it secured in a new location on the outside of the ISS.

Ground personnel told Mastracchio that they had a list of other tasks they would like the crew to perform as “get ahead” items and asked for his input.  He replied that his vote was to end the spacewalk at that point.  Earlier he had complained that his feet were cold and ground personnel asked about his temperature, suggesting that might be the reason for his decision to call an early end to the scheduled 6.5 hour spacewalk.   Mastracchio replied that there were “a couple of things” involved in his decision and ground personnel soon agreed that it was time to call it a day.   The spacewalkers returned to the airlock and the spacewalk ended after 5 hours and 28 minutes.

What happened after that is not clear.  A NASA statement said only that during “repressurization of the station’s airlock following the spacewaik, a spacesuit configuration issue put the suit Mastracchio was wearing in question for the next excursion  – specifically whether water entered into the suit’s sublimator inside the airlock.”   

The extra day will give the crew time to get a backup spacesuit ready to replace the one Mastracchio used today.

NASA stressed that today’s problem “is not related to the spacesuit water leak” that happened in July when European astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet filled with water.  At a press conference on Wednesday, NASA officials cautioned that they could not “rule out water in the helmet again” but said they had developed new procedures and added two pieces of hardware to the suits to deal with such an eventuality.   That did not happen today, however, the agency said:  “Both Mastracchio and Hopkins reported dry conditions repeatedly” during today’s spacewalk.  It was Hopkins, not Mastracchio, who was wearing the spacesuit that malfunctioned during Parmitano’s spacewalk.

NASA scheduled three spacewalks to fix the coolant loop problem, but the tasks were accomplished so readily today that only two may be needed.