ISS On-Orbit Status 30 Mar 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.
A quiet rest day on board for the crew, well deserved as “Hurricane Atlantis” (to quote Flight Control) gathers momentum mightily to head their way (preview see below).
The two-hour Saturday housecleaning activity remains a mandatory task for the crew however, and they completed it today “by the book” between 3:15-5:15 am EST.
CDR Yuri Onufrienko also spent about 20 minutes removing the PUMA/VP2 optical viewfinder equipment from SM window #6, first powering the device down, then disconnecting the assembly from the onboard cable network (BKS) and the mounting bracket and finally stowing it under an SM sidewall panel.
The crew also performed the daily routine maintenance tasks of SOSH life support system inspection (CDR), Lab payload status checks (FE-2) and IMS delta file preparation (FE-1).
All crewmembers completed their full daily physical exercise program on TVIS (treadmill), CEVIS (cycle ergometer) and RED (resistive/muscle trainer).
For Walz and Bursch, today’s schedule also included the weekly PFC private audio conference with their families via S-band.
CDR Onufrienko was advised by r/g (radiogram) to spend some of his free time, if possible, to take photographs of the Russian BRADOZ radiobiology experiment (RBO-2), which he installed on 3/28. Using the Nikon F-5 with 35-mm film, he was to shoot a close-up of the assembly and a general view of its installation location, with labels visible. Another Russian experiment, the “Relaksatsiya”, will be unloaded from 7P and installed on Monday.
Cheers for the crew from MCC-H/CSA for yesterday’s highly successful Robotics run on the SSRMS (space station remote manipulator system). During the S0 truss installation dry run using the new 6DOF s/w patch the arm operated as expected in manual and single-joint modes. The dry run also tested the ability to reboot the WR (wrist roll) joint to get its data while it is being “driven” manually by an EVA crewmember, and confirmed the steps needed to back out of this manual intervention into the 6DOF configuration. The sim ended with a maneuver back to the 8A initial position/condition, designed to get the MSS (mobile servicer system) ready to support docking and help the ground to conclude the job on Monday by performing the remaining pre-launch checkout.Ê [The dry run encountered a small hitch when, during the single-joint sequence, the SSRMS briefly safed itself but later resumed ops without recurrence of the dropout. Data analysis showed a spurious step change in the measured velocity of the SP (shoulder pitch) joint as the movement rates were ramped down, and it is believed that a small discrepancy between the velocities measured by two velocity sensors on the joint, due to a motor voltage “hiccup”, tripped the safing error. This is not seen as a constraint to launching 8A.]
Payload Operations Center (POC) informed the crew that yesterday’s ARIS ICE hammer tapping tests were a full success (in “perfect rhythm and right on key”), with Carl apparently having saved “the best for last” since these were the last scheduled hammer tests.
Preparations continue on the ground for the launch of 8A/STS-110 on 4/4 (next Thursday). Today, Shuttle technicians are removing and replacing six bolts from the Atlantis’ left-hand OMS (orbit maneuvering system) fuel flange because they did not meet specifications, but with affecting the launch date. The 13-ton, 44-ft. S0 (S-zero) truss was successfully installed in the Orbiter’s payload bay on 3/27 (Wednesday). The S0 truss, the center section of the station’s exterior truss framework, makes the 8A mission, with four EVAs from the ISS Airlock, one of the most complex of all ISS assembly flights to date. With over 400,000 parts, S0 is the second most complex ISS component, behind the U.S. Lab module. Pre-integrated on it are the MT (Mobile Transporter), the Airlock Spur (an external translation “bridge” between Airlock and S0/Lab), module-to-truss attachment struts, umbilical trays, four GPS antennas, two rate gyro assemblies, the S0 thermal control system, and much more. The MT will eventually operate as a celestial “rail road”, running on railway tracks along the 356 ft (108 m) long main truss which carries the radiators and solar array wings with Beta and Alpha gimbal joints. After S0, nine additional truss segments will be launched to complete this girder structure, two alone this year (P1 and S1).
Science Update (Expedition Four — 16th):
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Hoffman-Reflex: Completed.
Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): In progress.
Ultrasound: In progress.
GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): In progress.
Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: In progress.
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Interactions (NTXN): In progress.
