ISS On-Orbit Status 13 Dec 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.
Wake-up at 1:00am EST was one hour earlier than yesterday, enabling Vozdukh repair activities during RGS (Russian ground site) comm passes on Daily Orbits (DO) 14, 15, 01, and 02.
After some more repair work by the crew, the Vozdukh was successfully restarted at about 5:10am and is now up and running nominally. [Today’s activity focused on removal and replacement (R&R) of the BVK-1 vacuum valve, believed sticky, followed by replacement of a fuse and control box prior to the restart. Preparatory tasks by crew and MCC-M early in the mornings were deactivation of the SKV-1 air conditioner in the Service Module (SM), connecting FGB and SM propulsion systems, powering down the BMP micropurification unit and the Elektron, and demating the BITS2-12 telemetry connection. After the restart, these systems were reactivated, except for the SKV-1, currently not required to lower humidity.]
Later, FE-1 Nikolai Budarin undertook a checkout/test of the removed BVK-1 valve package.
CDRA (carbon dioxide removal assembly) has been operating nominally and was not turned off after Vozdukh restart, in light of tonight’s planned Metox regeneration which could call for beefed-up CO2 reduction.
Regeneration of Metox (metal oxide) canisters remaining from the 11A EVAs is planned to begin at about 2:20pm, to run overnight during crew sleep (4:30pm). The process takes place in a special bake-out oven in the Joint Airlock (A/L).
After setting up their photo equipment, the crew conducted the long-planned photo survey of the starboard US SAW (solar array wing) 2B, focusing on String 5. As part of the ongoing investigation into the failure of this electrical string, the survey is to determine if the panels or the FCC (flat circuit connector) corresponding to the failed string are damaged. The failed string, noted earlier this year, is one of 82 electrical strings comprising the starboard array (i.e., 1.2%). [Using the Kodak 760 DCS (digital camera system) with 400mm lens from SM window #13 and/or #2, the SAW 2B survey focuses on panels 61 and 62 (right blanket only) and on the inboard FCC of the right blanket.]
CDR Kenneth Bowersox conducted an inventory audit of CWCs (contingency water containers) stowed aboard the station.
Continuing yesterday’s IMS (inventory management system) audit of Russian equipment, the crew was asked to verify today the actual presence/absence of various items in the crew cabin. [Crew cabin stowage info is used by the ISS stowage team and the mass properties team in their module-level CG (center-of-gravity) and mass properties analyses.]
FE-1 Nikolai Budarin performed a hard disk drive (HDD) audit/cleanup of the Russian laptop 3, deleting no longer required files, resetting the graphic environment and reconfiguring the PC for Regul-Packet ops.
The checkout of the TV cameras in the Progress and Soyuz vehicles has shown the video from Progress to be unstable. The issue is under analysis.
FE-2/SO Don Pettit installed the 35-ft. VAJ (vacuum access jumper) hose inside the Joint Airlock (A/L). [The VAJ, routed under the A/L deck platform, will be connected to the EMPEV (emergency manual pressure equalization valve) and the VRIV (airlock vacuum relief isolation valve), then stowed behind A/L closeout panels. The VAJ permits pressure adjustment (venting and repressurizing) of the cabin atmosphere, e.g., for the EVA prebreathe exercise phase.]
Tomorrow, the current flight attitude of XVV (x-axis in velocity vector) will be changed to XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane). The current plan is to remain in this attitude, watching the temperature increase in the currently high solar Beta angle period. MCC-Moscow will monitor temperature conditions vs. constraints on Progress and, if required, call for a change to the new YVV (y-axis in velocity vector)/”barbecue” attitude, a small maneuver only.
CDR Kenneth Bowersox reconfigured onboard power outlets as specified by the new post-11A PIP (plug-in plan). This was a task list item.
Budarin completed the periodic replacement of the SM toilet (ASU) receptacle and filter elements, discarding the used parts.
