NASA astronauts operate on space station’s broken robot arm

Two NASA astronauts, Jessica Meir and Chris Williams, successfully replaced a broken 200-pound wrist joint on the International Space Station’s 58-foot-long robotic arm during a spacewalk. The operation, which lasted seven hours and 20 minutes, was necessary after flight controllers noticed the joint was malfunctioning. The Canadian-built arm, known as Canadarm2, is designed with replaceable components, allowing for maintenance like this. The astronauts began their mission by switching their spacesuits to battery power and setting up foot restraints. They then detached the arm’s hand, or latching end effector, and two other joints to access the faulty wrist joint. After temporarily storing the 900-pound assembly, they removed the failed joint and installed a spare. The spacewalk concluded with the reattachment of the LEE cluster, and flight controllers confirmed the arm’s electrical connections were functioning properly. QUESTION: How might the ability to perform maintenance and repairs in space impact the future of long-term space missions?