ISS Science Operations Weekly Status Report April 17, 2002
New Expedition Four experiments were successfully transferred to the International
Space Station last week, while completed experiments were stowed aboard the
Space Shuttle for today’s undocking and return to scientists waiting on Earth.
On Wednesday, April 10, Shuttle Mission Specialists Lee Morin and Jerry Ross
transferred the Commercial Protein Crystal Growth High Density (CPCG-H)
experiment from Atlantis to the Space Station. Following power-up, health and
status data were received by the University of Alabama at Birmingham science
team, and scientists there have continued to receive telemetry.
On Friday, April 12, two more Expedition Four experiments were successfully
transferred from the Shuttle to the Station: the Biomass Production System
– Photosynthesis Experiment and System Testing Operation (BPS-PESTO) and
the Protein Crystal Growth Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar (PCG-EGN) experiment.
The Principal investigators are Dr. Robert Morrow of Orbital Technologies Corp.,
Dr. Gary Stutte of Dynamac Corp. for BPS, and Dr. Alexander McPherson of the
University of California, Irvine for the Dewar experiment. BPS operations quickly
began with sampling activities on Saturday,
Sunday and Tuesday. When an acoustic muffler was installed upon transfer,
humidity began to rise inside the environmental chambers. To avoid any loss
of science, the muffler was removed
“Our four environmental chambers contain developing Apogee wheat and Brassica
rapa plants, which were germinated on the ground, pre-flight,” said Kristina
Lagel, BPS project scientist with NASA’s Ames Research Center. “The BPS gathers
a significant amount of data, both for payload performance and plant environment,
that the principal investigators have been using to study the plant growth.
During the past week in orbit, the Expedition Four crew performed gas calibration
and sampling activities on three of the environmental chambers. In addition
to providing a detailed look at air composition in the chambers, the gas samples
will provide the air leak rate for the chambers, which is an important variable
when analyzing plant photosynthetic activity.”
The dewar experiment was placed in the Russian FGB (Zarya) module, where this
passive experiment will be allowed to thaw out and begin production of biological
crystals for study later on the ground.
After Thursday’s spacewalk – the first of four to add a new truss structure
and other equipment to the Station – the crew on Friday collected radiation
readings on one set of EVA Radiation Monitoring (EVARM) dosimeter badges
worn in the cooling undergarments of their spacesuits, as well as pre-spacewalk
readings for Saturday’s spacewalk. The dosimeter badges were worn during each
of the four EVA’s, with the badges being read in the days between the space
walks.
Following final sample collection on Saturday, the Advanced Astroculture
(ADVASC) experiment was deactivated and transferred from the Station to
the Shuttle for return. In addition to collecting BPS samples, the crew also
collected post spacewalk readings on their EVARM dosimeter badges and set up
the Zeolite Crystal
On Sunday, the crew performed ZCG operations, transferring and installing zeolite
samples in the growth furnace in preparation for a 15-day series of sample runs
beginning April 22. The principal investigator is Dr. Al Sacco, Jr., with the
Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing at Northeastern University
in Boston, one of 17 NASA Commercial Space Centers.
The crew also moved the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA)
experiment from Atlantis to the Station and transferred cell science samples
processed earlier during Expedition Four from a refrigerator in the lab to the
Shuttle for return. The CGBA principal investigators are Dr. David Klaus, BioServe
Space Technologies, University of Colorado, Boulder and Dr. Wenying Li, Bristol-Myers
Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Wallingford, Conn.. Flight Engineer
Carl Walz and Commander Yury Onufrienko also completed their Crew Interactions
computer-bases surveys.
With the majority of payload transfers completed last week, the crew continued
collecting EVARM badge readings on Monday. On Tuesday, EXPRESS Rack 2 was powered
up, allowing the Active Rack Isolation System ISS-Characterization Experiment
(ARIS-ICE) to resume testing the experimental vibration dampener.
Today, the crew transferred the new ARCTIC refrigerator from Atlantis
to the lab and activated it and deactivated the lab’s BioTechnology Refrigrator
(BTR), used to store biological samples during previous missions. EXPRESS
Rack 1 was also powered up today, so the Shuttle undocking could be recorded
by the Space Acceleration Measurement System and the Microgravity
Acceleration Measurement System contained in the rack.
