U.S. astronauts Peggy Whitson and Dan Tani are gathering samples of the contamination they uncovered inside a solar wing rotary joint on the starboard side of the International Space Station's central truss.
Using Kapton tape, the astronauts are wiping up metal shavings and fine dust inside the fouled-up Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, a 10-foot-diameter mechanism designed to turn the solar wing like a paddlewheel to keep it face on to the sun, maximizing electrical output.
Whitson and Tani also are using high-resolution digital cameras to document what they are seeing inside the joint.
The photos will be downlinked to Mission Control. The samples will be brought back to Earth so engineers can determine the source of the debris.
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