Human Research Facility Workstation (HRF WS): n/a
Human Research Facility/PC (HRF/PC): This weekâs downlink provided new data for the H-Reflex, EVARM and PuFF teams to analyze.
Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems (CBOSS): Ê Complete. The CBOSS team extended many thanks to the crew for the troubleshooting efforts involved with bringing the BTR temperature down.
Physics of Colloids in Space (EXPPCS):ÊÊ Terminated (for now). The ground team ended its on-orbit experiments and is awaiting return of the Avionics and Test-section hardware.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS supported ARIS-ICE hammer tests, 7P docking, and general characterization efforts. Will continue to support general characterization in the vibratory regime of the micro-gravity environment.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMSÊ continues collection and archival of low-frequency acceleration data for the characterization of the ISS quasi-steady microgravity environment. HiRAP has beenÊ disabled due to continuing coverage by SAMS and to reduce the downlink bandwidth utilized by acceleration measurements. Captured quasi-steady data for 7P docking on 3/24 and subsequent SSRMS maneuvers.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): In progress. Both STES units continue to perform nominally. This past week, ground controllers commanded the STES-007 unit to a set-point of 4 deg C as part of a characterization test to see if the unit could support future protein experiments that require cooler temperatures.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): Nominal and collecting data.
Educational Payload Operations (EPO): Complete.
Active Rack Isolation System – Isolation Characterization Experiment (ARIS-ICE) : All three hammer tests by Carl Walz on 3/29 were very successful. The video for the hammer tests was better than the ground team thought possible. It provided an excellent view of the tests themselves and extremely valuable insight into some of the things that have been seen in the downlinked data.
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EarthKAM: Currently complete. All EarthKAM images are available for public access on the EarthKAM data system at: http://earthkam.sdsc.edu/cgi-bin/datasys/ek_images_station
Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC): The ADVASC condensate, nutrient, and gas samples were completed this week. Growth chamber footage has shown that plants are continuing to grow and one of the second-generation “space seeds” has begun flowering. A second plant tissue sample is scheduled for 4/3.
Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): Planned. Hardware is ready to process samples to be launched on ISS 8A.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): 345 electronic still camera images have been downloaded since March 15, bringing the total to 3229; pre-release screening for content and quality continues. Included in the most recent batch are excellent views of volcanic eruptions on Montserrat, West Indies, which are being prepared for submission to the NASA Earth Observatory website. Crew feedback regarding documentation of Patagonian glaciers in early Southern Hemisphere autumn was much appreciated. Today’s optional CEO target areas were Tropical Cyclone Ikala (Dynamic Event: The storm system is losing strength and beginning to interact with an advancing cold front. Documentation of cloud structures and interfering circulation patterns are the objectives) , South Sandwich Islands (another break in the clouds was shaping up over the area from South Georgia Island to the Sandwich Islands. Crew was to watch for opportunities to photograph icebergs and floes as cold weather starts to settle in), Industrialized Southeastern Africa (this pass along the SE coast of South Africa and Mozambique [left of track] was a good one for recording the regional extent of aerosol masses that might extend seaward from the inland urban-industrial complexes. Drought persists in Mozambique, so the crew will probably not have seen agricultural burning there. Clear, dry conditions persist along track to the NE, over Mozambique Channel and the reefs of N. Madagascar and the Comoros Islands), Angolan Biomass Burning (rather than the large-scale agricultural burning that is commonly seen farther north in Angola, the crew had a chance to document more localized fires in the Okavango river delta region. After crossing the Kalahari Desert, the dark vegetated Okavango fan will lie to the right [SE] of track, with the bright Magkadikadi salt pans beyond), Parana River (the wetlands of the alluvial plain of the Parana lie just left [NW] of track, as well as the sharp right-angle bend in the Parana at its confluence with Rio Pilcomayo. Despite the XPOP attitude of the Station, crew should have been able to record fall flow levels in these major rivers, as well as the wetlands and agricultural developments in the valleys).
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:32 am EST):
- Mean altitude — 390.1 km
- Apogee — 392.4 km
- Perigee — 387.8 km
- Period — 92.4 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.000336
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.59
- Altitude decrease — 230 m (mean) in last 24 hours
- Solar Beta Angle: +55.0 deg (magnitude peaking)
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. ’98) — 19176
- Current Flight Attitude — XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane = “sun-fixed” [yaw: ~180 deg, pitch: -5 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
