MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) - The Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev will use a metal-cutting knife and scissors to open the outer layers of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft's casing to establish what caused a hole in its orbital module.
Kononenko will first use a knife to cut through the external layer of screen-vacuum heat insulation and then scissors to cut a micrometeorite protection panel and take samples from the outer layer of the Soyuz casing, according a video released by the state corporation Roscosmos on Monday.
"The spacewalk is unique and complex. One would think: cut through this heat insulation, cut through the anti-meteorite protection, and that's it. But it is also difficult technically, it is hard to access. The task is a challenge," Kononenko said in the footage.
A further difficulty is the absence of railings and tracks on the Soyuz which is not designed for repair in the outer space. So Prokopyev will be controlling the arrow of the ISS robotic arm manipulator while Kononenko, who is practicing how to open the casing and take back samples to the earth, will use the arrow to get to the right section of the casing.
"We fully open the outer casing, find the place, the project team have worked out its location, the likelihood of a miss in minimal. We do an modernized test and take samples from the outer surface of the orbital module to send them to the earth for further examination," Alexander Kuznetsov, an extravehicular activity test engineer at the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, said.
He is among those who developed a cyclogram for the almost six-hour spacewalk which is due to begin at approximately 7 p.m. Moscow time on Tuesday, December 11.
In the early hours of August 30 the ISS crew found an air leak. They checked all compartments and found a hole in the Soyuz MS-09's orbital module, not the reentry capsule, so the spacecraft's return to the earth is not at risk.
Later the crew managed to seal and patch the hole before making sure, with the aid of an ultrasound, that the air leak had stopped. Now specialists are trying to establish what caused the hole in the spacecraft.
Premeditated infliction remains the only theory, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said, ruling out a manufacturing defect.
For its part, NASA said that Roscosmos' conclusions did not necessarily mean the hole was made intentionally or with malicious intent.
Both agencies are jointly investigating the incident.
Rogozin denied that Russia ever blamed the U.S. for causing the hole.
On November 20, Roscosmos' executive director for manned missions Sergei Krikalyov told Interfax that a fragment of the damaged casing would be delivered to the earth for examination by the cosmonaut Prokopyev after the current crew's return.
A source in the space rocket industry told Interfax that experts were waiting for fragments from the casing of the orbital module which after undocking from the ISS before atmospheric entry will break away from the reentry capsule and burn down, thus making analysis of the damaged parts impossible.