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Mir Internal Spacewalk a Partial Success
Two Russian cosmonauts spent more than six hours inside the depressurized Spektr module October 20, connecting two solar panels to a computer control system outside the damaged module but failed to connect a third.
![[image of Mir cosmonauts]](../9711/images2/cosmonauts.jpg)
Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov struggled with cables and floating debris inside the module while working to connect the solar panels to a computer system in another module that would allow the crew to control their motion, improving their efficiency and that amount of power generated by them.
The spacewalkers had to end their repairs when they oxygen supplies ran low while trying to connect the cable from the third of three solar panels to an airtight door at the end of the module. They had previously connected cable for the other two working solar panels mounted on the module. A fourth solar panel was damaged beyond repair in the June collision of a Progress spacecraft with the module.
"Don't be too depressed, you've done good work," flight director Vladimir Solovyov, no relation to the cosmonaut, told the crew after the spacewalk.
The cosmonauts were hampered by a great deal of debris floating in the module when they first entered it. Vinogradov grabbed the debris, which appeared to be experiments which escaped from the refrigerator on the module, and sealed them in several bags before proceeding with the repairs.
The computer system was brought online two days after the spacewalk. With the two solar panels now able to track the Sun, and thus generate more electricity, Russian officials report power on the station has increased by 15-30 percent.
The increased power should let the crew, including American astronaut David Wolf, perform more experiments. Many of the scientific experiments planned to be performed on the station were delayed when the June accident cut power to the station up to half.
Russian officials are planning several spacewalks for the coming weeks. On November 3 Solovyov and Vinogradov will remove the damaged solar panel on Spektr, and replace it with a new panel on a separate spacewalk November 6. The spacewalkers will also deploy a replica of the Sputnik satellite, built by children, on the November 3 spacewalk.
David Wolf, who spent the October 20 spacewalk inside the Soyuz spacecraft should an emergency evacuation be necessary, will likely participate in a spacewalk later in November to retrieve experiments mounted on the exterior of the module. A fourth spacewalk involving Spektr is also under consideration.