NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 18 September 2011
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday Crew off duty. Ahead: Week 1 of Increment 29 (three-person crew).
FE-4 Sergei Volkov performed the routine checkup of the SM (Service Module) PSS Caution & Warning panel as part of the regular Daily Morning Inspection.
Also at wake-up, CDR Mike Fossum & FE-5 Satoshi Furukawa completed another post-sleep session of the Reaction Self Test (Psychomotor Vigilance Self Test on the ISS) protocol. [RST is done twice daily (after wakeup & before bedtime) for 3 days prior to the sleep shift, the day(s) of the sleep shift and 5 days following a sleep shift. The experiment consists of a 5-minute reaction time task that allows crewmembers to monitor the daily effects of fatigue on performance while on ISS. The experiment provides objective feedback on neurobehavioral changes in attention, psychomotor speed, state stability, and impulsivity while on ISS missions, particularly as they relate to changes in circadian rhythms, sleep restrictions, and extended work shifts.]
Volkov conducted the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM. This included the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP-Moscow, as well as the weekly checkup on the Russian POTOK-150MK (150 micron) air filter unit of the SMs & FGBs SOGS air revitalization subsystem, gathering weekly data on total operating time & On durations for calldown. [SOZh servicing includes checking the ASU toilet facilities, replacement of the KTO & KBO solid waste containers and replacement of EDV-SV waste water and EDV-U urine containers].
Sergei also completed the daily inspection of the recently activated Russian BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (“Plants-2”) payload with its LADA-01 greenhouse and ensured proper watering of the KM A32 & A24 root modules. [Rasteniya-2 researches growth and development of plants (currently wheat) under spaceflight conditions in the LADA greenhouse from IBMP (Institute of Bio-Medical Problems, Russian: IMBP).]
Fossum opened the protective window shutters of the Lab WORF (Window Observational Research Facility) for the ISSAC (ISS Agriculture Camera) equipment, so ground images could be captured today by ground commanding. At sleeptime tonight, the CDR will close the shutters again. [ISSAC takes frequent visible-light & infrared images of vegetated areas on the Earth. The camera focuses principally on rangelands, grasslands, forests, and wetlands in the northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. The images may be delivered directly upon request to farmers, ranchers, foresters, natural resource managers and tribal officials to help improve their environmental stewardship of the land. The images will also be shared with educators for classroom use.]
At ~4:40am EDT, Satoshi Furukawa & Mike Fossum, wearing their mission polo shirts, began the long-prepared four-segment live TV show The Cosmic Shore for the Japanese TV national public broadcasting organization NHK (Nippon Hs Kykai), airing to Japanese audience in primetime, at 5:40pm-9:53pm in Tokyo. [The live event used the new SS-HDTV (Super Sensitive High Definition TV) camera from the Node-3 Cupola, downlinking the crew-narrated live event in four ten-minute segments over specific ground path segments: (1) 4:40am EDT Southeastern Australia (sunlit), Southwest of New Zealand (sunset), Southeast of New Zealand (night); (2) 6:41am Pacific, equator (night); Southwest of Mexico (sunrise), Southern Mexico (sunlit); (3) 7:49am South of Australia (sunlit), South of Australia (sunrise), Southwest of New Zealand (night); (4) 8:43am Atlantic, Northwest of Spain (daytime), Northern Algeria (daytime) Moonset, Sahara Desert, Libya (daytime). NHK is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers’ payments with a TV license fee.]
CDR & FE-5 were scheduled for their weekly PFCs (Private Family Conferences) on their schedule, via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), Satoshi at ~2:15pm, Mike at ~4:50pm EDT.
Before his sleeptime, FE-4 will initiate battery charging for the GFI-8 “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging equipment with the FSS hardware for tomorrows planned observation session. [The FSS system consists of an image recording module with lens and a spectroradiometer module with an electronics module.]
Jobs listed for Sergei Volkov today on the Russian discretionary time permitting task list were Another ~30-min. session for Russia’s EKON Environmental Safety Agency, making observations and taking KPT-3 aerial photography of environmental conditions on Earth using the NIKON D3X camera with the RSK-1 laptop, A ~15-min. photography session for the DZZ-13 Seiner ocean observation program, obtaining NIKON D3X photos with Nikkor 80-200 mm lens and the SONY HD video camcorder to record color bloom patterns in the waters of the Central-Eastern Atlantic, then copying the images to the RSK-1 laptop, and Preparing & downlinking more reportages (written text, photos, videos) for the Roskosmos website to promote Russias manned space program (max. file size 500 Mb).
