NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 7 December 2017 – California Wildfires

Two International Space Station crews are preparing to swap places at the orbital lab next week. In the midst of the crew swap activities, Commander Randy Bresnik also sent down dramatic photographs of the wildfires in California.
The Expedition 52-53 trio is getting its Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft ready for a three-and-a-half hour ride back to Earth on Dec. 14 after 139 days in space. Sergey Ryazanskiy, the Soyuz Commander, will lead his crewmates Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency to a parachuted landing on the steppe Kazakhstan.

Next, the Expedition 54-55 trio will blast off Dec. 17 aboard the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft and take a two-day trip to its new home in space. Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran cosmonaut from Roscosmos, will lead the flight to the station flanked by first-time astronauts Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Back on orbit, Bresnik shared pictures he took on social media of the wildfires threatening the greater Los Angeles area in southern California. He wrote on his Twitter account, “Thank you to all the first responders, firefighters, and citizens willing to help fight these California wildfires.”

On-Orbit Status Report

Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) Sample Operations: The crew retrieved and cleaned the ELF sample cartridge and then transferred three samples from one set of sample holders to another set of holders. ELF is an experimental facility designed to levitate, melt and solidify materials by container less processing techniques using the electrostatic levitation method. With this facility, thermophysical properties of high temperature melts can be measured and solidification from deeply undercooled melts can be achieved.

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) SmoothNav: The crew completed several battery swaps to prepare for the upcoming SmoothNav experiment test run next week. SmoothNav develops an estimation algorithm aggregating relative state measurements between multiple, small, and potentially differently instrumented spacecraft. The algorithm obtains the most probable estimate of the relative positions and velocities between all spacecraft using all available sensor information, including past measurements. The algorithm remains portable between different satellite platforms with different onboard sensors, adaptable in the case that one or more satellites become inoperable, and tolerant to delayed measurements or measurements received at different frequencies.

Fundoscope and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Eye Exams: Two crewmembers completed routine fundoscope and OCT exams today. Eye exams are performed regularly onboard in order to monitor crewmembers eye health. Eyesight is one of the many aspects of the human body that is affected by long-duration stays in a microgravity environment.

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) 3003 Checkout and Liquid Cooled Venting Garment (LCVG) Fill: Following the recent gas trap and pump inlet filter R&Rs, the crew checked out EMU 3003 and performed a leak check on it to verify proper installation of the hardware. The crew also filled a backup LCVG with water.

Robotic Workstation (RWS) Ground Camera Calibration: Today, Part 1 of the 2 part RWS camera calibration was completed successfully. Part 2 was not required. The calibration will provide an accurate tool for crew monitoring of Visiting Vehicle (VV) overlays on the RWS. The actual cameras were not modified during the process, but rather the RWS’ knowledge of the camera pointing was modified to compensate for any misalignment. This activity was performed in support of the upcoming SpaceX-13 VV launch and capture.

LS1 Server Transition: Today, ground teams transitioned the LS1 server over to run on a new ZBook computer onboard station. The server will now run as a virtual machine under HyperVisor.

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

Lighting Effects Sleep Log Entry – Subject
Gas Trap Remove and Replace
Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Recycle Tank Drain
Samsung tablet personal files delete
Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) sample Cartridge Retrieval
ABOUT GAGARIN FROM SPACE. Hardware Deactivation and Closeout
Echo External Hard Disk connection to SSC 11
Laptop FS1 maintenance
Emergency Equipment (????, ???, ???) relocate from Soyuz to MRM1
SPHERES Battery Swap
Stowage of the equipment to be deleted
Levitation Furnace(ELF) sample Cartridge Cleaning
Monthly BRI Cleaning
Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (RGN) Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Fill
Pump Filter Remove and Replace
NAPOR-mini RSA. Cleaning Onboard Memory Storage ???-? vents
Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT Exam
BIOKARD. Performing experiment (assist)
BIOCARD. Experiment Session.
Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) Sample Refill
FAGEN. Deactivation of MSK kit No.5
FAGEN. Kit Photography
Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) Sample Holder Retrieval
Electrostatic Levitation Furnace(ELF) sample Cartridge Installation and Photodetector Amplifier(PD AMP) Setting
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Full Fill
Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Downlink
JEM Camera Robot Cable Swap
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Multiplexer Demultiplexer (MDM) Card Pack
Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth
INTER-MAI-75. HAM Radio Hardware Activation
Crew Handover Conference
Post On-orbit Removable Unit (ORU) Remove and Replace Checkout
Filling (separation) of ??? [???] for Elektron or ???-??
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) – JEM
??? maintenance
Crew Preference Transfer from Polar 2 to MERLIN 1
Polar Desiccant Swap
Telescience Resource Kit Laptop Setup
In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Crew Quarters (CQ) Overhead Cleaning
Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Deactivation
Arthrospira-B On Board Training
51S transfer operations report
ISS Crew departure preparation
Nikon still camera sync with station time
SSC Server-3 Loading Prep
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Eye Exam – Fundoscope
INTER-MAI-75. Closeout
Delta file prep
Flight Director/ISS CREW CONFERENCE
High Definition (HD) Config JEM Camera Setup for Crew Choice Event
Crew Choice Event

Completed Task List Activities
Aramis script recording
PERSEO message recording
Reconfigure LAB camcorder and Dual Canon Li-Ion Battery Charger to nominal config
Deconfigure power string for 2nd camcorder in LAB

Ground Activities
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
LS1 transition to ZBook
RWS camera calibration
Standard commanding

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Friday, 12/08: Soyuz OBT, Dragon OBT, RAM Retrieve, NASA Platform2, Arthrospira
Saturday, 12/09: Probiotics, Off Duty
Sunday, 12/10: Probiotics, Off Duty

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 – Operate
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 – Standby
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab – Idle
Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 – Operate
Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) – Process
Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) – Standby
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab – Full Up
Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 – Off