Spacewalking Astronauts Add New Pumps To Cosmic Detector

Spacewalking astronauts installed new pumps on a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station in a bid to extend its scientific life.

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It was the third spacewalk in nearly three weeks for Italy’s Luca Parmitano and NASA’s Andrew Morgan. One more spacewalk remains before NASA can declare the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer successfully repaired.

The $2 billion spectrometer has been up there hunting for antimatter and dark matter for 8 ½ years, longer than anticipated. Without four new pumps for cooling, the device would be crippled and, ultimately, useless.

NASA compared the series of four spacewalks — the most complex since the Hubble Space Telescope missions — with heart bypass surgery because they are designed to bypass the old, degraded pumps.

The $2 billion spectrometer was never meant for hands-on repairs like this and was designed to last just three years. If the new plumbing holds, the instrument should last the entire life of the space station, or another five to 10 years.