NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 13 May 2012
ISS On-Orbit Status 05/13/12
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – Crew off duty. Ahead: Week 3 of Increment 31 (three-person crew).
Kuipers continued his current extended session of the ESA ENERGY experiment. No urine or water sampling scheduled today, but required were the special ENERGY breakfast plus logging of all ISS food & drinks consumed during ENERGY experiment performance from lunch and dinner on Day 1 until breakfast on Day 10. [André wears an armband monitor, positioned on the right triceps where it started automatically on skin contact. The instrument must be worn for the entire 10-day ENERGY measurement period and removed only during showers or if needed during blood draws. Activities without the armband monitor on the triceps must be carefully logged. The monitor will be removed at the end of the 10-day period, then data will be downloaded from the device. Background: The observed loss of astronauts’ body mass during space flight is partly due to the systematic ongoing negative energy balance in micro-G, in addition to disuse. Unfortunately, the reason for such unbalanced match between intake and output is not clear, but appealing data suggest a relation between the degree of energy deficit and the exercise level prescribed as a countermeasure. Purpose of the ENERGY experiment is (1) to measure changes in energy balance during long term space flight, (2) to measure adaptations in the components of the Total Energy Expenditure TEE (consumption), and (3) to derive an equation for the energy requirements of astronauts. TEE is the sum of resting metabolic rate (RMR, measured), diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT, measured oxygen-uptake minus RMR) and activity-related energy expenditure (AEE, calculated).]
After breakfast, CDR Kononenko performed the routine inspection of the SM (Service Module) PSS Caution & Warning panel as part of regular Daily Morning Inspection.
Oleg also completed the routine daily & weekly servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM and FGB. [This included the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings of SM & FGB for calldown to TsUP-Moscow, as well as the weekly checkup on the Russian POTOK-150MK (150 micron) air filter unit of the SM’s & FGB’s SOGS air revitalization subsystem, gathering weekly data on total operating time & “On” durations for calldown. SOZh servicing includes checking the ASU toilet facilities, replacement of the KTO & KBO solid waste containers and replacement of EDV-SV waste water and EDV-U urine containers.]
FE-6 Pettit supported the ground in swapping the THC CCAA (Temperature & Humidity Control / Common Cabin Air Assembly) air conditioner in the U.S. Lab from starboard to port by closing off the S6 MFCV (Manual Flow Control Valve) and opening the P6 MFCV. This allowed the swapover from the CCAA starboard channel (S6) to the alternate system on port (P6) in preparation for tomorrow’s scheduled SIGI GPS-1 (Space Integrated GPS/Inertial Navigation System / Global Positioning System 1) replacement. [The CCAA is a network of ducting that draws in the air through filters, delivers it for conditioning, and returns it to the modules. The swap-over between the CCAA channels is generally done by the ground once a month, with crew support, to dry out the heat exchanger of the deactivated side. MCC-H flight controllers command the required systems configurations for the dryout via S-band. On 5/10, GPS-1 locked up and stopped producing attitude information, potentially due to an internal hardware issue. Controllers on the ground power-cycled it twice (turned it off/on), but it did not come back on. GPS-1 is drawing power but is not communicating with the GNC MDM (Guidance, Navigation & Control Multiplexer/Demultiplexer) computer. There is another good spare onboard for an R&R (removal & replacement), as well as a degraded spare.]
At ~11:20am EDT, Oleg Kononenko supported a Russian PAO TV event by downlinking a message of greetings to 11th grade students at Secondary School No. 1 in the City of Korolev.
The crew had their weekly PFCs (Private Family Conferences), via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), André at ~4:20am, Oleg ~11:20am, Don at ~12:35pm EDT.
The crew worked out with their regular 2-hr physical exercise protocol on the TVIS treadmill with vibration isolation & stabilization (CDR), ARED advanced resistive exerciser (CDR, FE-5, FE-6), and T2/COLBERT advanced treadmill (FE-5, FE-6). [FE-6 is on the special experimental SPRINT protocol which diverts from the regular 2.5 hrs per day exercise regime and introduces special daily sessions, followed by a USND (Ultrasound) leg muscle self scan in COL. No exercise is being timelined for Fridays. If any day is not completed, Don picks up where he left off, i.e., he would be finishing out the week with his last day of exercise on his off day. Today’s exercise called for ARED+T2 (resistive+aerobic), with T2, ARED+T2, CEVIS & ARED+T2 following in the next 4 days. If any day is not completed, Don picks up where he left off, i.e., he would be finishing out the week with his last day of exercise on his off day.]
Tasks listed for Kononenko on the Russian discretionary “time permitting” job for today were –
• A 10-min. photography session for the DZZ-13 “Seiner” ocean observation program, obtaining HDV (Z1) camcorder footage of color bloom patterns in the waters of the Central-Eastern Atlantic, then copying the images to the RSK-1 laptop,
• A ~30-min. session for Russia’s EKON Environmental Safety Agency, making observations and taking KPT-3 aerial photography of environmental conditions on Earth using the NIKON D3X camera with the RSK-1 laptop, and
• More preparation & downlinking of reportages (written text, photos, videos) for the Roskosmos website to promote Russia’s manned space program (max. file size 500 Mb).
