ISS On-Orbit Status 28 Sep 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously. Rest day before Progress 9P arrival tomorrow.
Valery Korzun, Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev started their Saturday off by completing the weekly 3-hr. housecleaning, which focuses on removal of food waste products, periodic cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, and wet cleaning of surfaces.
Crew spent part of their off-duty time to reboot the MEC (medical equipment computer) and reload the SSC-4 (station support computer #4) laptop. [It appears the SSC-4’s hard drive load and laptop shell CMOS settings got corrupted because of a DC power interruption that occurred previously on this machine when its back-up battery was not charged sufficiently to save enough data for a complete “hibernation” file.]
The two cosmonauts set up the Russian LIV camcorder for a TV session at 7:40am EDT, downlinking greetings to Moscow on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Ground Systems Department/Main Testing Center on 10/4. [The event coincides with the 45th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1 (October 4, 1957) that marked the beginning of space exploration. The Test Center has supported all Soviet/Russian space programs, including Gagarin’s flight, the Mir space station and the Energia-Buran shuttle system.]
The daily routine task of SOSh life support systems maintenance was performed by CDR Korzun, while FE-1/SO Whitson did the daily checkup on the Lab payloads status.
All crewmembers had their weekly PFCs (private family conferences) via S-band.
Korzun and Whitson conducted a TV signal transmission test from the Russian segment via U.S. assets and Ku-band, in preparation for tomorrow’s 9P docking.
9P/Progress M1-9 is expected to establish acquisition of ISS with its automated Kurs approach and docking system tomorrow at about 11:51am EDT. Korzun and Treschev will monitor Kurs data from the SM on a laptop screen. At 12:32pm, a flyaround at 400 m range will be initiated, and at 12:41pm stationkeeping begins at 170m. Should the automatic approach with Kurs fail, Korzun will take over control with the remote control TORU system from stationkeeping on in. Final approach will be initiated at 12:55pm, with nominal docking at 1:05pm. The docking occurs in darkness, and the SM aft port will be illuminated by the Progress headlight. During docking the ISS, in inertial attitude, will briefly go into free drift.
Safety instructions were uplinked to the station residents for the hatch opening and begin of cargo unloading. [They were asked to use masks and safety goggles during Progress ingress in order to protect eyes and respiratory system in the unlikely event of leakage from the ESA Cardiocog batteries. Also, the safety of the Progress air will be verified with the U.S. CSA-CP (compound specific analyzer-combustion products) and Russian AK-M1 analysis instruments. Any unusual odors should be noted, and the areas near the docking mechanism drive, PVK command panel and lower lateral hatch of the Progress are to be treated with Fungistat disinfectant.]
Further inspection and photography of the EXPRESS Rack 4 (ER4) with ARIS (active rack isolation system) was added to the crew’s “job jar” task list. [Test data show that there is still some interference acting on ARIS, requiring a large bias force to move the rack to its center position. Forces for moving the rack away from its center position are so large that the ARIS actuators saturate, and therefore the ground is only able to move the rack downward 25% of the expected range. This results in a loss of microgravity performance. If the force is due to the grounding strap recently jerry-rigged by the crew, the problem will be solved by the installation of a new ARIS grounding strap during 9A. To make sure there are no other causes, the task list item has Peggy Whitson photographing the ER laptop computer cable routing and performing a visual inspection of the ARIS rack, to verify that there is really no interference with any cables or other soft material.]
Also task-listed was a search for two missing standard rack ground straps (GS’s), eventually needed for racks to be delivered on ULF-1 next year. The GS’s were removed from the Lab during the 5A.1 and 8A stages to make room for the two EXPRESS racks. The crew was advised not to spend more than an hour looking for the items.
Target areas for the Russian Uragan earth imaging program for today, on Korzun’s task list, were drifting ice in the Southern Ocean from the Drake Strait to the Sandwich Islands (as yesterday) and jungle villages on the banks of small rivers on the western slope of the Andes.
Task-listed ocean observations of the Diatomeya program targeted the Pacific Ocean (southern boundary of the Northern Pacific Ocean Current), the Black Sea (aquatic test range of the Oceanography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences), waters southwest of Oahu, Hawaii, and the Fiji Sea. [Objective of Diatomeya is the observation of bioluminescence, a glow of bluish-green color caused by marine microorganisms living in salt water. It occurs in warm, highly bioproductive waters disturbed by surface wave action, passing ships, and other dynamic phenomena. The experiment attempts to determine whether observations from space can be made with results as reliable as from ships and airplanes.]
Science Update (Expedition Five — 15th):
Lead Increment Scientist Vic Cooley to crew: “Thank you for your attention this week to ADVASC, EVARM, PFMI, PCG-STES, Interactions, Crew Earth Observations, SAMS, and MAMS and the EXPRESS Rack4 RIC reboot. We’ll do a PFMI run on Monday. On Wednesday, after 9A launch is confirmed, we will ask you to deactivate ADVASC, then disconnect and stow the cables on Thursday. On Thursday and Friday, we plan on the EVARMbadge pre-reads. We wish you an enjoyable, safe, and productive mated mission.”
Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): The EVARM data file with the past several pre-EVA measurements was successfully downlinked this week and the data is being analyzed by the PI (principal investigator).
GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): Next PuFF session will be on 10/1 (Tuesday).
Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: Final session is planned for mid-October.
Interactions (NTXN): Continuing.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): n/a
Commercial Refrigerator Incubator Module-Commercial Stelsys (STELSYS): Experiment is complete.
Microencapsulation Electrostatic Processing (MEPS): Complete. To be returned on 9A.
Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC): ADVASC is running nominally.
Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA): SUBSA operations have been completed with eight successful samples runs.
Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): The PFMI run begun on 9/23 (Monday) did not go quite as planned. Because of the loss of Ku-band coverage, the experiment was prematurely terminated. This occurred after the sample had reached its final meltback position but before it had begun to solidify. Another problem was that shortly before Ku-band coverage was lost, it was noticed that commands sent to the heater translation motor were not being executed properly. It appears now that this may be due to a single event upset (SEU). In the translation system troubleshooting conducted 9/26 (Thursday), everything operated nominal. Ready to process PFMI-07 on 9/30 (Monday). Thanks to the crew for getting PFMI back on track.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS SE 121f08 in the MSG (microgravity science glovebox) was activated again to support PFMI. Progress 8P undock was captured, and capturing 9P docking data tomorrow is anticipated.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS is active and continuing measurement of microgravity environment in the quasi-steady regime for general characterization. OSS acceleration data recorded during Progress 8P undocking and anticipate activating HiRAP for Progress 9P docking.
Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS) Support: ARIS preparations to support ZCG during 9A are continuing.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): Temperatures are stable. Deactivation of remaining cylinders on 10/4.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside. Nominal and collecting data.
Educational Payload Operations (EPO-5): Completed.
EarthKAM: Planned. Will be performed during Stage 9A.
Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): Activation of new ZCG samples will most likely begin during the 9A joint ops period.
ARCTIC Refrigerator/Freezer 1 (ARCTIC-1): After the ER4 RIC reboot on 9/26 the interior of ARCTIC-1 only warmed to -17 deg C, adequately protecting Stelsys samples inside. ARCTIC-2 at +5 degC was not impacted.
ARCTIC Refrigerator/Freezer 2 (ARCTIC-2): A remote command was successfully sent to ARCTIC-2, confirming that as of 9A stage, all commanding for both ARCTICs can be achieved from the ground. Troubleshooting for ARCTIC-2 water flow issues is tentatively scheduled for ~10 days after 9A/STS-112 undocking.
Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA): Will be performed during Stage 9A.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Today’s targets were Perth, Australia (nadir and a touch right of track; ESC [electronic still camera] requested), Buenos Aires, Argentina (nadir pass; ESC), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (crew was to look left for numerous northern Mozambique fires), Brasilia, Brazil (left of track. Of interest: symmetric highway patterns of this planned city. ESC requested).
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:00am EDT [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 386.7 km
- Apogee — 398.4 km
- Perigee — 375.1 km
- Period — 92.3 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0017231
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.60
- Solar Beta Angle — 46.0 deg (magnitude decreasing)
- Altitude decrease — 280 m (mean) in last 24 hours
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 22014
- Current Flight Attitude — XVV (x-axis in velocity vector, 5.0 deg roll bias [yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -9.5 deg, roll: -5 deg], with CMG Thruster Assist Momentum Management).
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html