The crew worked out with their regular 2-hr physical exercise protocol on the CEVIS cycle ergometer with vibration isolation (FE-5), TVIS treadmill with vibration isolation & stabilization (FE-4), ARED advanced resistive exercise device (CDR, FE-5), T2/COLBERT advanced treadmill (CDR), and VELO ergometer bike with load trainer (FE-4).
No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) targets uplinked for today.
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:46am EDT [= epoch])
* Mean altitude 384.1 km
* Apogee height 391.4 km
* Perigee height 376.7 km
* Period — 92.23 min.
* Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
* Eccentricity — 0.0010896
* Solar Beta Angle — -40.0 deg (magnitude decreasing)
* Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.61
* Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 83 m
* Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 73,548
* Time in orbit (station) — 4685 days
* Time in orbit (crews, cum.) — 3972 days
Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time and subject to change):
————–Three-crew operations (Increment 29)————-
10/29/11 — Progress M-10M/42P undocking
10/30/11 — Progress M-13M/45P launch
11/01/11 — Progress M-13M/45P docking
11/14/11 — Soyuz TMA-03M/28S launch D.Burbank (CDR-30)/A.Shkaplerov/A.Ivanishin
11/16/11 — Soyuz TMA-03M/28S docking (MRM2)
————–Six-crew operations————-
11/22/11 — Soyuz TMA-02M/27S undock/landing (End of Increment 29)
————–Three-crew operations————-
11/30/11 — SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon — Target date
12/26/11 — Soyuz TMA-04M/29S launch O.Kononenko (CDR-31)/A.Kuipers/D.Pettit — (date on or about)
12/28/11 — Soyuz TMA-04M/29S docking (MRM1) — (date on or about)
————–Six-crew operations—————-
TBD — Progress M-13M/45P undock
TBD — Progress M-14M/46P launch
TBD — Progress M-14M/46P docking (DC-1)
02/29/12 — ATV3 launch readiness
TBD — Soyuz TMA-03M/28S undock/landing (End of Increment 30)
————–Three-crew operations————-
03/30/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/30S launch G.Padalka (CDR-32)/J.Acaba/K.Volkov
04/01/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/30S docking (MRM2)
————–Six-crew operations—————-
05/05/12 — 3R Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) w/ERA launch on Proton (under review)
05/06/12 — Progress M-14M/46P undock
05/07/12 — 3R Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) docking (under review)
05/16/12 — Soyuz TMA-04M/29S undock/landing (End of Increment 31)
————–Three-crew operations————-
05/29/12 Soyuz TMA-06M/31S launch S.Williams (CDR-33)/Y.Malenchenko/A.Hoshide
05/31/12 Soyuz TMA-06M/31S docking
————–Six-crew operations—————-
09/18/12 — Soyuz TMA-05M/30S undock/landing (End of Increment 32)
————–Three-crew operations————-
10/02/12 — Soyuz TMA-07M/32S launch K.Ford (CDR-34)/O.Novitskiy/E.Tarelkin
10/04/12 Soyuz TMA-07M/32S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
11/16/12 — Soyuz TMA-06M/31S undock/landing (End of Increment 33)
————–Three-crew operations————-
11/30/12 — Soyuz TMA-08M/33S launch C.Hadfield (CDR-35)/T.Mashburn/R.Romanenko
12/02/12 Soyuz TMA-08M/33S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
03/xx/13 — Soyuz TMA-07M/32S undock/landing (End of Increment 34)
————–Three-crew operations————-
03/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-09M/34S launch P.Vinogradov (CDR-36)/C.Cassidy/A.Misurkin
03/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-09M/34S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
05/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-08M/33S undock/landing (End of Increment 35)
————–Three-crew operations————-
05/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-10M/35S launch M.Suraev (CDR-37)/K.Nyberg/L.Parmitano
05/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-10M/35S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
09/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-09M/34S undock/landing (End of Increment 36)
————–Three-crew operations————-
09/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-11M/36S launch M.Hopkins/TBD (CDR-38)/TBD
09/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-11M/36S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
11/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-10M/35S undock/landing (End of Increment 37)
————–Three-crew operations————-
11/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-12M/37S launch K.Wakata (CDR-39)/R.Mastracchio/TBD
11/xx/13 Soyuz TMA-12M/37S docking
————–Six-crew operations————-
03/xx/14 Soyuz TMA-11M/36S undock/landing (End of Increment 38)
————–Three-crew operations————-
