NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 19 April 2009
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – Happy Orthodox Easter, Gennady! Ahead: Week 3 of Increment 19.
Michael Barratt & Koichi Wakata began the last day of their second session with the NASA/JSC experiment NUTRITION w/Repository. For both, 24-hr. urine collections ended this morning, and Barratt finished his FD30 session with his blood draw, assisted by the FE-2. Wakata’s next NUTRITION/Repository activity will be the FD60 session. [The NUTRITION project is the most comprehensive in-flight study done by NASA to date of human physiologic changes during long-duration space flight. It includes measures of bone metabolism, oxidative damage, nutritional assessments, and hormonal changes, expanding the previous Clinical Nutritional Assessment profile (MR016L) testing in three ways: Addition of in-flight blood & urine collection (made possible by supercold MELFI dewars), normative markers of nutritional assessment, and a return session plus 30-day (R+30) session to allow evaluation of post-flight nutrition and implications for rehabilitation.]
Koichi again started the day with the daily download of the overnight data of the experiment SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy & Light Exposure during Spaceflight) from his Actiwatch to the HRF-1 (Human Research Facility 1) laptop as part of another week-long session with SLEEP, his second.
Gennady Padalka performed the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the SM (Service Module), including the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP-Moscow. Additionally, the CDR checked up on the Russian POTOK-150MK (150 micron) air filter unit of the SM’s SOGS air revitalization subsystem, gathering weekly data on total operating time & “On” durations for reporting to TsUP-Moscow. [Regular daily SOZh maintenance consists, among else, of 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.]
Padalka also conducted the periodic checkup behind panel 139 in the SM on a fluid connector (MNR-NS) of the SM-U urine collection system, looking for potential moisture.
Barratt completed the daily status check on the BCAT-4 (Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-4) science payload, running by itself since 4/3. [The status check, conducted on the last image taken by the DCS 760 digital still camera which is controlled by EarthKAM software on an A31p laptop, is to verify proper image focus and camera alignment. The SSC (Station Support Computer) is taking photography of the phase separation occurring in the BCAT Sample 3, with the photo flash going off every half hour.]
Afterwards, Dr. Mike conducted the daily procedure of flushing the PWD (Potable Water Dispenser) ambient line with ~50mL of water (into a towel/Ziploc bag). PWD water is currently cleared only for hygienic use. [While final analysis of the PWD sample results on the ground is still pending, experts recommend keeping water flowing in the line daily to help control microbial growth. The flushing will be done daily unless at least this amount has been dispensed for other activities during the day).]
For the CDR, it was time again for recharging the Motorola Iridium-9505A satellite phone brought up on Soyuz TMA-14, a monthly routine job and his second time (after the handover “tutorial” by Yuri Lonchakov on 4/1). [After retrieving it from its location in the TMA-14/18S Descent Module (BO), Gennady initiated the recharge of its lithium-ion battery, monitoring the process every 10-15 minutes as it took place. Upon completion at ~11:20am EDT, the phone was returned inside its SSSP Iridium kit and stowed back in the BO’s operational data files (ODF) container. The satphone accompanies returning ISS crews on Soyuz reentry & landing for contingency communications with SAR (Search-and-Rescue) personnel after touchdown (e.g., after an “undershoot” ballistic reentry, as happened during the recent 15S return). The Russian-developed procedure for the monthly recharging has been approved jointly by safety officials. During the procedure, the phone is left in its fire-protective fluoroplastic bag with open flap. The Iridium 9505A satphone uses the Iridium constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites to relay the landed Soyuz capsule’s GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates to helicopter-borne recovery crews. The older Iridium-9505 phones were first put onboard Soyuz in August 2003. The newer 9505A phone, currently in use, delivers 30 hours of standby time and three hours of talk, up from 20 and two hours, respectively, on the older units.]
The crew performed their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical workout program (about half of which is used for setup & post-exercise personal hygiene) on the TVIS treadmill (CDR, FE-1, FE-2), ARED advanced resistive exercise device (FE-1, FE-2), and VELO with bungee cord load trainer (CDR). [The CEVIS (Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation), which had shown anomalous workload indications, is currently “No-Go” as engineers are developing a forward plan for an inspection of its internals. All CEVIS exercise is being replaced with TVCIS exercise for the near term.]
