Space emission. “Is it hard to fix the ISS?” 9-year-old Timothy asks Thomas Pesket

Staying in space is not easy for astronauts on the International Space Station. This week, a third trip was planned for Thomas Baskett and his American rival to complete the installation of the solar panels. According to his Japanese counterpart, this was a maintenance task because the Frenchman describes it in this tweet.

When we are busy preparing / doing a spaceflight, someone I.S. Akki recently took care of it in her own case: maintenance, and she found time to give us a respite. pic.twitter.com/pPBE2XMkRg

– Thomas Basket (hThom_astro) June 24, 2021

Because, when repairs are necessary … or when space debris touches an exposed hand, ISS. Requires maintenance and monitoring. What happened recently. This material did not escape from the students of the Ausouilville-sur-Sane School (Sean-Maritime) in Normandy. They are interested in making repairs at the ISS this Saturday.

Camille, 8 years old, Thomas questions Pesket: “We saw in class that there is an impact on the exposed hand. Where does this impact come from? Is it serious and how are you going to fix it?” Thomas Pesket confirms: A trash can, “Like a little pebble floating in space”, Crossed the path of ISS!

“The small pebble hit the robot arm, there is a small damage, but our systems are designed to resist it (…) It’s not very serious, the robot arm works well (…) so we ‘re not going to fix it yet.” The astronaut used it for his space mission!

Timothy, 9 years old, Wonders: “Is it hard to fix the ISS?” V.S.It depends, responds to the astronaut. Inside the ISS, “It flies almost everything on earth, everything floats. You have to be a little more careful when you tinker.” On the other hand, when repairs are needed outside the station, it becomes complicated because you have to go outside in diving suits. “Great gloves”, It is not very easy to handle things or it is dangerous.

Around Valentine, 9 years old : “I wanted to know if you did any training to fix stuff in ISS?” Confirmed, the astronaut responds: “Yeah, I did some exercises. During training, we learn how all the systems around us work and how to fix them when they are not.”

So the astronaut followed the DIY exercise: “We did it especially on planes” At an airport, because the technologies are similar, but European Space Agency in Cologne In Germany. “You learn to tinker: you do the drilling, the screw, the nail, the electronics … you can fix it when the space station is not working. That’s part of the job.” Not to mention the teams on Earth made up of experts helping astronauts from a distance.

Finally, to finish, Amandin Ask the astronaut if they are “A stock of parts to repair broken items”. Bolts, screws … ISS “But the parts on the outside, the big equipment” Spare, says the astronaut.

On this page, you can listen to the full new episode of “The Space Show” where astronaut Thomas Pesket ISS. Every Saturday at 10:44 and 12:50 there is a meeting to listen to and watch on the Fransinfo radio.