Ultimate Extreme Sport: The Art of Spacewalking

The big story of the latest space shuttle mission (STS-120) is Discovery's delivery of the a new module called 'Harmony' to the International Space Station. The Italian-built addition will connect to some of the ISS's existing components: America's 'Destiny', Japan's 'Kibo', and the European Space Agency's 'Columbus'. Construction projects of this intricacy require approaches from many angles-- namely, spacewalks. A 'record-tying' five are planned for the mission, and I found myself wondering: does that figure seem high or low?

Everything related to space exploration is incredibly well-documented, not just because it's so expensive and the findings are so valuable, but because certain aspects of our forays into space are still rather novel. Though spacewalking first occured in 1965, only 168 of the 464 people who've been to space through 10/26/2007 have left their vehicles [technically, such trips are considered Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), and include tethered drifts, free-floating scoots and even moonwalks... 'spacewalk' is common shorthand, though you can't really 'walk' in zero-gravity].

An average of exactly 4 spacewalks per year. But it's not like those aboard Skylab, Mir or ISS would 'go out for a walk' during rare downtime or simply because their cohabitants in orbit were getting on their nerves. Spacewalks are very dangerous... in fact, all such trips included tethers until the 1984 introduction of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) saw Americans Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart become the coolest people off-world: cruising around with jetpacks! But there's little room for error. Float too far from your space ship/station, and frantic swimming motions are not going to help you any. Ray Bradbury painted a grim picture of human bodies' fragility in space in his 1949 short story, Kaleidoscope (though we're no less screwed in a solo SCUBA accident 300 feet down).

Spacesuits are quite cumbersome, and much drilling has gone into getting the occupants of doomed crafts into them as quickly as possible (props to the film Sunshine for being the first sci-fi film I've seen in awhile that didn't depict such suiting-up scenes as essentially throwing on a jacket). Again, to cite Kaleidoscope-- where rogue astronauts drift to fates of asphyxiation or simply burn up upon atmospheric re-entry-- a spacewalk is pointless without a safe destination. Thanks to compelling concept illustrations, private investment, and in-depth research conducted by the likes of Jonathan Clark (formerly of NASA), we may one day see rigid, space-diving EVA rescue apparatus... a lifeboat-meets-suit of armor, with a parachute included. Fortunately, no one has yet faced the unenviable task of returning to Earth minus a spacecraft, but it makes sense to have a workable option. It's even rumored (and why not-- I've met many New Zealanders) that people will choose to space-dive... just for the thrill of the plunge! For now, spacewalks are primarily associated with maintenance and construction... which prompts a final thought.

At a track and field meet in the 1990's, a fellow high jumper showed me a tome he'd ordered in the mail. It was a list of the 1,000 men who had ever cleared 7 feet in this particular event ('men', because to this day, no females have done it... incidentally, 10 different women had ever spacewalked by the time of this writing). I know what you're thinking: 'What a boring thing to compile!' or 'Don't most countries use the metric system'. How about, 'What about all the 6' 11.75" marks?' and 'Like there's never been a sunny day in the Ozarks when some 7'+ leap went undocumented...' Duly noted, all. The list was overkill because it was so voluminous, and worthy of eye-rolls because it was intrinsically inaccurate.

But it doesn't mean flinging your entire, gravity-bound body over a bar 7 feet above the ground is an easy thing to do, and an infinitesimal percentage of human beings have ever done it. It'll be some time before we see miles-wide toroids being built in orbit, swarming with countless EVA workers, or families pulled like waterskiers behind cruiseships to Mars. Until then, each small step is worth noting.

I'd much rather spacewalk than SCUBA dive, by the way: there aren't any sharks in space!!

by Eric Duby

links:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacewalks_and_moonwalks
www.nasa.gov