In their physical exercise regime, today the crew videotaped their sessions on the RED (resistive exercise device), taping at least 15 minutes of the workout, plus a minimum of five minutes of harness donning. Yesterday’s session applied to the TVIS treadmill. [The data are important to ground engineers as they try to characterize how each Expedition exercises on the hardware. In the past, subtle differences in exercise techniques were noted between the different crews, such as for heel-strikes on the treadmill.]
Pettit was scheduled for some IFM (in-flight maintenance) work on the RED, inspecting the misaligned Flexpack canister for damage and realigning its components. [The 2.5-hr. task required opening the canister on both sides, disassembling some components, reassembling them and replacing the canister cord with a new one.]
The routine daily servicing tasks of SOSh life support system inspection/maintenance and Friday’s Lab payload status checkup (PCG-STES010) were performed by Bowersox, while Budarin prepared the daily IMS inventory update file for downlink to Moscow.
Sox and Don filled out their first weekly FFQ (food frequency questionnaire), a special software log on the MEC (medical equipment computer) to track nutritional intake.
Later tonight, the crew is scheduled for the regular weekly teleconference with the Flight Director.
Relocation of MT (Mobile Transporter): After considering the risk trade-off between MMOD (micrometeoroid/orbital debris) damage to the TUS (trailing umbilical system) cables and the potential for the need for a contingency EVA if the MT should be stranded between worksites (WS), the decision was made to leave the transporter at WS7, at the tip of P1, until the Stage EVA is rescheduled in January.
Today’s targets for the CEO (crew earth observations program) were Bombay, India (nadir pass; ESC [electronic still camera]). Population of Greater Bombay is estimated to be 14-15 million), Ganges Plain (weather systems conducive to aerosol buildup. Five hundred million people live in northern India and the smog blankets have been making the news, and have been imaged by high satellites. Lower level images add detail of smog blanket structure. Looking left and right of track; then, panoramas along cloudfree Himalayas left and right of track), Angolan Biomass Burning (fires persist despite the onset of summer rains), Djibouti, East Africa (this department of France is at a shipping “choke point” opposite Yemen–a point of high interest in global political geography), Equatorial Africa (usually cloudfree pass over one of the most remote parts of the world–from the Gabon coastline northeast over Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad. Specific points of interest, in sequence, are: major new clearings in the rainforest; river patterns in the forest [questions exist about where the sediment carried by rainforest rivers ends up, since little gets into the Atlantic]; a major pipeline in Central African Republic; and a series of hard-to-see inland deltas [crew to shoot river patterns under and left of track–250 mm lens–for global study]), Plankton blooms, SW Atlantic (pass over the center of this massive recent bloom which is making the news. Color variation is of greatest interest [i.e. looking away from sun glint point]), Western Mediterranean dust (dust plumes may be visible blowing north off the Algerian coast, due to higher winds as a storm approaches Morocco), SE Spain — landslide mapping (numerous landslides are being recognized on the ground for the first time in a limited study area. The engineering geology of these is of specific interest [even old landslides can remobilize, disrupting buildings, roads, bridges, dams]. 400 mm images from ISS are more appropriate tools than Landsat images for recognizing landslide shape and texture in other mountainous parts of the Mediterranean. Detailed mapping pass requested: coastal hills up to 80 km inland [NE of Almeria]), Barcelona, Spain (good context shot of this coastal city, left of track). Panama canal (probable cloud free conditions over this hard-to-shoot point. Looking four degrees left of track. The canal zone is identifiable as the forested zone [dark green] which crosses the narrowest point of the isthmus), Tuamotu-Austral Islands (pass over the center of this island chain. Crew to look near nadir for detailed coral reef shots), and Tuamotu Archipelago (pass over the center of this smaller island chain. Looking near nadir for detailed coral reef shots).
CEO images can be viewed at the website
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:43am EST [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 395.1 km
- Apogee — 397.4 km
- Perigee — 392.8 km
- Period — 92.46 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.63 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0003358
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.57
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 23194
- Current Flight Attitude LVLH TEA (local vertical/local horizontal = “earth-fixed”: z-axis in local vertical, x-axis in velocity vector [yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -9.1 deg, roll: 0 deg]) until December 14, then XPOP.
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times, see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html
