NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 18 December 2017 – New Crew to Arrive at Station on Tuesday Morning

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA’s Scott Tingle, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is scheduled to dock to the International Space Station’s Rassvet module at 3:43 a.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 19.
Coverage of docking will begin at 3 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website, followed at 5 a.m. for coverage of the opening of hatches between the spacecraft and station, expected to occur at approximately 6:35 a.m.

The arrival of Tingle, Shkaplerov and Kanai will restore the station’s crew complement to six. They will joinExpedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos and his crewmates, Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA. The crew members will spend more than four months conducting approximately 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.

On-Orbit Status Report

Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, the 52S subject provided a daily sleep log entry to track his sleep patterns and wakefulness. This entry supports a two week long sleep shift session that began GMT 340 and ends tomorrow. The Lighting Effects investigation studies the impact of the change from fluorescent light bulbs to solid-state light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with adjustable intensity and color and aims to determine if the new lights can improve crew circadian rhythms, sleep, and cognitive performance. Results from this investigation also have major implications for people on Earth who use electric lights.

Zebrafish Muscle 2 Operations: Following the successful arrival of SpaceX-13, the crew performed the first day of Zebrafish activities by retrieving six Zebrafish experiment units (EUs) from the Zebrafish transport bags and dividing them into 3 groups (A, B, and C). Each group contains two Zebrafish EUs. The crew then conducted the fixation for the EUs of Group A and placed them into Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The EUs for Group B were then stowed in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) 1G centrifuge and Group C was stowed in the CBEF Micro-G centrifuge. The results from today and next three days of Zebrafish Muscle 2 operations will help to determine whether atrophy of muscles under microgravity also occurs in zebrafish, and why that muscle atrophy occurs in microgravity. Physical exercise and control of posture are important for maintaining muscle mass and strength. In microgravity conditions, the postural, known as anti-gravity muscles, undergo atrophy because of prominent decrease in their gravity-dependent activity.

TangoLab-1 and 2 Payload Card Placement: The crew performed several payload card placements into both of the TangoLab-1 & 2 facilities. The crew placed two of the payload cards that arrived on SpaceX-13 into slots 2 and 3 of the TangoLab-1. The payload in slot 6 of TangoLab-2 will be moved to slot 1 of TangoLab-1. The TangoLab-1 and TangoLab-2 lockers are reconfigurable general research facilities designed for microgravity research and development (R&D) and pilot manufacturing aboard the International Space Station (ISS). TangoLab-2 is similar to TangoLab-1 with the primary difference being an upgraded fan system which allows for a greater heat rejection capability. This upgrade enables payloads with greater power draw and lower temperature requirements to use the facility.

Cell Science Validation Locker (Bioculture System) Installation: The Bioculture System was removed from the SpX-13 vehicle and installed into EXPRESS Rack 7 of the ISS by the crew. The Bioculture System is a space biological science incubator for use on the International Space Station (ISS), with the capability of transporting active and stored experiments to ISS. This incubator supports a wide diversity of tissue, cell, and microbiological cultures and experiment methods to meet any space flight research experiment goals and objectives. The facility enables variable duration and long-duration cellular and microbiological experiments on ISS to meet the scientific needs of academic and biotechnology interests.

Dragon Cargo Transfers: The crew continued with cargo transfers from the Dragon Center Stack. In addition, the Double Coldbags were retrieved and unpacked. Eight Double Coldbags were unpacked into Space Automated Bioproduct Laboratory (SABL), MELFI, JAXA Freezer-Refrigerator Of STirling cycle 2 (J-FROST2), General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator (Glacier) and ambient locations. After the science was removed from the Double Coldbags, the Ice Bricks and Double Coldbags were temp stowed to dry out.

Today’s Planned Activities
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Lighting Effects Sleep Log Entry – Subject
On MCC GO ??? ?1 absorption cartridge regeneration (start)
Transfer Center Stack
URAGAN. Observation and photography using still photo equipment
ALGOMETRIA. Measurement Prep & Ops in the strain-gauge and thermal algometry modes.
Dragon Unpack Assist
Bioculture System, Transfer, and EXPRESS Rack Install
Dragon Locker Removal
Crew will retreive CTB items from Dragon
Multi Omics FOS Stow
Tightening QD Screw Clamps between DC1 and Progress 437
Zebrafish Muscle2 Item Gathering
Review TV Coverage procedure Hatch Opening from MRM1 and Arrival of Expedition 54.
Video Shooting and Setup of Zebrafish Muscle2 Containers
Activation of ???2 with Disconnected 59?=A14 Cncntr.
Cold Stowage Double Coldbag Unpack
On MCC Go ISS O2 Repress from Progress 436 [AO] ???? Section 1, start
Fixation of Zebrafish Muscle 2 samples
On MCC Go ISS O2 Repress from Progress 436 [AO] ???? Section 1, terminate
ALGOMETRIA. Strain Measurements Mode
??? maintenance
Delta file prep
Zebrafish Muscle2 MELFI Insertion
Arriving crew quarters outfitting
Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Termination
TangoLab-2 Card Cube Replace
ISS HAM Radio and Video Power Down in Columbus
ISS HAM Radio Power Down in Service Module
TangoLab-1 Card Cube Replace
Rodent Research Transfer Review
ALGOMETRIA. Conducting measurements in tenso- and thermo-algometry mode. Closeout Ops
Dragon Cargo Operations Conference
USOS Window Shutter Close
On MCC GO ??? ?1 absorption cartridge regeneration (end)
Rodent Research Crew Conference
Closing of SM windows

Completed Task List Activities
None

Ground Activities
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
Standard commanding

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Tuesday, 12/19: 51S Docking, ISS Safety Brief, RR Transfer, BRIC LED, Space Headaches
Wednesday, 12/20: Arthrospira, SABL2, Synthetic Bone, 52S Emer Drill, Zebra, RR, Ram Deploy, APEX5, Marrow-2
Thursday, 12/21: EMER Role & Resp Review, Zebra, Synthetic Bone, STP-H5, Dragon Emer OBT, APEX-5, Root Growth

QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:
Component – Status
Elektron – On
Vozdukh – Manual
[???] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) – On
[???] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) – Off
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab – Standby
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 – Operate
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab – Idle
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 – Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) – Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) – Reprocess
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab – Full Up
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 – Off