ISS On-Orbit Status 29 Apr 2002

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously or below.  Day 543 of continuous station occupancy,
and start of Week 20 for Expedition 4.

The day, begun at 2:00 am EDT for all six station occupants, again
was marked by extremely busy schedules for all, as is typical for
short-duration space missions as opposed to the more
"leisurely" pace of steady station residency.  The
visiting crew’s (VC’s) attention was focused on payload operations
and public events, while the ISS crew provided assistance where
required and took care of station tasks.

SFP Mark Shuttleworth continued his CCE experiment (study of
microgravity effects on autonomous cardiovascular activity and
skeletal muscles), recording food and fluid intake in the metabolics
log, measuring limb circumference and exercising with bungee cords
and the cycle ergometer to determine heart rate and respiratory rate
at specific physical effort levels.  Assisted by VC CDR
Gidzenko, he also continued the Plankton Lens-M study of oceanic
bioproductivity (plankton growth), focusing on a number of targets
during the "window" of 7:50-8:20 am EDT.

Shuttleworth conducted two live televised reports for South African
press media, at 3:25 am and 5:05 am EDT, followed at 1:40 pm by an
amateur radio exchange with students from six schools in Cape Town,
South Africa, assembled at Bishops Diocesan College.  [As a
student, Shuttleworth attended two of the schools, Bishops (where he
was "head boy") and Western Province Preparatory School.
Funded by the First African in Space project and managed by
Interactive Africa, Bishops College is building a "time
capsule" to celebrate the historic event of the first African in
space, to contain various items of interest (Mark’s old laptop, among
else) and not to be opened until the year 2052.]

Similar to FE-1 Vittori yesterday, SFP Shuttleworth and Gidzenko
processed a number of special South African commemorative/symbolic
items brought up in Soyuz-208. [The items, which he recorded on
photo and video in a suitable arrangement in the SM, include flags of
the Republic of South Africa (RSA), national rugby team caps, a rugby
"mini-ball", jerseys of national rugby, football and
cricket teams, an RSA Presidential shirt, a teddy bear, and  a
number of AIDS awareness pins.]

Shuttleworth also had time set aside to handle his E-mail
traffic, assisted by FE-2 Dan Bursch, and to conduct a private ground
conference on the IP telephone.  [Mark has brought two
computers of his own, but they cannot be connected to the LAN
network.  To downlink his files, U.S. computers are used via
OCA, but only with ISS crew supervision. The same applies to Roberto,
who has brought one personal laptop. All three computers are to
remain on the station, with their disposition to be uplinked at a
later date.]

FE-1 Roberto Vittori continued his CHIRO, VEST and ALTEINO
experiments as scheduled.  [For CHIRO, Gidzenko assisted as
video operator for this study of the impairment of the muscle
contraction mechanism and the performance of astronaut upper
extremities due to microgravity effects during space flight, while
 Vittori used a dynamometer for gauging muscle performance.
 VEST involves taking photos and video of Vittori while trying
out various garments during typical activities in zero-G.
 Vittori and Gidzenko also spent 2.5 hours with the
ALTEINO-Halley experiment which records correlations of phosphenes
(observed light flashes) and heavy charged particles detected in the
AST spectrometer installed in the DC-1 "Pirs" module.]

Early in the morning, Yuri Gidzenko again set up the Russian
Plasma Crystal-3 experiment, activating its turbo pump for evacuating
the vacuum chamber where protein crystals are grown from plasma.
 The payload essentially ran by itself, until Gidzenko turned
the pump off in the late afternoon.

CDR Yuri Onufrienko began the Russian MedOps MBI-2
"Diuresis" experiment. The assessment, which uses
Reflotron-4 accessories, the Plasma-03 centrifuge and other gear for
a sophisticated analysis of urine and blood, required him to collect
urine and blood samples several times throughout the day and to keep
a log on metabolic intake.

Later, he installed air ducts through the open hatches from the SM
PkhO transfer compartment into the DC-1 docking module and from there
into the Soyuz TM-33, which will return to Earth on 5/4.

Onufrienko also performed maintenance on the BMP micropurification
system, starting the regeneration cycle on its absorbent bed #1,
performed today’s scheduled IMS (inventory management system) audit
of life support supplies and medical items, and completed regular
hose and pre-treat container replacement of the SM toilet (ASU).
 

The regular daily inspection of the SOSH life support system was
handled by FE-1 Carl Walz, who also prepared the daily IMS delta file
update and checked autonomous Lab payloads status.

Yesterday, Carl Walz completed the task list item of tightening of a
number of QDs (quick disconnects) on air/gas hose connections that
were suspected of not having been properly torqued down on the
ground, making them susceptible to possibly coming apart during use.
Involved were two QDs on the Airlock TCS CCAA (thermal control
system/common cabin air assembly), one QD on the Lab window IPC
(internal pressure cover), and two QDs on a gas trap fill fixture in
the Lab.

