NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 8 November 2018 – Practicing Emergency Procedures
The Expedition 57 crew said farewell to a Japanese resupply ship Wednesday and is getting ready to welcome U.S. and Russian space freighters in less than two weeks.
The trio practiced International Space Station emergency procedures this week then went on to space research and robotics training.
The U.S. company Northrop Grumman is getting its 10th Cygnus cargo craft packed and ready for launch atop an Antares rocket Nov. 15 at 4:49 a.m. EST. Russia will launch its 71st station resupply mission aboard a Progress spaceship the next day at 1:14 p.m.
Both resupply ships are due to arrive at the station Sunday Nov. 18 just 10 hours apart. The Cygnus will get there first following its head start. Commander Alexander Gerst assisted by Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor will capture the American vessel with the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 4:35 a.m. A few hours later, cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev will monitor the approach and automated docking of the Russian Progress 71 cargo craft to the Zvezda service module at 2:30 p.m.
All three crew members called down to mission controls centers in Houston and Moscow for a coordinated emergency drill. The orbital residents practiced communication and decision-making skills while maneuvering along evacuation paths and locating safety gear.
Afterward, Gerst and Serena partnered up and reviewed next Sunday’s Cygnus approach and rendezvous procedures. Gerst will command the Canadarm2 to reach out and grapple Cygnus as Serena monitors the spaceship’s telemetry and data.
Prokopyev continued his science and maintenance duties in the orbital lab’s Russian segment. The cosmonaut explored the physics of plasma-dust crystals then conducted an eye exam in conjunction with doctors on Earth. Prokopyev also photographed the inside of the Zvezda and stowed radiation detectors.
On-Orbit Status Report
Meteor: The crew removed and replaced the hard drive in the Meteor laptop and completed a software anti-virus update. The Meteor payload is a visible spectroscopy instrument used to observe meteors in Earth orbit. Meteor uses image analysis to provide information on the physical and chemical properties of the meteoroid dust, such as size, density, and chemical composition. The study of the meteoroid dust on orbit provides information about the parent comets and asteroids.
Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4): The crew exchanged the hard drive containing Run #2 data and inserted a new hard drive for Run #3. The crew then reconfigured the gas chamber from Neon to Argon gas usage. PK-4 is a scientific collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), performing research in the field of “Complex Plasmas”: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas, and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly charged in the plasma and interact strongly with each other, which can lead to a self-organized structure of the micro-particles: so-called plasma crystals. Experiments in the facility aim to study Transport Properties, Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Statistical Physics, and Non-linear waves and Instabilities in the plasmas.
Onboard Training (OBT) ISS Emergency Simulation: The full crew participated in a simulation to practice emergency responses based on information provided by simulator displays. They translated through ISS to appropriate response locations and practiced procedure execution and decision making based on cues from the simulator. Following the training, they conducted a review session with Houston and Moscow Control Centers.
Northrop Grumman-10 (NG-10) Cygnus Rendezvous On-board Training (OBT): The crew reviewed the NG-10 mission profile, rendezvous crew procedures, and interfaces necessary for monitoring and commanding to the Cygnus vehicle. NG-10 is scheduled to arrive at the ISS on November 18.
Completed Task List Activities:
None
Ground Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
ISS Emergency Simulation Support
LSR Checkout [In Work]
Three Day Look Ahead:
Friday, 11/09:
Payloads:
BCAT Imagery Transfer (NASA)
CIR Manifold Bottle Change (NASA-RUS joint)
PK-4 Run 4 and Chamber Cleaning (ESA-RUS)
BPC Plate Loading (NASA)
VEG-03 Check and Watering (NASA)
BEST H/W Stow (NASA)
Time Perception (ESA)
LMM Biophsics-06 Reconfiguration (NASA)
Systems:
Port Radiator Survey
Saturday/Sunday, 11/10-11:
Payloads:
PK-4 Chamber Clean and stow, Data downlink and HD packing (ESA-RUS)
Systems:
Housekeeping, Crew Off Duty
Today’s Planned Activities:
All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.
Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Water Recovery System (WRS) Sample Analysis
Stowage of Pille-ISS Dosimeter No.16 Reader and Lulin-ISS I/F Control Unit. Health Maintenance System (HMS) ISS Food Intake Tracker (ISS FIT)
Meteor Hard Disk Drive and Antivirus Update
Review Emergency OBT Simulator Functionality
PK-4 data hard drives exchange
VHF-2 Emergency Communication Check Out from Soyuz over US Ground Sites
ESA Weekly crew conference
On-board Training (OBT) Cygnus Robotics Review
Training for Emergency Response On-board ISS
Environmental Health System (EHS) Total Organic Carbon Analyzer (TOCA) Sample Data Record
Food Acceptability Questionnaire
Restore ISS comm to the nominal configuration
On-board Training (OBT) ISS Emergency Drill Conference
JEM Camera Robot Stow
Photography of SM interior panels 245, 246, 429, 430
Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config LAB Setup
HTV PROX Switch OFF
Team Task Switching Experiment Survey
Inventory Management System (IMS) Conference
PK-4 Chamber filling with Argon gas
СОЖ maintenance
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Test
ISS HAM Service Module Pass
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Questionnaire
Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Test
On-Board Training (OBT) CYGNUS OBT Conference
On-board Training (OBT) Cygnus Rendezvous Review
