Status Report

ISS On-Orbit Status 5 Apr 2003

By SpaceRef Editor

April 5, 2003

Filed under ISS On-orbit status, NASA HQ, US

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Overnight, Flight Control uplinked congrats to Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin for becoming a Grandfather. Way to go, Nick!

Another Saturday of a (hopefully) quiet weekend, with the crew largely off duty and another treat of “Dr. Crazy Science” (i.e., Science Officer Donald Pettit’s Saturday Morning Science demos).

After breakfast at 1:40am EST, the new grandfather performed his daily checkup of the BIO-5 “Rasteniya-2/Lada-2” zero-G plant growth experiment.

Next, the station residents tackled the weekly 3-hr. house cleaning, going over all exposed interior surfaces of their celestial home with vacuum cleaner, wet wipes and disinfectants.

Budarin also completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Pettit readied the IMS inventory system for the daily automated export/import of updates.

The crew held their regular periodic teleconference with the ISS Program Office via S-band.

All crewmembers performed their regular daily physical exercise regimen (2.5 hrs.) on RED resistive exerciser, CEVIS cycle, TVIS treadmill, and VELO ergometer with load trainer. [With the current resupply limitations imposed by the Shuttle stand-down, remaining RED canister lifetime, in terms of exercise cycles, and TVIS roller bearing life, in terms of percentage, are being tracked carefully on the ground to support real-time planning for spares and maintenance during the remaining Expedition 6 stay and the approaching Expedition 7 increment. The on-board exercise equipment is rated “Criticality 1”, i.e., ensuring its functionality is mandatory for sustained crewed occupancy.]

The Diatomeya ocean observation program was once more added to the Russian task list activity on a time-available basis. [Today Nikolai Budarin was to conduct daytime observations and imaging of colored waters in highly bioproductive areas (seawater bloom features) in the Atlantic Ocean (along flight path from Greater Antilles and Bahamas to the Gulf Stream frontal zones) and the Mediterranean Sea (color field near rapidly-growing, i.e., non-dormant, volcano). He was also asked to confirm or deny speculations concerning the possibility of observing bioluminescent phenomena from space during nighttime.]

Also added to the Russian task list was another session of the Uragan earth observation program, focusing today on the Russian Geographic Society and Medvezhiy glaciers as well as northern Iraq, the city of Baghdad, and the northern coast of the Cheleken peninsula. [Stated purpose of imaging Iraq is to record the effects of the ecological disaster resulting from the combustion of petroleum products.]

A third item added to the Russian task list is to prepare for a repeat of the Molniya-SM experiment by installing the LSO equipment from Claudie Haigneré’s French “Andromède” payload at Service Module (SM) window #3. [First LSO activity, on 3/9-3/12, was reportedly fairly productive, obtaining approximately 13 gigabytes of data. The new run is expected to yield up to 30 Gb.]

After yesterday’s nominal reboost burn (altitude gain 3.1 km), ISS flight attitude currently remains in LVLH (local vertical/local horizontal, i.e., belly-down/earth-“fixed”) until Monday, 4/7, when the planned U.S. GNC MDM (guidance, navigation & control multiplexer/demultiplexer) swap occurs. [The switch between the two GNC computers is needed to load a new configuration table in preparation for the CMG-2 power reconfiguration during the EVA on 4/8.]

Last Thursday’s Russian SM/FGB solar array efficiency test was completed and control was returned to the USOS (U.S. segment). [Approximately 40kg of propellant was used during attitude hold. Results of the efficiency test are not yet available. Following the transition to CMG TEA an increase in momentum was observed, leading to the possibility of an early desaturation.]

Also on Thursday, MCC-Moscow initiated a three-day test of the SM delta pressure sensor (DDI), currently still underway. [RS (Russian segment) auto rapid depress response is inhibited throughout the test duration.]

Coming up: Daylight Saving Time, starting at 2:00am EST tomorrow morning (which turns into 3:00am EDT).

Science Update (Expedition Six — 18th):

Great appreciation was expressed to the crew for their hard work in support of the past week’s science activities. Despite the busy schedule with EVA preparation activities they completed a significant amount of payloads ops. Feedback from Utah State University from Don Pettit’s science program last Saturday was very gratifying. Their science work covered EVARM activities, the final FOOT session of this increment and a talk with the FOOT PI, two runs of InSPACE, a ZCG bolt inspection and a PuFF session.

Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM): Troubleshooting is under way to determine why the EVARM files have not made it down during the last couple of PC data downlinks.

GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF): This time around, the PuFF team saw almost all of Ken Bowersox’s session and much of Nikolai’s – the data looked great! The team is confident that the session data was unaffected by the GASMAP problems, thanks to Ken and Don’s excellent work. Investigators are looking forward to the crew’s post-EVA session next week and are planning to have a recovery/workaround procedure on-board for crew reference in case the GASMAP decides to be “temperamental”.

Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment: Completed for Increment 6. Bowersox and Pettit continue taking their stone-prevention (or placebo) pills. Third and final session is planned for the week of 4/14.

Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.

Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight (FOOT): The last planned in-flight FOOT session was performed with no unexpected anomalies on 4/2. Sox was thanked for a “super job” with FOOT during the increment.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): The ground appreciated all the hard work that went into removing the hardware from MSG and stowing it in the correct locations.

Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is nominal and currently supporting a test to compare drag profiles for different solar array orientations. Preparing for operations during upcoming EVA with possible hammer application to CETA light stanchion.

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS is nominal and currently supporting a test to compare drag profiles for different solar array orientations. Preparing for operations during upcoming EVA with possible hammer application to CETA light stanchion.

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): Temperatures are nominal. Crystals are still growing.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE): Since the first two test runs with the smallest particle size have not yet resulted in visible structure formation, the PI has requested to perform the next tests with the largest particle size. Also, the team has developed some steps to enhance the images.

Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside. Nominal and collecting data.

Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG): ZCG has finished science operations for Increment 6. Bowersox was thanked for completing the ZCG bolt inspection, giving insight into what actually needs to be done to replace the IZECS (improved Zeolite electronic control system) during a future increment.

EarthKAM (EK): Setup for next operation is tomorrow, 4/6, in the SM. Over 70 schools will participate in this session.

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Seldom used wide-angle lenses of the lower Patagonian ice fields have provided the first complete contextual views of the ice fields that we can remember. Of greatest scientific value were the context views of the usually cloud-obscured west-side glacier tongues. Accompanying very detailed views of the tongues show excellent detail glacier microtopography due to moraine trains and crevasse fields with variable orientations. The most provocative images show variations in ice color that are poorly understood. ISS CEO photography took advantage of the unusually cloud-free conditions that prevailed for a few days about 10 days ago. The crew’s images show water in Lake Eyre for the first time in years. A very interesting aspect of this photography is that it also shows water in many small, usually dry lakebeds surrounding Lake Eyre. This indicates recent unusual rainfall locally: Lake Eyre is usually filled by rain that falls hundreds of miles to the north.
Today’s CEO (crew earth observations) targets, with the current LVLH attitude now including near-vertical views from the city target list, were Guangzhou, China (nadir pass; ESC [electronic still camera]. The city lies on the shores of the great Pearl River estuary), Madras (Chennai), India (nadir pass; ESC camera. Looking a touch left on the coast), Cape Town, South Africa (nadir pass; ESC camera), Johannesburg, South Africa (nadir pass; ESC camera. Looking left and right for the greater urban region), Karachi, Pakistan (nadir pass over this coastal city; ESC), Lisbon, Portugal (nadir pass; ESC camera), and Lima, Peru (nadir pass; ESC camera).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 7:39am EST [= epoch]):