ISS Weekly Science Status Report – Expedition Two Science Operations 21 June 2001
The past week saw the Expedition Two crew and supporting controllers and
scientists on the ground celebrate the team’s 100th day of science
operations onboard the orbiting research facility.
More than 5,000 pounds of payload hardware representing 17 investigations
have been launched, installed and operated on Space Station during this
Expedition, which began in March.
New targets for Crew Earth Observations photography were uplinked to the
Station last week. Flight Engineer James Voss reported he has been doing
some photography daily. Targets include Kilimanjaro Tropical Glacier, High
Central Andean glaciers, Andean lakes, water diversion, agriculture and
population expansion around the Nile river and dams and reservoirs on the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Turkey. Human development and global climate
investigations are continuing themes for these photographic studies. Flight
Engineer Susan Helms conducted additional tests with the Middeck Active
Control Experiment on June 14, 15 and 18. This experiment, first begun
during the Expedition One mission and continued by Helms, is testing control
mechanisms that can be used in large articulated spacecraft as well as well
as other industrial applications.
Following initial setup on May 29, the Active Rack Isolation System has
continued to undergo a variety of calibrations and other tests this week,
commanded by controllers on the ground. The science team plans to use the
powered dampening device to “float” the rack on Friday and begin testing its
ability to reduce vibrations caused by crew activity and equipment
operations. Using sensors and pushrods, ARIS acts like a powered shock
absorber to react to disturbances to provide a better low gravity
environment for delicate experiments.
A pair of sensors that are part of the Space Acceleration Measurement System
were activated Monday, June 18, marking the full activation of that
experiment. SAMS measures vibrations that affect experiments located near
the cause of the vibration. It includes five small remote sensors placed
directly next to experiments throughout the Destiny lab module.
On Monday, June 18, Voss deactivated the last growth cylinder in Protein
Crystal Growth Single Thermal Enclosure System Unit 10. The four other
active growth cylinders in the experiment were deactivated Friday, June 15.
The experiment is scheduled to return to Earth on the STS-104 Shuttle
mission in July. In the meantime, all growth cylinders in an identical
unit — PCG-STES Unit 9 — will remain active until about the time of the
STS-104 mission. Protein molecules are involved in numerous biological
processes. Scientists hope the space experiment will reveal more about their
structure and yield advances in medicine, agriculture, the environment and
other biosciences.
On Wednesday, Voss collected gas, condensate and nutrient samples with the
Advanced Astroculture plant growth experiment. Seedlings, related to the
family of radishes and cabbages, are continuing to grow. Scientists hope to
use the long duration Station mission to grow plants from seeds to the seed
production stage and learn whether there are any genetic changes. A
commercial company is using the experiment as the basis for Internet-based
education programs for classrooms.
Other payloads continuing to operate nominally, include: Commercial Protein
Crystal Growth; Experiment on the Physics of Colloids in Space; and three
radiation monitoring experiments – Bonner Ball Neutron Detector, Phantom
Torso, and Dosimetric Mapping.
The crew continued to conduct normal maintenance of active science
experiments – re-charging radiation sensors, downloading sensor data to
computers, checking experiment status panels and photographing hardware
setups.
Controllers at the Payload Operations Center and science teams around the
world are working this week to plan for additional science activities
beginning the week of June 25 due to the decision to reschedule the next
Space Shuttle launch.
The payload team is also involved in planning the transition of the
Expedition Two to the Expedition Three payload cadre, expected to occur
before the Aug. 5 launch of the STS-105 Shuttle mission. STS-105 will carry
the Expedition Three crew to Space Station and return the Expedition Two
crew to Earth. Updates to Station computers to accommodate new capabilities
and hardware also require updates to the computers that control Station
payloads – both on the ground and onboard.
Editor’s Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiment
operations aboard the International Space Station. The center is also home
for coordination of the mission-planning work of a variety of international
sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training
and payload safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.
