ISS On-Orbit Status 11 Aug 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.
Second weekend rest day for the crew. But in preparation for the spacewalk activities, crew sleep cycle shift has started. After sleep time began yesterday at 1:30 pm EDT, wakeup was last night at 10:00 pm, i.e., four hours earlier than usual, and sleep period today began at 11:30 am EDT.
Ahead: Week 10, with increased activity in preparing for the first EVA for ISS-5 on 8/16, the seventh Orlan-EVA from the DC-1 “Pirs” docking module. Conducted by CDR Korzun and FE-1 Whitson, its objectives are transfer and installation of DPP orbital debris shielding panels (bundle #1) on SM, changeout of the Kromka payload, and inspection of Service Module Assembly Compartment (SM AO) shell surface.
Early in the day, Valery Korzun had 20 minutes set aside on his schedule for reconfiguring the SSC6 (station support computer #6) laptop as a stand-alone, separate from the OpsLAN, for viewing the new Russian EVA-7 training material. Installation of the uplinked training files was part of the task.
After the latest SUBSA (solidification using a baffle in sealed ampoules) run was completed last night at about 8:15 pm EDT, Peggy Whitson today removed the processed SUBSA-07 sample ampoule from the furnace in the MSG (Microgravity Science Glovebox). The sample contained a liquid encapsulant. The ground team got excellent video downlink and saw “interesting behavior” in the fluid, such as surface tension driven convection in the encapsulant.
Starting with today’s “job jar” task list, a second IMS (inventory management system) audit is optionally scheduled for the crew. There are two tasks specified: clean-up for an EXPRESS Rack (ER) cable audit performed earlier last week (i.e., locating five ER power cables plus two data cables), and taking an inventory of the contents of the CCPK (crew contamination protection kit.
Routine daily servicing tasks were performed by CDR Korzun (calldown of SP toilet flush counter and SVO water supply data), FE-1 Peggy Whitson (off-day payload status checkup), and FE-2 Sergei Treschev (SOSh life support systems maintenance).
All crewmembers had their weekly PFCs (private family conferences), via S-band/audio.
All crewmembers performed their daily physical exercise program, now also on the TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization) again.
Targets for today’s task-listed Russian Diatomeya ocean observation program, which studies bioproductive sea areas, were the Pacific Ocean (color bands on the southern boundary of the Northern Atlantic stream), Indian Ocean (northern boundary of western winds near Madagascar), Atlantic Ocean (possible clusters of icebergs, the Bengel upwelling, and areas in the tropics), and the Black Sea (sea water color field). [The cosmonauts use a Nikon F5 to shoot color bands and a PD-1P digital video camera to photograph panoramic views. The imaging is accompanied by voice commentary on a recorder, commenting on the ocean observation process from space and recommendations for cosmonaut training.]
Other activities on the Russian task list are Uragan (“hurricane”) earth observations and photography of the deployed Kromka payload outside the Service Module.
