ISS On-Orbit Status 1 Mar 2003
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously
or below. Space Day 98 for Expedition 6.
A regular off-duty Saturday for the crew, except for weekend routine
tasks, necessary repair work and daily maintenance.
After wake-up (1:00am EST), morning inspection, morning hygiene and
breakfast, the ISS residents completed the weekly 3-hr. house cleaning,
designed to keep the crew’s orbital outpost spic and span. [The "uborka
stantsii" features removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments
with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of surfaces with disinfectants and
cleaning of fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]
FE-1 Nikolai Budarin terminated the regeneration process for absorption
bed #2 of the BMP harmful impurities filtration unit. Both filter channels
are now back in Purify mode.
Budarin also conducted the weekly inspection of the BRPK air/condensate
separator of the SRVK water processing system. [The BRPK separator contains
porous Cermet hydrophilic (water attracting) tubes through which the
gas-liquid mixture from the heat exchanger moves. They separate the air
from the condensate, but when the separator exceeds its service life
or is malfunctioning, incomplete separation of the atmospheric condensate
occurs, and the water then collects under the "sheet" of porous
fluoroplastic. This is the main focus of the regular inspection.]
FE-2/SO Don Pettit performed the daily routine maintenance of the SOSh
life support system in the Service Module (SM) and prepared the IMS (inventory
management system) auto import/export files.
All crewmembers performed their regular daily physical exercise on TVIS
(treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization), RED (resistive
exercise device), CEVIS (cycle ergometer with vibration isolation) and
VELO bike, with load trainer.
Yesterday (9:15am EST) the crew participated in two outstanding live-TV
interviews, the first with USA Today (Traci Watson), the other with KPTV-TV,
Portland, OR (Pete Ferryman).
The cause of the off-nominal shutdown of the Elektron, Vozdukh and SKV-1
on 2/27 was traced by MCC-M and RSC-Energia to the primary data bank
(BD) of the BITS2-12 onboard measurement telemetry system. BD-SU mode
was power-cycled (turned off and on), and BITS was also switched to the
backup data bank. This reportedly corrected the problems with the BITS
system. Vozdukh, Elektron and SKV-1 were running again by yesterday noon.
Analysis of the event is continuing.
The Lab CDRA (CO2 removal assembly) is off. To configure it for extended
deactivation, the crew today disconnected the ITCS LTL (internal thermal
control system/low temperature loop).
The uplink of the GNC (guidance, navigation & control) software
patch to correct the "RGA data staleness" problem with RGA
(rate gyro assembly) data processing in the new R3 software was deferred
to today, due to ground testing issues last night. [Also uplinked were
contingency procedures for restoring communications with MCC-H for the
event of an unexpected failure of the primary GNC MDM during the time
in which the backup GNC MDM is being configured for patch loading. In
this situation, there would be no GNC MDMs, a loss of pointing data and,
subsequently,a loss of S-band comm. The contingency procedures would
guide the crew in configuring for low rate S-band comm in this case.]
Today’s occurrence of the Bradfield Meteor Shower will be visible from
any earth-facing window of the ISS. The appropriate viewing times (4:39
to 4:58pm EST) were uplinked in case the crew wants to observe the show,-
close to their sleep time. At that time, the Station will be over the
southern coast of Africa and Madagascar.
Science Update (Expedition Six — 13th):
The crew was congratulated by the Lead Increment Scientist on verifying
the modification necessary to ensure recording of the FOOT data. They
were thanked for completing one more PuFF run, downloading EVARM data,
troubleshooting the MSG rack, locating the ProMISS (protein crystal
growth monitoring by digital holography) hardware, and taking and downlinking
CEO and Renal photos. Work is underway on relaxing the six-hour cool
down time after MSG deactivation. This will allow the remaining testing
to proceed more rapidly.
Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): The downlinked
badge read data continues to give invaluable insight into ISS.
GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): The PuFF team sent "gold
stars" to Don Pettit for his performance in lung volume calibration.
The downlink video was also appreciated.
Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: Completed for Increment 6. The Renal
Stone Experiment Team thanked the crew for taking photos of the Renal
Stone hardware items. Bowersox and Pettit continue taking their stone-prevention
(or placebo) pills.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.
Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight (FOOT): The FOOT team
thanked Bowersox for his much-needed help troubleshooting the ADAS and
FOOT software. A work-around in the nominal procedure will be added for
avoiding the data loss during future data collection sessions.
Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): On hold until MSG
(microgravity science glovebox) is operational. Remaining in MSG until
further notice.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS continues to collect
acceleration data for vibratory characterization of the microgravity
environment, including the recent reboost activities.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS continues
measurement of microgravity environment in the quasi-steady regime for
general characterization.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES):
Temperatures are nominal.
Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal
Emulsions (InSPACE): On hold until MSG is operational.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside. Nominal
and collecting data.
Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): ZCG has finished science operations for
Inc 6.
EarthKAM (EK): Planning additional operations cycles for Increment 6.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Despite XPOP attitude limitations and
lower light in the Northern Hemisphere, the crew continues to maintain
both high volume and quality of downlinked imagery. They were thanked
for the great imagery of dynamic winter ice conditions and the beautiful
shots of the Aurora Australis. A fine image of the Panama Canal will
be published in Earth Observatory this week (see link, below).
Today’s CEO targets were Mekong River Delta (ISS track during this pass
was directly over the delta. Although nadir views may not have been possible,
crew was to try for oblique views either side of track to document the
change of land use patterns at the edges of the delta and to observe
the river’s sediment plumes in the South China Sea), Lake Eyre, Australia
(more views of Lake Eyre and the Ergomanga Basin to the north of it are
needed to document and understand the impact of this year’s El Nino weather
patterns on regional hydrology. Crew to look left of track for any indications
of water or stream flow), Tropical Cyclone Japhet (DYNAMIC EVENT TARGET:
This compact cyclone, packing 90-kt winds, was forecast to meander off
the coast of southern Mozambique for the next several days. Looking left
of track for views of the banding structure of the storm and possibly
its small eye), Industrialized Southeastern (air stagnation continues
over southern Africa with a resulting buildup of aerosols. Looking obliquely
left of track for smog over the industrialized interior valleys), Eastern
Mediterranean Dust (a small cut-off cyclone is drifting into the central
Med. As ISS approached the coast of Libya from the northwest, crew was
to look left of track for evidence of dust blowing northward), and Lower
Rio Grande Valley (DYNAMIC EVENT TARGET: A serious, decade-long drought
grips the lower Rio Grande valley with grave economic implications for
the region both sides of the border. Crew was to take advantage of clearing
weather and sun glint enhancement to detect surface water features right
of track from Laredo to Brownsville).
CEO images can be viewed at the website
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 6:43am EST [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 390.7 km
Apogee — 398.7 km
Perigee — 382.7 km
Period — 92.37 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
Eccentricity — 0.001181
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.59
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 160 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 24420
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html
