Status Report

ISS On-Orbit Status 6 Mar 2003

By SpaceRef Editor

March 6, 2003

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

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Today Expedition 6 has been in charge of the Station for 100 days.

After wake-up, the crewmates were congratulated on yesterday’s successful recovery of the station-wide OpsLAN (see below).

After power-up of the SSRMS (space station remote manipulator system) by MCC-H at 9:00am EST, CDR Ken Bowersox and FE-2/SO Don Pettit performed the second part of this week’s Robotics operations, viz., the planned survey of the P1 truss segment, followed by minor troubleshooting on the Lab DCP (display and control panel) Pause/Proceed switch. [Targets were two RBVM QD (radiator beam valve module quick disconnect) thermal covers and the port SVS (space vision system) target array. The surveys are to ensure that the protective booties are properly in place, lest higher temperatures over longer periods degrade the ammonia QD seals underneath. On -, Sox and Don had finished the S1 survey early enough to perform the SSRMS walkoff and base change to the Lab PDGF (power and data grapple fixture) for today. The results of that S1 survey are still being assessed, but preliminary indications are that two RBVMs may require additional inspection.]

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin meanwhile continued de-installing and removing no-longer-needed SUD motion control system components in the FGB “Zarya” module to make room for stowage, this time two electronics blocks (M34-20-1 and 2). He then took digital photographs of the exposed area for later downlink via OCA.

Bowersox and Pettit completed another test activity of the HRF US (Human Research Facility Ultrasound) program, a Space Medicine investigation using an ultrasound/Doppler system to obtain images of internal organs of the human body in zero-G. [After Dr. Peggy Whitson had conducted an operational checkout of the system for medical contingencies on 9/13/02, including a cardiac scanning which demonstrated the validity of remote guidance and promising quality of downlinked data, today’s activity was to validate a specific zero-G cardiac scanning protocol based on terrestrial echocardiography standards. This activity ensures the availability of cardiac imaging for any future medical contingencies. The ultrasound equipment is part of HRF Rack 1, launched on 5A.1 in March 2001. Its applications include echocardiography, abdominal US (deep organ), vascular US, muscle and tendon US, transcranial US and US contrast studies.]

Budarin began the new phase of the Russian BIO-5 Rasteniya-2/Lada-2 (“Plants-2”) experiment which researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions. [Nikolai unstowed experimental seeds (acacia leaf type pea) and planted them between wicks in a root tray. The hardware was then powered up. Regular daily maintenance of the experiment includes monitoring of seedling growth, humidity measurements and moistening of the substrate, and photo/video recording.]

Don Pettit completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOSh life support system, including ASU toilet facilities, and later prepared the IMS inventory delta file for downlink.

He and Bowersox filled out their weekly FFQ (food frequency questionnaire), a special software log on the MEC (medical equipment computer) to track nutritional intake.

At 9:55am EST, ISS attitude control was handed over to the Russian MCS (motion control system), which then (10:03am-10:18am) maneuvered the Station from sun-fixed XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane) to earth-oriented LVLH TEA (local vertical/local horizontal torque equilibrium attitude). Attitude control was then resumed by U.S. CMG (control moment gyro) momentum management. [In the new LVLH attitude, U.S. GNC (guidance, navigation & control) systems currently continue to be configured for Russian attitude, angular rates, and state (position, velocity) sources. This is important since in LVLH any aberrant control impulses generated due to the current RGA (rate gyro assembly) “staleness” problem of the R3 software would be much larger even than in XPOP and could possibly lead to loss of CMG attitude control.]

Houston and Moscow have agreed on a schedule for the U.S. GNC patch uplink and the subsequent Service Module (SM) 7.01 software transition. [MCC-H will receive the patch tomorrow (3/7) and perform uplink testing on Monday (3/10). The onboard transition will occur as part of the nominally planned RS handover and Progress reboost test scheduled for 3/11. TsUP/Moscow will then resume the SM 7.01 transition on about 3/18.]

Planning continues for the Stage EVA by Bowersox and Pettit on 3/20 (alternately, 3/25). [The 6.5-hr. spacewalk will focus on close inspections and reconfigurations on the S0 and S1 truss segments, reconfiguration of CMG hardware at the Z1 truss, installation of two more SPDs (spool positioning devices) on jumper connectors, repositioning RBVM thermal booties, installation of a light fixture on a boom stanchion on one of the two S1 CETA (crew equipment translation aid) railcarts (an activity not completed during the last Stage EVA on 1/15), and some get-ahead tasks as time permits.]

Full functionality of the Station OpsLAN (operations local area network) between U.S. (USOS) and Russian segment (RS) has been was restored. [Based on intermediate screen capture files downlinked by Budarin, TsUP specialists were able to determine that the configuration file on the SM’s SmartSwitch router (SSR, Russian: BRI) was incorrect, such that the ports where the SSC (station support computer) laptops are connected were not enabled or configured for use. A new config file was uplinked and successfully installed in the SSR computer by the crew. The SM SSCs were then able to establish a connection to the USOS file server PC. As of now, the SSC OpsLAN is in a good configuration.]

At 8:55am EST, MCC-H payload specialists conducted a teleconference with the crew to discuss U.S. manifest priorities for 5S/Soyuz TMA-1 return, to obtain crew input in the ongoing downmass planning. [Moscow expects total 5S return capacity to be on the order of 30-50 kg. Houston was expecting more and is working to confirm the real capability, as well as whether there is any standard hardware that could be removed from 5S before return (e.g. winter coats, etc). With worst-case capacity, U.S. allocation of downmass is expected to be less than 10 kg. Our return priorities have been established as: science first, then minimal environmental samples, then other hardware necessary to troubleshoot or understand a technical problem, and finally crew preference.]

