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 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The U.S. astronauts on the international space station planned a campout Monday night but without the S'mores. Commander Bill McArthur and science officer Jeff Williams planned to sleep overnight sealed off in the space station's Quest airlock, the area from which crew members embark on spacewalks.
They will test a new method for preparing spacewalkers for going outside the space station by sleeping in the airlock when the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch is reduced to 10.2 pounds per square inch.
If the test run proves successful, future spacewalkers on the international space station may spend the night in the lower-pressure airlock before going on spacewalks in order to purge nitrogen from their bodies to prevent decompression sickness. Before beginning spacewalks, crew members usually have to breathe pure oxygen for several hours to prevent the condition known as the bends. The new method could reduce that preparation time.
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