ISS On-Orbit Status 28 Dec 2002

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously
or below.

After wakeup at 1:00am EST to " Enjoy your weekend…it’s the last
one in 2002!" wishes from the ground, the crew spent a restful Saturday
with only a few necessary task assignments.

As normally on every weekend, the ISS residents performed the 3-hr. "uborka"
(house cleaning). Classified as Bioenvironmental Surveillance, the extensive
cleanup focuses on removal of food waste products, periodic cleaning of
compartments with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of surfaces with disinfectants
and cleaning of fan screens to avoid temperature rises.

At the BMP harmful impurities unit in the Service Module, FE-1 Nikolai
Budarin started regeneration for absorbent bed #1, leaving channel 2 in
Purify mode. [The "bakeout" cycle in the filter beds is repeated
every 20 days. Each bakeout to space vacuum takes about 24 hours.]

Budarin also performed the daily checkup of the activated BIO-5 Rasteniya-2/Lada-2
("Plants-2") experiment that researches plant growth and development
under spaceflight conditions.

FE-2/SO Don Pettit took the daily CO2 (carbon dioxide) readings with
the CDM (carbon dioxide monitor), to help resolve discrepancies between
ppCO2 (carbon dioxide partial pressure) readings by the SM gas analyzer
and U.S. MCA (major constituents analyzer). [Daily readings are taken
in the SM and the US Lab using both CDMs. Once the ppCO2 readings and
corresponding location and CDM serial numbers have been read down to the
ground, both CDMs are turned off to preserve battery life.]

At 3:40am, Don Pettit was scheduled for a ham radio session from ISS
with Sattahip,
Chonburi Province in Thailand, where a World Scout Jamboree is currently
taking place (12/28-1/7/03). This gathering of scouts from all over the
world is held once every four years.

The daily routine servicing tasks of SOSh life support systems maintenance
and Lab payloads status checkup were completed by CDR Ken Bowersox. Sox
also handled the automatic IMS (inventory management system) data import.

All crewmembers performed their regular daily physical exercise (2.5
hrs.).

Yesterday’s planned completion of the leak check operations for the starboard
hatch window installation in the Node by Don Pettit was postponed.

Today’s targets for the CEO (crew earth observations program) were Himalaya
Mts. (dramatic views looking west along the mountain front), Dhaka, Bangladesh
(looking slightly right; ESC [electronic still camera] requested), Ganges
River Delta (crew was to shoot coastlines in the "Mouths of Ganges",
where changes in coastlines are occurring), Atlanta, Georgia (nadir and
a touch right; ESC), El Paso, Texas (nadir and a touch right; ESC), Guangzhou,
China (ESC. This city is one of the foremost in coastal China to be benefiting
from capitalist expansion. Proximity to Hong Kong is important), Xianggang
(Hong Kong), China (looking slightly right of track for this island city.
ESC camera. This city is the gateway for import and export business to
all of China), Rangoon, Burma (looking slightly right; ESC), Irrawaddy
River Delta (crew to shoot coastlines of the estuary and islands. Looking
right towards the sun glint point. This delta is one in a global study),
Bangkok, Thailand (nadir pass; ESC), Karachi, Pakistan (nadir pass; ESC),
Bombay, India (nadir pass; ESC), Nile River; Lake Turkana (crew to shoot
nadir views from the Nile to the Ethiopian mountain front for detailed
views of remote swamplands [river patterns of great interest in the absence
of reliable maps]. Of interest then: documenting changes in the highly
changeable Omo River delta at the north end of narrow Lake Turkana, a
site the ground is monitoring in detail), Cape Town, South Africa (good
opportunity for sun glint views of Cape Town and the surrounding mountainous
coastlines), Dakar, Senegal (nadir and a touch left of track, on the prominent
spit of land. ESC camera), La Paz, Bolivia (good opportunity to capture
the regional context of this high-altitude city, which occupies the eastern
lip of the high Andean plains just southeast of the Lake Titicaca), and
Argentine inland deltas (excellent opportunity for the first detailed
views of what may be the largest inland delta on the planet. Suggest a
mapping pass of the most active regions of the delta just right of track
for 2 minutes [along the Pilcomayo river] from the mountain front as far
as the major Paraguay River).