At 12:56pm EST, the crew participated in a 20-min. interactive educational interview on NASA TV with students at Glenwood Elementary School in Perrysburg, Ohio. [The school regularly televises morning announcements that relate to space. Students in all grade levels are engaged in space related activities, and the school’s Computer Club was to videotape the program and interview audience members, with the tape then to be distributed to other schools within the district. NASA GRC (Glenn Research Center) sent a representative to present student assemblies before the live program.]

All crewmembers performed their regular daily physical exercise on TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization), RED (resistive exercise device), CEVIS (cycle ergometer with vibration isolation) and VELO bike with load trainer. [On the VELO ergometer, loading control was found to be intermittent during exercise yesterday. Budarin removed the control panel cover and inspected the cabling but found no apparent cause. After closing the cover, the ergometer performed nominally. In preparation for any future re-occurrence, Nikolai located spare ergometer hardware in the RS.]

Today’s targets for the CEO (crew earth observations program) were Industrialized Southeastern Africa (a stable, stagnant, summertime air mass has settled over southern Africa. Subsidence and light winds have increase air pollution over the industrialized Orange and Vaal River valleys. Looking right of track to document this phenomenon), El Paso, Texas (for a good view of old El Paso and the Rio Grande, the crew was to look just left of track), La Paz (there may have been some afternoon cloudiness, but the crew was to try for the Bolivian capital, southeast of Lake Titicaca and just left of track), and Lake Poopo (the ISS had an excellent pass to map the Altiplano Basin, with nadir views from Lake Titicaca to Lake Poopo).
CEO images can be viewed at the website
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov

U.S. and Russian Segment Status (as of 12:54pm EST).

Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLSS) and Thermal Control (TCS):

Elektron O2 generator is powered On (32 Amp mode). Vozdukh CO2 scrubber is On (Manual mode 5). U.S. CDRA CO2 scrubber is Off. TCCS (trace contaminant control subsystem) is operating. MCA (major constituents analyzer) is operating. BMP Harmful Impurities unit: Absorbent bed #1 in Purify mode; bed #2 in Purify mode. RS air conditioner SKV-1 is On; SKV-2 is Off.

SM Working Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) — 753; temperature (deg C) — 27.4; ppO2 (mmHg) — 183.0; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 2.3 (suspect).
SM Transfer Compartment: Pressure (mmHg) — 751; temperature (deg C) — 20.3.
FGB Cabin: Pressure (mmHg) — 752; temperature (deg C) — 22.7.
Node: Pressure (mmHg) — 741.98; temperature (deg C) — 23.3 (shell); ppO2 (mmHg) — n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) — n/a.
U.S. Lab: Pressure (mmHg) — 744.01; temperature (deg C) — 22.1; ppO2 (mmHg) — 178.7; ppCO2 (mmHg) — 4.5;
Joint Airlock (Equip. Lock): Pressure (mmHg) — 744.11; temperature (deg C) — 20.9; shell heater temp (deg C) — 21.4, ppO2 (mmHg) — n/a; ppCO2 (mmHg) — n/a.
PMA-1: Shell heater temp (deg C) — 24.1
PMA-2: Shell heater temp (deg C) — 17.2

(n/a = data not available)

Propulsion System (PS):

Total propellant load available [SM(820) + FGB(2753) + Progress(576)] — 4149 kg (9147 lb) as of 2/27/03. (Capability: SM — 860 kg; FGB — 6120 kg).

Electrical Power Systems (EPS):

Both P6 channels fully operational. Beta Gimbal Assembly (BGA) 2B and 4B both in auto track (sun-following) mode.
SM batteries: All batteries (8) are in “Partial Charge” mode.
FGB batteries: Batteries #2 and #6 are offline (#6 is in Capacity Restoration Mode/ROM); battery #5 is in “Cycle” mode; all batteries (3) are in “Partial Charge” mode.
Plasma Contactor Unit PCU-1 and PCU-2 both in Standby mode.

Command & Data Handling Systems:

C&C-1 MDM is prime, C&C-2 is back-up, and C&C-3 is in standby.
GNC-1 MDM is prime; GNC-2 is Backup.
INT-1 is operating; INT-2 is Off.
EXT-1 is On (primary), EXT-2 is Off.
LA-1, LA-2 and LA-3 MDMs are all operating.
PL-2 MDM is On (primary); PL-1 MDM is Off
APS-1 (automated payload switch #1) and APS-2 are both On.
SM Terminal Computer (TVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational. Lane 1 is out of the set (as of 11/14/02).
SM Central Computer (TsVM): 2 redundant lanes (of 3) operational. Lane 1 is out of the set (as of 3/2/03).

Attitude Control Systems:

3 CMGs on-line (CMG-1 failed).
State vector source — Russian
Attitude source — Russian
Angular rate source — Russian.

Flight Attitude:

LVLH TEA (local vertical/local horizontal = “earth-fixed”: z-axis in local vertical, x-axis in velocity vector [yaw: -10 deg, pitch: -9.1 deg, roll: 0 deg]), with CMG/ TA (thruster assist) Momentum Management).
Solar Beta Angle: -10.6 deg (magnitude decreasing).

Communications & Tracking Systems: