NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 17 September, 2021

The Expedition 65 crew opened up BEAM today and transferred cargo for return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship.
The orbital residents also worked on robotics, continued eye checks, and configured new life support gear.

Commander Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) opened up the station’s first commercial module BEAM, Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, today for cargo work. He was assisted by ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet as they transferred some of the stowed hardware from BEAM into the Cargo Dragon for return to Earth at the end of the month.

Robotics has also kept the crew busy this week aboard the International Space Station. Today, NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough practiced capturing a cargo craft using a virtual Canadarm2 robotic arm on a computer. McArthur also checked audio sensors on the Astrobee robotic free-flyers that monitor the orbiting lab’s acoustic environment.

Kimbrough spent the afternoon finalizing connections of a new carbon dioxide (CO2) removal device in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module. Called the Four Bed CO2 Scrubber, the new life support gear seeks to demonstrate advanced technology that will support future human missions longer and farther into space.

Vision is a key factor during long term space missions and doctors on the ground continuously monitor how microgravity affects an astronaut’s eyes. Once again, NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei took on the crew medical officer role and scanned Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Novitskiy’s eyes with an ultrasound device. Vande Hei, who is staying in space until March 2022, then set up optical coherence tomography gear and imaged the veteran cosmonaut’s retinas.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov continued configuring Russia’s Nauka multipurpose laboratory module today. He connected ethernet cables and installed a laptop computer inside the new science module. Pesquet also trained on a pair of unique interfaces to operate the new European Robotic Arm that is attached to Nauka.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads

Behavioral Core Measures (BCM): The crew set up the appropriate robotics hardware and performed the BCM testing. These sessions are nominally planned to be completed once per month, starting two weeks after a crewmember’s arrival on ISS. The Standardized Behavioral Measures for Detecting Behavioral Health Risks during Exploration Missions (Behavioral Core Measures, or simply BCM) experiment initially examined a suite of measurements to reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders during long-duration spaceflight, and evaluated the feasibility of those tests within the operational and time constraints of spaceflight for two crewmembers.

ESA Education Payload Operations (EPO) Blob: The crew concluded the Blob experiment run, which began earlier this week, and transferred the data. The goal of the Blob investigation is to observe the influence of microgravity on the Blob’s (a unicellular organism whose scientific name is Physarum polycephalum) behavior when it explores its environment or when it eats. A ground experiment takes place in schools and the results are compared against the results of the ISS conclusions. The final goal is to motivate students from France and other ESA Member States to study the Biological sciences.

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber (4BCO2): The crew continued with the installation of the 4BCO2 hardware by connecting power and data lines. 4BCO2 demonstrates a technology for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere on a spacecraft. The technology is based on the current system in use on the ISS with mechanical upgrades in absorption beds, heater elements, and valves and use of an improved zeolite absorbent to reduce erosion and dust formation. A goal for next-generation systems is continuous operation for 20,000 hours without a failure, and this technology is a step toward that goal.

The ISS Experience: The crew relocated the EVA Z-Camera system and began the data transfer. The ISS Experience Z-Camera was most recently used to capture five events related to the United States On-orbit Segment (USOS) Extravehicluar Activity (EVA) on September 12th. The ISS Experience is a cinematic Virtual Reality (VR) series documenting life and research aboard the space station. Filmed over multiple months, the immersive VR series documents different crew activities from science conducted aboard the station to preparation for a spacewalk.

JEM Microbe: The crew gathered samples from five locations (plus a control sample) in support of the JEM Microbe investigation. Space habitation is a simple ecosystem that mainly consists of humans and microbes, and soon, plants. Microbes play important roles for the material cycles and human health, but sometimes cause hazardous infectious diseases. The Evaluation of Indoor Microbial Environment in JEM (JEM Microbe) investigation’s continuous microbiological monitoring provides greater insight on changes in microbial community structure during prolonged space habitation to reduce potential hazards for the crew and the infrastructure.

SoundSee Troubleshooting Operations and Stow: The crew installed the SoundSee hardware onto the Astrobee free-flier to enable troubleshooting. Investigation of Deep Audio Analytics on the ISS (SoundSee Mission) tests monitoring of the acoustic environment using an audio sensor on Astrobee, a mobile robotic platform aboard the space station. Microphones collect acoustic information, and the Astrobee determines the sensor’s position. The system can detect anomalies in the sound of components inside a machine, providing autonomous monitoring of the health of infrastructure such as life support and exercise equipment.

Systems

Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) 3009/3015 Loop Scrub and Iodination: The crew performed EMU water loop scrubs and then acquired and tested water samples for conductivity on units 3009 and 3015. The crew then reconfigured the loop scrub hardware for iodination of EMU Ion Filter. EMU Loop Scrubs and Iodination are required preventive maintenance needed to remove any chemical and biological contaminants from the EMU transport loop and Ion Filters.

Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Ingress: Today, the crew ingressed the BEAM module and removed and backfilled items planned for disposal and return on Cargo Dragon SpaceX-23 (SpX-23). Additionally, the crew completed troubleshooting of the BEAM Wireless Temparature System WTS in attempt to recover failed temperature sensors; however, the troubleshooting was unsuccessful. In order to ingress into BEAM, ARED was folded up, and the BEAM Hatch was uninstalled to allow crew access. After the ingress, restow, and activities inside BEAM were completed, the BEAM Hatch was reinstalled and ARED was unfolded back into its nominal position.

Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Urine Receptacle (UR) and Insert Filter (IF) Remove and Replace (R&R): The crew completed routine maintenance to R&R the UR/IF. Following the R&R, the crew cleaned the WHC power supply, reactivated WHC, and performed a leak check to close out the activity.

Completed Task List Activities:

Record ESA PAO message
Today’s Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Structural Dynamics Measurement System (SDMS) Activation
Primary Power System (PPS) Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU) Activation
Mobile Servicing System (MSS) powerup
Mobile Transporter (MT) Translation
Look Ahead Plan

Saturday, September 18 (GMT 261)
Payloads:

ISS Experience SSD changeout
Rodent Research Experiment 1B
Veggie Monitoring
Systems:

Crew off-duty
Sunday, September 19 (GMT 262)
Payloads:

Astrobee prep
Rodent Research-Demo 1 crew review
Systems:

Crew off-duty
Monday, September 20 (GMT 263)
Payloads:

Astrobee hardware checkout
Biomole
CIR manifold bottle replace
DREAMS
EarthKAM setup in Node 2
Microbial Tracking 3
Plant Habitat-04 debris removal
Renewable foam
RR-D1
Systems:

IFM Thermal Amine Scrubber (TAS) Desiccant Wheel R&R
Environmental Health System (EHS) Coliform water processing
Dragon cargo ops
IFM Leak Kit Audit
Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval And Insertion Operations
Behavioral Core Measures ROBoT-r Testing
Columbus Portable power Supply MkII Relocation
EPO Blob Hardware Deinstallation
ISS Experience EVA Z-cam Relocate to Node 2
Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Termination
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cooling Loop Maintenance Scrub Initiation
Astrobee Perching Arm Removal
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygeine Compartment (WHC) Urine Receptacle (UR) and Insert Filter (IF) Remove and Replace
Dust Filer Transfer
JEM Microbe Sample MELFI Insertion
ARED Platform Partial Fold
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – JEM
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cooling Loop Maintenance Iodination
SoundSee Troubleshooting
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Ingress
BEAM sensor power swap
BEAM Hardware Stow
Environmental Health System (EHS) – Microbial Air Sampler (MAS) Kit Sample Collection
Ultrasound 2 HRF Rack 2 Power On
BEAM MAS/SSK Sample Stow
Four Bed CO2 Scrubber Integration Hardware Installation
SOUNDSEE Stow
EVA Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Cooling Loop Scrub Deconfiguration
BEAM sensor power reconfiguration
Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) Node 3 Aft Stow
ARED Platform Unfold Back to Nominal Position
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Scan
Health Maintenance System (HMS) – OCT2 Exam