NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 6 April 2015

Commander Terry Virts and One-Year crew member Scott Kelly, both NASA astronauts, partnered together Monday for spacesuit maintenance in the Quest airlock. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti also worked throughout the U.S. segment on a variety of botany science and life research benefitting humans on Earth and crews in space.
A trio of cosmonauts, Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov, Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew member Mikhail Kornienko, worked on an array of ongoing science and maintenance in the Russian segment of the orbital laboratory. They worked on the Kurs automated rendezvous system which can guide and dock a Russian spacecraft from inside the space station if necessary. The crew also sampled the Zvezda service module’s air and analyzed it for quality.

Back on Earth, SpaceX is readying its Falcon rocket and Dragon commercial space freighter for an April 13 launch from Florida to the International Space Station. Dragon will fly for two days before its capture and berthing to the Harmony module where it will stay until May 20. This will be the sixth SpaceX mission (SpaceX CRS-6) for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract.

New experiments Plant Gravity Sensing and TripleLux-A will be delivered on the upcoming SpaceX Dragon mission.

On-Orbit Status Report

Blood Pressure Regulation (BP Reg) Experiment: Virts set up a video camera and configured hardware in preparation for leg cuff and re-breathing protocol tomorrow. This Canadian Space Agency (CSA) investigation tests the effectiveness of in-flight manipulation of arterial blood pressure (BP) as an indicator of post-flight response to a brief stand test, since space flight negatively impacts the regulation of BP on return to upright posture on Earth. In this experiment a Leg Cuff test induces a brief drop in BP following the release of a short obstruction of blood flow to the legs. The change in BP from pre-flight to in-flight will be used to predict those astronauts who may be susceptible to experiencing the greatest drops in BP in the post-flight stand test. A second objective is to determine whether cardiac output calculated from the analysis of the finger BP waveform provides an accurate estimate both pre-flight and in-flight by comparison with a re-breathing method.

Fine Motor Skills: Kelly performed his Flight Day (FD) 10 session of Fine Motor Skills. The investigation is the first fine motor skills study to measure long-term microgravity exposure, different phases of microgravity adaptation, and sensorimotor recovery after returning to Earth’s gravity. The goal is to assess how fine motor performance in microgravity trends/varies over the duration of a 6-month and year-long space mission; how fine motor performance on orbit compares with that of a closely matched participant on Earth; and how performance trends/varies before and after gravitational transitions, including the periods of early flight adaptation, and very early/near immediate post-flight periods.

Aniso Tubule: Cristoforetti removed Aniso samples from the Aquatic Habitat (AQH) microscope following 2 days of observations by ground experts. The experiment examines growth modifications of Arabidopsis hypocotyls in space. Scientists aim to analyze the changes in dynamics of cortical microtubules and microtubule-associated proteins by observing Arabidopsis hypocotyls and microtubule-associated proteins with a fluorescence microscope.

Solution Crystallization Observation Facility (SCOF) Launch Lock Fix: Cristoforetti fastened the launch lock on the SCOF in the Ryutai rack as part of planned maintenance of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM). The SCOF is used to investigate the morphology and growth of crystals. It is equipped with several microscopes to simultaneously measure changes in morphology and growth conditions (temperature and concentration) of crystals.

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Maintenance: Virts and Kelly performed a partial dump and fill on EMU 3010.The crew then performed a ionic and particulate filtration (scrubbing) and biocidal maintenance (iodination) of EMUs 3010 and Airlock cooling water loops. Finally the crew performed a dryout of the EMU Fan Module and Vent Loop.

On-Board Training (OBT): Kelly and Kornienko completed ISS Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Computer Based Training (CBT). Following the training they completed self-assessment questions.

Today’s Planned Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Fine Motor Skills – Experiment Ops
24-hour BP Monitoring (start) r/g 8425
EMU Water Tank Maintenance
Replacement of Kurs-P container on FGB r/g 8417, 8419
Greasing Exposed ARED Wires
MSPR – Deactivation of VRU/HUB in MSPR
ARED Flywheel Cylinder Evacuation
ANISO – Closeout Ops
BIOME – Survey Completion
CASKAD. Manual Mixing in Bioreactor / r/g 8358
Fine Motor Skills Experiment – Set up hardware for the experiment
SCOF – Fixing launch lock
Photography of space behind SM panels 326, 327 / r/g 8427
EMU Cooling Loop Scrub, Part 1
SCD – Hardware Temperature Check
Recharge Air Conditioner with Khladon from the bottle – preparation. / r/g 8422
Downlink photos of areas behind SM panels 326,327 r/g 8427
Periodic fitness evaluation – subject
BP REG – Hardware Setup
Analysis of SM Atmosphere for Freon Using ???. / r/g 8428
CALCIUM. Experiment session 4. / r/g 8421
EMU Cooling Loop Scrub, Part 1
EMU Short Dryout
???2 Refill with Freon from tanks. / r/g 8422
EMU Cooling Loop Scrub, Part 1
Crew time for ISS adaptation and orientation
On-orbit Hearing Assessment using EARQ
Analysis of SM Atmosphere for Freon Using Freon Leak Analyzer/Detector (???)
EMU Cooling Loop Maintenance
Condensate Tank Offload into CWC
24-hour ECG (start) / r/g 8424
EMU Dryout
Psychological Evaluation Program (WinSCAT)
Crew time for ISS adaptation and orientation
Video Footage for Roscosmos TV Studio / r/g 8429
EMU Cooling Loop Scrub, Part 1
Termination of Condensate Tank Offload into CWC
PAO Event
???? Configuration for MRM2 / SM Communication System [???]
Removal of Command Generator (???) No.60?=?1 in MRM2. / r/g 8418
PAO Event
Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) Conference
ER1 – Configuration
RR – Laptop Software Load
Comm reconfig for nominal ops / SM Communication System [???]
Crew Medical Officer (CMO) proficiency training
RR – Laptop Software Load
Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Proficiency Training
Polar 1 Software Load
VZAIMODEISTVIEYE-2. Experiment Ops / r/g 8420
Sprint VO2 Kit Operations
Lab condensate tank to WPA WW tank reconfig [Aborted]
IMS Delta File Prep
Exercise data downlink / r/g 6797
CASKAD. Manual Mixing in Bioreactor / r/g 8358
BIOME – Sampling Setup
Crew time for ISS adaptation and orientation
WRM – Configuration
Completed Task List Items

JEM PCS Shell Swap
Completed Saturday
41S return bag swap
AMO plan input
AMO TOCA activities analysis
COL ETC E1 photo audit
Ground Activities
All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

EMU maintenance activities
S0 MDM EEPROM Refresh
Three-Day Look Ahead:

Tuesday, 04/07: BP Reg, MSG H/W Gather for Rodent Research, Dragon OBT offset grapple
Wednesday, 04/08: ISS emergency response training & conference, Sprint,
Thursday, 04/09: Ocular Health, Bone Densitometer Cal 1, MSG setup for Rodents Research
QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:

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