ISS On-Orbit Status 4 May 2002
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously or below. Day 548 of continuous station
occupancy.
It’s a long day for both crews, as the taxi trio Yuri Gidzenko, Mark
Shuttleworth and Roberto Vittori prepare for tonight’s departure of
Soyuz TM-33, with wake-up at 6:00am EDT this morning and bedtime for
the ISS crew at 9:30 pm tonight, as Soyuz-TM-33 touches down in
Kazakhstan.
VC FE-1 Roberto Vittori again used suitable overflight passes for
photo and video imagery of Italy. He then prepared his return items
for stowing in the Soyuz. This included deactivation of the ALTEINO
AST spectrometer payload in the DC-1.
VC SFP (Space Flight Participant) Mark Shuttleworth started
close-outs by filling out his CCE (study of microgravity effects on
autonomous cardiovascular activity and skeletal muscles) log
questionnaire with data on food/fluid intake and muscle measurements.
He changed nutrient in the ESCD experiment (study of the
development of embryo and stem cells in microgravity), then placed
the insert with biological materials inside a thermally insulated
container, delivered on Progress-257 and stowed behind a wall panel
of the SM. ESCD was then torn down and its glove box placed
with items to be disposed.
VC CDR Yuri Gidzenko deactivated the crystallization process of the
Plasma Crystal-3 experiment, then stowed the activation mechanism.
Later in the day, at 4:15 pm EDT, Gidzenko, Shuttleworth and Vittori
will activate their return vehicle Soyuz TM-33, docked at the DC-1
Pirs module. After ingressing the Descent Module, they will then
switch to independent power (4:30 pm) and close Soyuz/DC-1 hatches at
5:15 pm. Hatch closure will be covered by TV (with MCC-H "happy
to get any camcorder video possible"). Ku-band will be
available to overlap coverage with the Russian video downlink and the
video record can be brought down later, if required (SSRMS video will
be configured for undock but will not have real-time Ku downlink, so
it will also be recorded on board). After hatch leak checks,
the ISS attitude will be moded to free drift at 6:49 pm for DC-1 hook
opening, and again to free drift at 8:27 pm after maneuvering to the
undocking attitude. Undocking is scheduled for 8:28 pm, and CDR
Onufrienko will record interactions of Soyuz thruster plumes with the
atmosphere with the Russian Relaksatsiya equipment. Landing in
Kazakhstan should then occur at about 11:50 pm EDT.
MCC-H performed a remote patch load update of the P6 PVCU
(photovoltaic control unit) software, which went flawlessly. The
patches modified the control loop for the flow control valve in the
PVTCS (photovoltaic thermal control system) and corrected an orbital
timekeeping algorithm in the PVCU software. Both modifications appear
to be working perfectly.
During removal of the TCCS (trace contaminant control system)
charcoal bed assembly from the AR Rack on 4/5, a launch restraint pip
pin prevented the TCCS from sliding out of the rack. The crew
was asked where the pip pin is located now (if it was removed) and
how the TCCS was fully retracted with the pip pin in place (if it
wasnât removed).
Temperature has stabilized around 15C in the
BTR (biotechnology refrigerator). The ground will be doing some
testing over the weekend, so the temperature is expected to fluctuate
some.
Even with all the work required on the BPS (biomass production
system) hardware, the plants have fared well and the PIs (principal
investigators) expect minimal impact to their science. Operations
performed up to now have helped to relocate the air to the reservoirs
and then pull the air out of the reservoirs. All systems now
appear nominal, and BPS will continue to monitor the hardware very
closely. Looking toward the future, the BPS team has requested
another re-priming effort a day after the Root Module (RM) Priming
scheduled on 5/6. As a precaution, another will be scheduled on
5/10. After the ground is confident that the BPS is in a
nominal state, sessions will be scheduled once or twice a week for
BPS maintenance.
CDR Onufrienko completed a session with the Russian
"Parodont" study of periodontal tissue in humans in
space.
Onufrienko also collected air samples with the AK-1M sampler
equipment before Soyuz departure and performed
sanitary-epidemiological monitoring.
FE-1 Carl Walz completed today’s routine SOSH life support systems
inspection.
FE-2 Dan Bursch performed the regular daily jobs of IMC (inventory
management system) delta file preparation and Increment 4/8A payloads
status check. In the Node and Lab, Dan also completed the
periodic inspection of the ELPS (emergency lighting power supply)
system.
Science Update (Expedition Four 21st):
Once again, an excellent week for science in space. The
last in-flight H-Reflex session is complete, and only one more PUFF
to go. ZCG is performing well, and ARIS is providing better
than expected support. BPS kept "Farmer" Dan Bursch
busy, and POC (Payload Operations Center) is "cautiously
optimistic that we now have a handle on the bubbles".
Hoffman-Reflex: In progress. The ground thanked the crew
for their performance on the H-R. The H-R files were successfully
downlinked and are waiting to be evaluated.
Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): The
L-28 pre-read of all 12 badges for the UF-2 EVA is scheduled for next
Wednesday.
Ultrasound: Complete.
GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): With the
current launch schedule, the final PuFF session is expected to occur
in late May.
Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: In progress.
Interactions (NTXN): In progress.
Human Research Facility (HRF): The HRF PC data were downlinked
on 5/2 and PIs are busily reviewing the data.
Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems (CBOSS): The BTR
is holding at about 15 degrees.
Physics of Colloids in Space (EXPPCS):
Complete.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is
currently inactive and troubleshooting boot problems.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): In
progress. MAMS is active and downlinking OSS quasi-steady data
and HiRAP vibratory data. New events captured in vibratory data
include ARIS rack entering active state (as seen from ER1) and an
unidentified signal close to 60 first appearing at 5/2. The
ground is looking at quasi-steady and vibratory data from RMS event
that caused ARIS to go into NO-GO at 5/4, 6:10 6:12 am EDT.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System
(PCG-STES): Has returned home.
Protein Crystal Growth-Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen (PCG-EGN): In
progress. All is nominal crystals are growing.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): Nominal and collecting
data.
Educational Payload Operations (EPO): Complete.
Active Rack Isolation System – Isolation Characterization
Experiment (ARIS-ICE): ARIS continues to support ZCG
microgravity operations. The ground agrees with Carlâs
assessment (after inspection of the upper left actuator removed in
March) that the actuator is not damaged and can be used again.
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
Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): The ZCG furnace
is running smoothly. All temperatures are nominal. The ground
is receiving good health and status data. ZCG heater
deactivation is scheduled for next week.
ARCTIC Refrigerator/Freezer (ARCTIC): All ARCTIC
operations have been nominal in the last week. Operating temperature
has only varied by +/- 0.1 degree C from the new baseline of
-24.5.
Biomass Production System-Photosynthesis Experiment & System
Testing Operation (BPS-PESTO): The pollinations
performed by Dan Bursch early in the week (and last week) were
successful. Seed pods have begun to develop and the plants are
progressing normally. Unfortunately, the BPS lost prime again in
Chamber 2. The loss of prime was disguised because it was a slow
uptake of water into the HCS system, rather than one “gulp”, which
was the cause the first time. Again, with great help from Bursch, the
system seems to have recovered via on-orbit ops and several ground
commands. These commands enabled and disabled systems, which pushed
the air bubbles to the reservoirs so that Bursch could remove them.
The PIs are reviewing any impacts but it seems that
the loss of prime had minimal impact to the growing plants.
Commercial Protein Crystal Growth-High Density (CPCG-H):
CPCG-H crystal growth continues nominally. No off-nominal
payload events or problems reported.
Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA): The
CGBA experiment continues to function nominally. The ground is
not receiving a complete set of standard telemetry files; however,
researchers are able to command the payload to downlink necessary
engineering data needed to assess health and status.
Crew Earth Observation (CEO): The crew was thanked by
the ground, with a quote of an April 23 article in the journal of the
American Geophysical Union: "The sharpness of the photographs
taken by the station astronauts surprised both them and the
scientists on the ground," said Dr. Julie Robinson, lead author
of the paper and a Lockheed Martin scientist in the Earth Sciences
and Image Analysis Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Houston. "It has really changed our view of how much detail
humans can photograph from orbit."”Crewmembers were able to
produce higher-resolution photographs with the high-magnification
lenses by learning to compensate for the relative motion of the Earth
below while pointing cameras through a specially built window in the
station’s Destiny Laboratory.” CEO images can be viewed at the
website http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov.
Today’s CEO target areas were E. Mediterranean Dust and Smog
(as ISS traveled SE along the Dinaric Alps and into Bulgaria, the
crew was to look right of track to record any aerosols that may have
moved into the Aegean ahead of the cloud mass that is now parked over
the Adriatic. The crew had a nadir view of the Dardanelles and was to
look for urban-industrial aerosols from Istanbul and vicinity. From
there ISS passed over Cyprus and entered Lebanon south of
Beirut), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (slightly
overexposed views of the Zambezi River basin should reveal extent of
any smoke palls in the region. Crew was to look just left of track
and document individual fires, where possible. As ISS entered the
higher country, the long, dark, N-trending scar across the land
is a wall of igneous rock that was intruded into the surrounding
bedrock millions of years ago. Normally exposed views over the
southern Indian Ocean should capture the edge of any smoke/smog pall
that might extend that far seaward), Yucatan Fires
(satellite images of the Yucatan show fires raging over virtually
the entire Peninsula. Near track (both left and right), crew was
asked to photograph individual fires where visible through the thick
smoke; photos to right of track will document the extent of the smoke
pall out over the western Gulf of Mexico. This is a widespread
burning event and, if it remains out of control, may affect air
quality around the Gulf of Mexico rim).
