Astronauts Repair Space Station During Spacewalk

Orlando (dbTechno) - Astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station will be hard at work on Wednesday as they will hold a spacewalk to complete repairs on solar panels.

A set of solar panels needs repairs due to a broken joint motor.

These repairs are needed in order to bring the International Space Station back to full power.

The broken joint motor is extremely important because it allows the panels to move to follow the sun and gather up energy for the station. It began to malfunction back on December 8.

Space Station Cmdr. Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani will have to conduct a few spacewalks to fully complete the repairs, which are quite risky due to power cables.

This fix is needed though because more electricity will be required to allow the new European and Japanese laboratories to be hooked on and added to the International Space Station over the next few months.