WRM Update: A new WRM (Water Recovery Management) “cue card” was uplinked to the crew for their reference, updated with their latest CWC (Contingency Water Container) water audit. [The new card (31-0005B lists 10 CWCs (44.4 L total) for the five types of water identified on board: 1. Silver technical water (no CWCs); 2. Condensate water (3 CWCs with 14.0 L, plus 3 empty bags); 3. Iodinated water (2 CWCs with 30.4 L; and 4. Waste water (1 empty bag EMU waste water). Also one leaky CWC (#1024) with 8.5 L). No bags with Wautersia bacteria. Other CWCs are stowed behind racks and are currently not being tracked due to unchanging contents. Wautersia bacteria are typical water-borne microorganisms that have been seen previously in ISS water sources. These isolates pose no threat to human health.]
Soyuz TMA-04M/30S Update: Yesterday (5/12), a meeting of the Technical Management was held at the Baikonur launch site under the chairmanship of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia President and General Designer V.A. Lopota and the State Commission which adopted the decision on the rollout of the launch vehicle for the launch of Soyuz TMA-04M/30S to the ISS tomorrow night at 11:02 pm EDT.
No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) targets uplinked for today.
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:47am EDT [= epoch])
Mean altitude – 399.0 km
Apogee height – 406.1 km
Perigee height – 391.9 km
Period — 92.54 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0010433
Solar Beta Angle — -30.7 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.56
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 69 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 77,261
Time in orbit (station) — 4923 days
Time in orbit (crews, cum.) — 4210 days
Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time and subject to change):
————–Three-crew operations————-
05/14/12 — Soyuz TMA-04M/30S launch – G.Padalka (CDR-32)/J.Acaba/S.Revin (~11:02 pm EDT)
05/17/12 — Soyuz TMA-04M/30S docking (MRM2) (~12:39am EDT)
05/19/12 — SpaceX Falcon/Dragon launch (~4:55am EDT)
05/22/12 — SpaceX Dragon berthing (~12:15pm EDT)
————–Six-crew operations—————-
07/01/12 — Soyuz TMA-03M/29S undock/landing (End of Increment 31)
————–Three-crew operations————-
07/15/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/31S launch – S.Williams (CDR-33)/Y.Malenchenko/A.Hoshide
07/17/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/31S docking
07/20/12 — HTV3 launch (~10:18pm EDT)
07/22/12 — Progress M-15M/47P undock
07/24/12 — Progress M-15M/47P re-docking
07/30/12 — Progress M-15M/47P undocking/deorbit
07/31/12 — Progress M16M/48P launch
08/02/12 — Progress M16M/48P docking
————–Six-crew operations—————-
09/17/12 — Soyuz TMA-04M/30S undock/landing (End of Increment 32)
————–Three-crew operations————-
10/15/12 — Soyuz TMA-06M/32S launch – K.Ford (CDR-34)/O.Novitskiy/E.Tarelkin
10/17/12 — Soyuz TMA-06M/32S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
11/01/12 — Progress M-17M/49P launch
11/03/12 — Progress M-17M/49P docking
11/12/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/31S undock/landing (End of Increment 33)
————–Three-crew operations————-
12/05/12 — Soyuz TMA-07M/33S launch – C.Hadfield (CDR-35)/T.Mashburn/R.Romanenko
12/07/12 — Soyuz TMA-07M/33S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
12/26/12 — Progress M-18M/50P launch
12/28/12 — Progress M-18M/50P docking
03/19/13 — Soyuz TMA-06M/32S undock/landing (End of Increment 34)
————–Three-crew operations————-
04/02/13 — Soyuz TMA-08M/34S launch – P.Vinogradov (CDR-36)/C.Cassidy/A.Misurkin
04/04/13 — Soyuz TMA-08M/34S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
05/16/13 — Soyuz TMA-07M/33S undock/landing (End of Increment 35)
————–Three-crew operations————-
05/29/13 — Soyuz TMA-09M/35S launch – M.Suraev (CDR-37)/K.Nyberg/L.Parmitano
05/31/13 — Soyuz TMA-09M/35S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
09/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-08M/34S undock/landing (End of Increment 36)
————–Three-crew operations————-
09/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-10M/36S launch – M.Hopkins/TBD (CDR-38)/TBD
09/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-10M/36S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
11/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-09M/35S undock/landing (End of Increment 37)
————–Three-crew operations————-
11/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-11M/37S launch – K.Wakata (CDR-39)/R.Mastracchio/TBD
11/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-11M/37S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
03/xx/14 — Soyuz TMA-10M/36S undock/landing (End of Increment 38)
————–Three-crew operations————-
