NASA is sending a repair kit to the International Space Station to fix its X-ray telescope, NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), which was damaged in May 2023. The kit, containing 12 patches made from aluminum and anodized black, will be installed by astronauts during a spacewalk to cover areas of damage on the thermal shields.
The mission team, led by Steve Kenyon, mechanical lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Keith Gendreau, principal investigator, designed and built the patches in just one year. NICER, about the size of a washing machine, studies neutron stars and other X-ray sources, but has been affected by sunlight entering through damaged areas on its thermal shields. The repair kit is a significant achievement, marking the first time an X-ray telescope in orbit will be serviced by astronauts. Northrop Grumman, the company that built NICER, and NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which supported the SEXTANT component of the mission, are also involved in this effort.
NASA’s NICER Telescope to Undergo Historic Repair in Space
In a remarkable feat of ingenuity and collaboration, NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope is set to undergo a historic repair in space. The mission team has designed and developed a novel patching system to mitigate the effects of sensor interference on the telescope’s thermal shields, which have been damaged by sunlight.
The NICER telescope, installed on the International Space Station (ISS), uses 56 X-ray concentrators to study the extreme environments of neutron stars. However, the thermal shields that protect these concentrators from ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light have been compromised by sunlight, affecting the telescope’s daytime observations.
To address this issue, the mission team has developed a set of 12 aluminum patches, each about 2 inches tall, with an anodized black coating. These patches will be inserted into the sunshades covering the X-ray concentrators during a spacewalk, effectively blocking sunlight and restoring the telescope’s ability to collect accurate data.
The repair kit, which includes the patches and spare sunshades, will be carried by astronauts in a specially designed caddy. The mission team has worked tirelessly over the past year to develop this innovative solution, which marks a significant milestone in space-based repairs.
“This is an incredible achievement for the NICER team,” said Keith Gendreau, the mission’s principal investigator at Goddard Space Flight Center. “We’ve had to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to repair our telescope in orbit.”
The successful implementation of this repair will not only restore NICER’s daytime observing capabilities but also pave the way for future space-based repairs and maintenance. As Charles Baker, the NICER project systems engineer at Goddard, noted, “NICER will be the first X-ray telescope in orbit to be serviced by astronauts and only the fourth science observatory to be repaired overall.”
This remarkable achievement is a testament to human ingenuity, collaboration, and the boundless potential of space exploration.
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