The crews aboard the ISS (including those from STS-120) are making plans to conduct a somewhat dangerous spacewalk tomorrow.

There is a torn solar panel (image right, click to enlarge) and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will be doing the work. The spacewalk is scheduled to start at 6:26 am EDT tomorrow morning (Saturday).

The mission is more dangerous than usual for a few reasons, for one thing Parazynski will be suspended from a boom attached to the robotic arm, with Wheelock assisting from the station’s truss. The other thing is, the panel is under power, this means if one of the metal tools like the needle nose pliers touches the panel it could be melted and that could in turn burn a hole in a glove — not good. I am not really all that sure about the electrocution that Fox NewS is playing up, but I suppose it’s possible. All the tools that could conduct electricity are going to be covered in electrical tape. Still it’s a pretty tense mission.

The robotic arm will be controlled by Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani. Talk about pressure a miss by those two is just as dangerous as a mistake by Parazynski.

From what I can tell the repair consists mainly of stabilization of the joint and panel; I’m sure we will be hearing more about it. That said, I wish them good luck and lots of it, sounds like they will need it.

Image Credit: NASA