I promised myself I wouldn't name drop, but with all the talk of "Scott this" and "Scott that", I can't help it. Back around 2000 I got in touch with Scott P, and held several email and phone conversations about building a Web site for the crew of his upcoming (at the time) mission. NASA PAO freaked when they found out--nothing gives them the heebie-jeebies like the thought of an astronaut communicating independently with the public--so nothing came of it.

But the point of the name-dropping is to say that yes, Scott is probably the most experienced EVA specialist NASA has (now that Pinky's retired), and as a person, he's soft-spoken and quiet and extremely intelligent. Judging by some post-EVA pics I've seen of him with that classic astronaut's expression of transcendental joy, he lives for spacewalking and that's when he comes completely out of his shell. All-around really fine example of a human being. The solar panel repairs are in the hands of a world-class expert. If Scott can't fix 'em, nobody can!

I don't think they'll be too bothered by the "electric factor". Somebody on this thread fretted about arcing, but you can't get an arc in a vacuum--it requires a gas to turn into plasma. As long as they remember to flip the breakers, there shouldn't be any danger of some mishap like shorting out terminals with a wrench or that sort of thing.

Kapton, Kapton! Sounds like Chekhov to Kirk, doesn't it? It's been around for as long as I can remember, and it's a special kind of mylar that's good for high-voltage insulation. Used everywhere in aerospace. I'm sure they have a crate of duct tape aboard, but I'm sure they also have some Kapton tape around for just this eventuality. Think of it as high-voltage duct tape.