ISS Expedition Two Science Operations Weekly Science Status Report Thursday, August 2, 2001
..The Space Station crew and ground teams are preparing to conclude one
successful science expedition and begin another.
“We’re coming down the home stretch for Expedition Two, with a few
activities remaining before we return the rest of the science on 7A.1
Shuttle mission,” said John Uri, lead increment scientist for Expeditions
Two and Three, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “And now we’re
gearing up to begin the research on Expedition 3.”
The 7A.1 Station mission, scheduled for an August 9 launch, will carry the
Expedition Three crew to the orbiting research facility and return home with
the Expedition Two crew after a five month tour of duty in space.
Three Expedition Two experiments returned home aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis
recently. Expedition Three will have 18 experiments, including 10
continuing from Expedition Two, as well as eight new experiments.
About 11 hours of crew time are allocated for remaining experiment
activities this week, not counting task list items that the crew can do as
time permits. In fact, the crew has accomplished a number of payload
activities using the task list.
“The crew has taken on the research program as their own,” Uri said. “They
have been able to catch up or get ahead on work and have given up their own
time. The Expedition Two crew has set the bar very high.”
On Monday, July 30, the crew completed stowing the Middeck Active Control
Experiment for return. They also received a new list of targets for the
Crew Earth Observation photography program, including a geologic fault zone
in Tanzania and the Antarctic ice sheet and icebergs near the South Sandwich
Islands. The science team confirmed that the crew was also able to capture
an image of the Mt. Etna volcano in Sicily.
They were also scheduled this week to take documentation photos of the
Protein Crystal Growth Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar experiment, which
arrived on the recent Shuttle mission and was located in Zarya, the Russian
FGB module.
The crew this week also has continued to recharge batteries for the
Dosimetric Mapping experiment’s portable radiation sensors, transfer
radiation data to a portable computer for later transmission to the ground,
and fill out their weekly questionnaire for the Interactions study dealing
with interpersonal and cultural relationships among the crew during the
Expedition.
A priority for the science team and the crew today is replacing a possible
faulty actuator on the Active Rack Isolation System, an experimental device
designed to protect delicate microgravity experiments from vibrations caused
by crew activities and powered equipment. ARIS uses eight actuators,
designed to act like powered shock absorbers to damp vibrations before they
reach experiments. Ground controllers have been running tests of the device
with seven actuators to demonstrate its fault tolerance.
Telescience activities controlled by scientists on the ground, are
continuing with a pair of vibration measuring experiments – the Microgravity
Acceleration Measurement System and the Space Acceleration Measurement
System, as well as the Physics of Colloids in Space experiment.
Transition activities continue as the Expedition Three cadre at the Payload
Operations Center prepares to take over for Expedition Two controllers on
August 6. Controllers are continuing to update the software on board the
Station to recognize the new payloads, and control software on the ground is
undergoing similar updates.
Editor’s Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiment
operations aboard
the International Space Station. The center is also home for coordination
of the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all
science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload
safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.
