NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 17 October 2018 – Nick Hague Talks About the Failed Launch

The three Expedition 57 crew members living aboard the International Space Station today explored a variety of phenomena impacted by exposure to microgravity. In Houston, NASA astronaut Nick Hague talked about his Soyuz contingency landing after last week’s failed ascent to orbit.
Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor started Wednesday morning relocating samples collected from biology experiments into a Kibo lab module science freezer. The NASA astronaut then spent the rest of the day researching how to grow protein crystals real-time on the space station.

The commander, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), put on his plumber’s cap in the morning for maintenance on the orbital lab’s toilet. The German astronaut then spent the afternoon working on gear inside the Destiny lab module before updating a warning procedures book.

In the Russian segment of the orbital lab, cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev split his time between physics and human research. The flight engineer started the day exploring how forces such as exercising or spacecraft dockings impact the station’s structure. He then participated in a study observing interactions between a space crew and Mission Control in Moscow.

Finally, Hague talked to reporters and answered social media questions on Monday in Houston about his aborted mission to the station. The interviews and question and answer session was broadcast live on NASA TV and Facebook Live. The replay can also be seen on YouTube.

On-Orbit Status Report

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test – Cohesive Sediment (BCAT-CS): The crew checked the camera alignment and focus by viewing the latest BCAT images on a laptop. BCAT-CS focuses on the study of forces between particles that cluster together by using sediments of quartz and clay particles. Conducting the research in the microgravity environment of the ISS makes it possible to separate the forces acting on the particles over a short range (adhesive forces) versus those acting over a long range (cohesive forces). The quartz/clay system is commonly found in a wide variety of environmental settings (such as rivers, lakes, and oceans) and plays an important role in technological efforts related to deep-sea hydrocarbon drilling and carbon dioxide sequestration.

BioServe Protein Crystallography (BPC)-1: Crew performed viscosity solutions into Crystallization plates mixing. Plate samples were stowed in the SABL unit. BPC-1 seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting protein crystal growth in real time onboard the ISS. Crewmembers add solutions to the hardware, observe the crystals that form and adjust for follow-on experiments. This approach gives scientists the ability to optimize crystal growth in microgravity instead of waiting for samples to return and then launching them again.

JAXA Low Temperature Protein Crystal Growth (LT PCG): Ice packs were placed into the Freezer-Refrigerator Of STirling cycle (FROST)-2 unit in preparation for LT PCG4 samples that will eventually be transferred to the HTV Small Return Capsule (HSRC). The goal of the JAXA LT PCG experiment is to produce high quality protein crystals in a microgravity environment at a low temperature.

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank Remove and Replace (R&R): Today the crew R&R’d the Pre-Treat Tank as part of nominal WHC preventative maintenance. During the activity, the crew discovered pretreat liquid that had leaked into the containment hose connected to the vent caps on the new tank. The leaking tank was bagged and stowed and an alternate tank was subsequently used to complete the R&R. Each tank contains five liters of pre-treat solution, a mix of acid, chromium oxide, and water, used for toilet flushing and required for nominal WHC operation.

LAB 1 Port 1 (LAB1P1) Pivot Fitting Swap: During installation of the Life Support Rack (LSR) on October 1, the Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS) pivot brackets were removed from LAB1P1 and replaced with Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries [IHI] style pivot brackets. However, when the crew attempted to re-reinstall an area smoke detector, a 1 cm interference between the smoke detector mounting plate and the new IHI pivot bracket was reported. Today, the crew removed the IHI pivot bracket and replaced it with outside-style ARIS pivot fittings. This eliminated interference between the pivot fitting and the smoke detector bracket.

System Operations Data File (SODF) Warning Book Updates: The crew printed and incorporated updates to Warning procedure books today. The changes are required in support of Life Support Rack activation, expected early November.

Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Quarterly Maintenance: The crew completed ARED quarterly maintenance, which includes steps to inspect the x-rotation dashpots, cycle the main arm through the full range of motion and grease ARED Vibration Isolation System (VIS) rails and rollers.

Completed Task List Activities:
None

Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
Nominal System Commanding

Two-Day Look Ahead:

Thursday, 10/18:

Payloads:
Food Acceptability (NASA)
CIR Manifold Bottle Change (Joint Ops)
SPHERES Tether Slosh (NASA)
ISS HAM (NASA)

Systems:
Water Recovery Management (WRM) Condensate Pumping

Friday, 10/19:

Payloads:
NanoRacks Platform 1&2 Relocate (NASA)
Atomization-MSPR activation (JAXA)
METEOR Inverter R&R (NASA)
Microscope H/W Setup (NASA)
Plant Habitat Harvesting (NASA)

Systems:
LSR Umbilical Mate
EMU LLB Auto cycle Initiate

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

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test – Cohesive Sedimentation Camera Activities
BioServe Protein Crystallography Plate Load Operations
Record COP24 script
Record UN Forum Script
Record VDE Summit Script
EVA Procedure Review for Suit IV
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Training Review
HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) Icepacks Relocate
In Flight Maintenance LAB1P1 Pivot Fitting Swap
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Pre-Treat Tank Remove & Replace
Delta file prep
International Procedure Viewer Tablet Questionnaire
JEM Regenerative Heat Exchanger (RHX) Water Wipe
Plug-in Plan PS-120 Junction Box Deploy in the JPM
Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos Web Site and Social Media
SODF Warning book change-out pages
HTV Cargo Operations
ECON-M. Observation and Photography
CONTENT. Experiment Ops
DAN. Experiment Session.
Filling (separation) of ЕДВ (КОВ) for Elektron or ЕДВ-СВ
Test activation of [СКВ2] Air Conditioner System Compressor Unit from [СКВ1] Power Supply
Verification of ИП-1 Flow Sensor Position
СОЖ Maintenance
Visual inspection and leak check, using US leak detector ULD in the orbital compartment [БО] of Soyuz №739.
Visual inspection and leak monitoring using US ULD Leak Detector in Soyuz 739 БО.
IDENTIFICATION. Copy ИМУ-Ц micro-accelerometer data to laptop
FGB Gas Analyzer Vacuum Cleaning
Cleaning FGB Gas-Liquid Heat Exchanger (ГЖТ) Detachable Screens 1, 2, 3
Vacuum cleaning vents on FGB interior panels (201, 301, 401)