Project Persephone

Spacewalk to set up robotic arm Dextre

EVA - Extra-Vehicular Activity, AKA "spacewalk" - activity by space-suited human beings in orbit, typically but not always untethered.

Origins of the term

The first spacewalks were from vehicles - space capsules. The term thus seems to connote activity outside a spacecraft, but not on the surface of a celestial body. The Apollo Lunar Modules were space vehicles, but walking on the moon was not called EVA. (CHECK).

Future use

"EVA" is a blurry term, and may get blurrier. Space stations don't quite fit the common-sense notion of "vehicles" (stations are thought of as stationary), so this term's use for operations outside ISS seems anachronistic, a holdover from an era in which more nautical metaphors predominated. Given the increasing teleoperability of robots in orbit, the term may be extended to such operations, since some of these operations take place outside the vehicle, and they do constitute "activity."

AERCam Sprint

Project Persephone aims to take advantage of the trend toward using robotics (especially ground-based teleoperated robotics) in extravehicular activities in space. The term telebot might be restricted to untethered devices inside exovivaria. However, there might be uses for special-purpose free-flying tele-operated robots outside exovivaria. The space-facing surfaces of exovivaria and equipment mounted on them may require inspection and repair (especially after orbital debris strikes). Some of these tasks may be best done untethered, especially if an exovivarium is rotating. In these cases (with exovivaria considered as "vehicles" of a sort), the term "EVA" might apply.