Gennady had three items on his Russian discretionary “time permitting” task list for today, leading off with a session of the GFI-8 “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program, using the NIKON D2X digital camera to take 800mm-lens telephotos for subsequent downlinking on the BSR-TM payload data channel. [Uplinked targets for today were hydrological conditions of the river Oder, Kerch Strait, Taman mud volcanoes, Laganaki plateau, Kolka glacier, oil spills on the Caspian Sea, the Panama Canal, Kuril Islands the Western slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, the City of Uzhgorod, Lake Sevan, Lake Urmia and volcanoes, general views of the Zagros Mountains stretched along the Persian Gulf, Swiss Alps, Allaline Glacier, towns on the eastern seaboard of Italy after the earthquake, the largest volcanoes of Peru, Volcano Huascaran, and the Kuril Islands.]
As second task item, the CDR conducted another session for Russia’s Environmental Safety Agency (EKON), making observations and taking KPT-3 aerial photography of environmental conditions on earth using the Nikon D2X with the SIGMA 300-800mm telephoto lens. [Today’s target: the seasonal Volga Delta flooding, to compare with images taken on 4/12.]
The third voluntary task for Padalka was to search for and prepare the hardware of the ESA cardiological experiment CARD (Long Term Microgravity: A Model for Investigating Mechanisms of Heart Disease), specifically the Russian CDL Holter Arterial Blood Pressure (BP) instrument and batteries for powering it. [CARD was performed last by ESA crewmember Thomas Reiter in November 2006. Astronauts experience lowered blood volume and pressure during space missions due to relaxation of the cardiovascular system in microgravity which may be a result from decreased fluid and sodium in the body. CARD examines the relationship between salt intake and the cardiovascular system when exposed to the microgravity environment and explores whether blood pressure & volume can be restored to the same levels that were measured during groundbased measurements by adding additional salt to the crew’s food. Results from this may lead to new health safety measures for astronauts to protect them on long duration missions.]
At ~4:28am EDT, in observance of today’s Orthodox Easter, Gennady had a phone conversation with the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill I, at TsUP-Moscow.
The CDR & FE-1 have their weekly PFCs (Private Family Conferences) scheduled, via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), Gennady at ~6:40am, Mike at ~4:50pm.
No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) photo targets uplinked for today.
CEO photography can be studied at this “Gateway” website:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov (as of 9/1/08, this database contained 770,668 views of the Earth from space, with 324,812 from the ISS alone).
ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:53am EDT [= epoch])
Mean altitude — 352.4 km
Apogee height – 358.1 km
Perigee height — 346.6 km
Period — 91.59 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0001154
Solar Beta Angle — -23.8 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 79 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 59672
Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time, some changes possible!):
05/06/09 — Progress 32P undocking & deorbit
05/07/09 — Progress 33P launch
05/12/09 — STS-125/Atlantis Hubble Space Telescope Service Mission 4 (SM4) – 9:58am EDT
05/12/09 — Progress 33P docking
05/27/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S launch
05/29/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S docking (FGB nadir)
06/05/09 — Russian EVA-22
06/10/09 — Russian EVA-23
06/13/09 — STS-127/Endeavour/2J/A launch – JEM EF, ELM-ES, ICC-VLD
Six-person crew on ISS
07/17/09 — Progress 33P undock & deorbit
07/20/09 — Soyuz TMA-14/18S relocation (to DC1)
07/24/09 — Progress 34P launch
07/26/09 — Progress 34P docking (SM aft)
08/06/09 — STS-128/Discovery/17A – MPLM (P), LMC
09/01/09 — H-IIB (JAXA HTV-1) — tentative
11/10/09 — Soyuz 5R/MRM2 (Russian Mini Research Module, MIM2) on Soyuz — tentative
11/12/09 — STS-129/Atlantis/ULF3 – ELC1, ELC2
12/10/09 — STS-130/Endeavour/20A – Node-3 + Cupola — tentative
02/11/10 — STS-131/Atlantis/19A – MPLM(P), LMC — tentative
04/08/10 — STS-132/Discovery/ULF4 – ICC-VLD, MRM1 — tentative
05/31/10 — STS-133/Endeavour/ULF5 – ELC3, ELC4 — tentative
12/XX/11 — Proton 3R/MLM w/ERA.
