NASA International Space Station Expedition 10 Science Operations Status Report for the Week Ending April 29, 2005

Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov conducted their final session with the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity (ADUM) experiment. Chiao and Sharipov performed ultrasound bone scans on each other by taking turns as operator and subject. The bone scans were taken of the shoulder, elbow, knee and ankle, monitored remotely from the ground, and videotaped and photographed for downlink.

While an ultrasound cannot image bone porosity itself, the ADUM team is looking at the bone surface roughness as an indicator of bone density. Their hypothesis is that during muscle atrophy the bones may become smoother as fewer muscle and ligament attachment sites are required. Therefore by monitoring the surface roughness of bones it may be possible to get some indication of how much muscle has been lost and possibly how much bone has been lost as well. If successful, in the future, this could lead to changes in exercise protocols that could be adapted to individuals in near real time.

For his Saturday Science activities, Chiao conducted a session with the Miscible Fluids in Microgravity, or MFMG experiment. Fluids do not behave the same on Earth as in the microgravity environment inside the orbiting Space Station. This experiment studies how miscible fluids, or those that completely dissolve, interact without the interference of gravity.

This test involved Chiao pulling tinted water from a syringe through a drinking straw and into another syringe containing a mixture of honey and water. The way the fluid interacted was both videotaped and photographed for observation. This research could help scientists improve the way plastics and other polymers are produced on Earth and in space. NASA’s payload operations team at the Marshall Center coordinates U.S. science activities on Space Station.

NASA’s payload operations team at the Marshall Center coordinates science activities on Space Station.