NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 7 November 2017 – Testing a Personal Radiation Shielding Garment Today

The Expedition 53 crew explored ways to protect astronauts from space radiation as well as dust particles floating inside a spacecraft. The residents of the International Space Station also worked on cosmic ray gear, a U.S. spacesuit and audio equipment.
European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli tested a personal radiation shielding garment today. Water, used for its shielding properties, is placed in garment containers that cover organs that are especially sensitive to cosmic radiation.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei studied how gases and dust in the station’s atmosphere impact breathing aboard a spacecraft. He set up ultra-sensitive monitors that analyze exhaled air to detect crew health impacts. Results will help doctors and engineers improve conditions for future astronauts traveling longer and farther into space.

NASA astronaut Joe Acaba worked on a U.S. spacesuit’s water system before changing out a hard drive and installing new software on a support laptop for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer cosmic ray detector. Commander Randy Bresnik replaced faulty electronics gear inside the Harmony module restoring power to an internal audio speaker unit.

On-Orbit Status Report

Personal Radiation Shielding for Interplanetary Missions (PERSEO): Today the crew performed an initial checkout of a radiation shielding garment for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) PERSEO Project. They filled the garment with water, donned the garment, and later doffed the garment before draining the water. PERSEO evaluates the efficacy of a personal radiation protection system, easily wearable by the astronaut and aimed at risk reduction for exposure to cosmic radiation, particularly in case of solar particle events. The garment has containers that are positioned to shield the more radiosensitive organs. Water is used because of its shielding properties and its ready availability on the ISS. The radiation protection strategy will be tested with dedicated measurements of shielding efficacy.

Airway Monitoring: The crew set up the Airway Monitoring system in the US Laboratory module today and powered on the Enhancement Unit and the Portable Pulmonary Function System (PFS) for a software upgrade from the ground. With dust particles present in the ISS atmosphere, Airway Monitoring studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crewmembers, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to analyze exhaled air. This will help to identify health impacts and support maintenance of crewmember well-being on future human spaceflight missions, such as to the Moon and Mars, where crewmembers will have to be more self-sufficient in identifying and avoiding such conditions.

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)-02: On Sunday the AMS-02 laptop hard drive failed. Today the crew changed out the drive and installed software on the new hard drive. AMS-02 has collected and analyzed billions of cosmic ray events, and identified millions of these as electrons or positrons (anti-matter). The number of high energy positons increases steadily rather than decaying, which is different than projections from theoretical models and indicates a yet to be identified source of positrons. Researchers have also observed a plateau in the positron growth curve and need additional data to determine why. Results suggest that high-energy positrons and cosmic ray electrons may come from different and mysterious sources. Solving the origin of cosmic rays and antimatter increases understanding of our galaxy.

Story Time From Space: A crewmember participated in the Story Time from Space project by reading I Wonder Why Stars Twinkle today while being videotaped. The recording will be downlinked and used for educational purposes. Story Time From Space combines science literacy outreach with simple demonstrations recorded aboard the ISS. Crew members read science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related children’s books on orbit, and complete simple science concept experiments. Video and data collected during the demonstrations are downlinked to the ground and posted in a video library with accompanying educational materials.

Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) N21B4A-B R&R: This morning, the crew replaced RPCM N21B4A_B via a Hot Demate/Mate (HDMM). No powerdowns were required during this operation. A new RPCM was installed and successfully established communication with the MDM. Downstream loads have been successfully powered on. This R&R has recovered the Node2 ATU1.

EVA Mobility Unit (EMU) Maintenance: Today the crew performed EMU maintenance, replacing the water line vent tube assembly on EMU 3003 and refilling water tanks.

Node 2 Overhead InterModule Ventilation (IMV) Reconfiguration: The crew reconfigured the N2 Overhead IMV by replacing ductwork and installing a new high speed fan. This will provide airflow to Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 (PMA-3).

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

Lighting Effects Sleep Log Entry – Subject
Public Affairs Office (PAO) Social Media Event
Setup N1 camcorder to downlink view
?????????-2. ?????????? ??????? ?? ???-? ? ?????????? ?? ???. ?? 1 ? ??? ????????
Sensor Changeout
ARIS Hardware Consolidate
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Hard Upper Torso (HUT) Water Line Vent Tube Assembly (WLVTA) Remove and Replace
On MCC Go, Regeneration of Micropurification Unit (???) ?1 Cartridge (start)
AIRMON Setup and Power On
Photography of the ??-2 treadmill belt edge and screen form of Belt tab
PROBOY. Connecting cable 17??.600? 8260?47-10
??? maintenance
PROBOY. Acoustic Signal Converter Unit (????) activation and Software Update.
CONSTANTA-2. Preparation and Execution 6. Tagup with specialists
Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Water Recharge
ESA Nutritional Assessment EveryWear Application Conference
Rotate Rack Down at NOD2S4 Location Down for RPCM R&R Access
Node 2 RPCM (Remote Power Control Module) R&R at NOD2S4 Location
Return N1 camcorder to its nominal location
Rotate Rack Back Up at NOD2S4 Location after RPCM R&R
MELFI 3 Ice Brick Insert 3
Earth Imagery from ISS Crew Preference Target Operations
Cleanup Operations from Node 2 Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) Operations
PROBOY. RS?1 Laptop Ops
PROBOY. Penetration Simulator Ops
Node 2 IMV (Intermodule Ventilation) Diffuser Photos at NOD2OP3 and NOD2OP4 locations
Robotic Workstation (RWS) Setup
AIRMON Power Off
Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Downlink
PROBOY. Copy and Downlink Data
On-board Training (OBT) Cygnus Robotics Onboard Trainer (ROBoT) Self study Session
PROFILAKTIKA-2. ???-01-? Health Check. Tagup with specialists
AMS Hard Drive Changeout
AMS Software Load
Laptops RS2, RS3 Inspection and Cleaning
Node 2 Forward Endcone Stowage Relocation
On-Orbit Hearing Assessment (O-OHA) with EarQ Software Setup and Test
Radiation Shield Garment Prep and Fill
Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) Reconfiguration at Node 2 Overhead Location
On MCC Go RS1 Laptop Inspection and Cleaning. Tagup with specialists as necessary
Story Time Book I Wonder Why Stars Twinkle Read
Robotic Workstation (RWS) High Definition (HD) Monitor Deactivation
Water Recovery and Management Condensate Pump Gather
Radiation Shield Garment Drain and Stow
VIZIR. Experiment Ops
URAGAN. Observation and Photography using VSS
Node 2 Camcorder deactivation.
Crew Discretionary Event
Regenegation of Micropurification unit (???) ?1 cartridge (finish)

Completed Task List Activities
EVA Tool Stow
EVA Wipe Audit
EVA Zip Tie Audit
ECG Device relocation
PMM Rack Front Cleanup – Part 2
Polar Desiccant Swap
VEG-03 Plant Pillow Water
VEG-03 Plant Pillow Water

Ground Activities
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
Standard commanding

Three-Day Look Ahead:
Wednesday, 11/08: Airlock RPCM R&R, Airway Monitoring
Thursday, 11/09: Lab CDRA Maintenance, IWIS TAA R&R, ITCS FSS Refill
Friday, 11/10: Cygnus OBT, Stowage Consolidation, Earth Imagery, CBCS Install, HRF Operations

QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:
Component – Status
Elektron – On
Vozdukh – Manual
[???] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) – On
[???] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) – Off
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab – Standby
Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 – Operate
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