Troubleshooting on the failed MCOR (medium rate communications outage
recorder) in the Avionics Rack 3 did not succeed. Carl and Dan tried
reseating the MCOR’s laptop in its docking station.  While
disconnected for the reseat, they also replaced the laptop’s battery.
 After reseating the laptop and applying power, it was hoped to
have a successful boot-up (which may have involved fixing corrupted
files as the crew has done in the past).  However  no joy.
Next step: to swap out the laptop (but not the docking station) with
the spare.  If this is still unsuccessful, a complete R&R
(removal and replacement) will be scheduled at a later time.

Bursch and Walz completed a full session on the PuFF (Pulmonary
Function in Flight) equipment, starting with power-up of the HRF
(human research facility) by the ground, initial setup and activation
of GASMAP (requires a 1-hour warm-up) and calibration, followed by
standard testing for both subjects and concluding with final
calibration, data archiving, deactivation and equipment stowage.

Tomorrow morning at 9:58 am EDT, there will be a 16-min. live TV
downlink via Ku-band from the ISS crew to the attendees of the
39th Space Congress at Cape Canaveral, FL.
 The exchange will be MC’d by Brian Duffy at the Radisson
Hotel.

Today’s target areas for the Crew Earth Observation (CEO) program
were E. Mediterranean Dust and Smog (as ISS reached the
western Black Sea and approached the Bosporus, crew was asked to look
right and document air quality over the Sea of Marmara. Aerosols from
the urban agglomeration of Istanbul may be seen spreading over the
western Black Sea as well. The Turkish capital of Ankara was on track
at the mountain front north of Lake Tuz), Tigris-Euphrates,
Turkey (weather should have been good in the highland
headwaters of the Euphrates. Detailed views of existing lakes, as
well as of construction activities are needed.  Continuing along
the Euphrates, the crew will likely have encountered cloud masses
before reaching Baghdad), Lake Nasser, Toshka Lakes; Egypt
(as ISS descended toward Lake Nasser, the array of Toshka Lakes
was just right of track. Any newly flooded areas and signs of
construction around the lakeshores should be recorded),
Colorado Rockies Fires (as the station passed near Pueblo,
Colorado; fires were burning out of control north of there in the
Pikes National Forest. Of interest: photographing smoke palls from
these wildfires, as well as individual fires where possible),
Canadian Rocky Mountains (the mountain glaciers in the high
Rockies northwest of Calgary are targets here.  As ISS
approached the Rocky Mountains. trench [deep, steep-sided
NNW-oriented valley], the crew was requested to document water levels
and/or extent of ice in the lakes. Detailed views of the extent of
snowpack and of glaciers are needed for use in modeling climate
change. Edmonton, Alberta was on their left, Calgary on their right.
The extent of remaining ice in Lakes Manitoba, Winnipegosis, and
Winnipeg should be documented as well).

U.S. and Russian Segment Status (as of this noon):

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and
Thermal Control (TCS):
Elektron O2 generator is On (50 Amps).  Vozdukh CO2 scrubber
is ON in MANUAL cycle mode #5 (vacuum pump failed).  U.S. CDRA
CO2 scrubber is Off.  BMP Harmful Impurities unit: Absorbent bed
#1 in Regeneration mode, bed #2 in Purify mode.

(Note: Partial pressures ppO2 and ppCO2 in U.S. segment [USOS] not
available because MCA [major constituent analyzer] is failed and in
Extended Life mode [= a state that preserves mass spectrometer
vacuum but produces no pp data]).

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):
Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B in Autotrack mode, BGA 4B in
Autotrack mode.
SM batteries: Battery #2 is offline (storage mode); battery #6 in
capacity restoration (ROM) mode; all other batteries (6) are in
“partial charge” mode.
FGB: Battery #2 is offline (storage mode); all other batteries (5)
are in “partial charge” mode.
Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 in Standby mode; PCU-2 in Standby
mode.

Thermal Control Systems:
Air conditioner SKV-1 is On (repaired). SKV-2 is Off.

Command & Data Handling Systems:
C&C-3 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is back-up, and C&C-1
is in standby.
GNC-1 MDM is prime; GNC-2 is Backup.
LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
PL-1 MDM is operational; PL-2 MDM on Standby.
APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 3 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.
SM Central Computer (TsVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational.

Communications Systems:
All Russian communications & tracking systems are
nominal.
S-band is operating nominally.
Ku-band is operating nominally.
Audio subsystem operating nominally.
Video subsystem operating nominally.
MCOR (medium-rate communications outage recorder) is non-operational.
Recovery attempted today.

Robotics:
SSRMS/Canadarm2 at Progress viewing position, with Keep Alive
power on both strings.
RWS (robotics workstations) are Off.
Troubleshooting continues on SSRMS Prime string Wrist Roll (WR)
joint.

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:02 am EDT):
Mean altitude — 392.3 km
Apogee — 397.4 km
Perigee — 387.3 km
Period — 92.4 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0007411
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.58
Altitude decrease  300 m (mean) in last 24 hours
Solar Beta Angle:  -36 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 19643
Current Flight Attitude — LVLH (local vertical/local horizontal =
“earth-fixed”: z-axis in local vertical, x-axis in velocity vector
[yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -9 deg., roll: 0 deg]).

For more on ISS orbit and naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html