NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 28 December 2008

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – off-duty day for CDR Fincke, FE-1 Lonchakov & FE-2 Magnus. Ahead: Week 10 of Increment 18.

Mike Fincke & Sandra Magnus started their day with another download of last night’s data of the SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy & Light Exposure during Spaceflight) experiment from their Actiwatches to the HRF-1 (Human Research Facility 1) laptop as part of the week-long session with SLEEP. [To monitor the crewmember’s sleep/wake patterns and light exposure, Mike & Sandy wear a special Actiwatch device which measures the light levels encountered by them as well as their patterns of sleep and activity throughout the Expedition and use the payload software for data logging and filling in questionnaire entries in the experiment’s laptop session file on the HRF-1 laptop. The log entries are done within 15 minutes of final awakening for seven consecutive days, as part of the crew’s discretionary “job jar” task list. It was the second session for Mike, the first for Sandra.]

Mike serviced the US WRS (Water Recovery System) by refilling the WSTA (Water Storage Tank Assembly) with pretreated urine from EDV-U container (#810, then #882) for processing by the UPA (Urine Processing Assembly). [The WSTA should be filled to no more than 75%. Recycled water from the PWD may now be used by the crew for non-oral hygiene purposes.]

Yuri Lonchakov performed the routine daily servicing of the SOZh system (Environment Control & Life Support System, ECLSS) in the Service Module (SM), including the weekly collection of the toilet flush (SP) counter and water supply (SVO) readings for calldown to TsUP-Moscow. Additionally, the FE-1 today 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, replacement of EDV-SV waste water and EDV-U urine containers and performing US condensate processing (transfer from CWC to EDV containers) if condensate is available.]

The FE-1 had a number of discretionary tasks on his “time permitting” job list for today –

• Conducting the frequent status check on the Russian BIO-5 Rasteniya-1 ("Plants-1") experiment, verifying proper operation of the BU Control Unit and MIS-LADA Module fans (testing their air flow by hand). [Rasteniya-1 researches growth and development of plants under spaceflight conditions in the LADA-14 greenhouse from IBMP (Institute of Bio-Medical Problems, Russian: IMBP)],
• Running a session of the DZZ-2 "Diatomeya" ocean observations program, using an HDV camcorder for nocturnal observations of the ocean to detect and record bio-luminescent glows in high production water areas. According to available data, the glow may be visible as light greenish spots of low intensity. [Target zones in the Pacific Ocean were New Zealand’s North-Eastern offshore areas & the California peninsula, the Gulf of Carpentaria (Australia) and Queen Charlotte Bay), in the Indian & Pacific Oceans geological location north of Kerguelen Island and south of Aleutian Islands, in the Indian & Pacific Oceans the west of Australia to the east of New Zealand, and from south of the Madagascar Island to the north of New Zealand],
• Another ECON KPT-3 session, making observations and taking aerial photography for Russia’s Environmental Safety Agency (ECON) using the D2X with SIGMA 300-800mm telephoto lens, and
• Searching for and collecting hardware required for the externally installed OBSTANOVKA (Environment) experiment, including the Fluke 105B scopemeter with accessories, eight alkaline batteries for the scopemeter and the Elektronika-MMTs-1 Multimeter instrument. Four batteries were to be installed and both Fluke and MMTs-01 checked out. After a Langmuir Probe hardware familiarization review tomorrow (12/29), the first measurements of the plasma environment near the docked Soyuz spacecraft will be taken on 12/30 as part of the OBSTANOVKA experiment Part 1. [The GFI-11/OBSTANOVKA payload, along with the IMPULSE experiment, will use ionosphere probes and a pulsed plasma source to make scientific measurements of ionosphere parameters and plasma-wave characteristics.]

Mike & Sandy’s “job jar” task list for today had three voluntary work suggestions –

• Removing IWIS (Internal Wireless Instrumentation System) hardware (accelerometer & interface plate) from the WRS-2 rack to allow access for door opening, and later reinstalling the equipment in front of the rack,
• Loading the TOCA (Total Organic Carbon Analyzer) software update from the TOCA USB drive on the SSC-7 (Station Support Computer 7) laptop. [The update was written in response to the aborted TOCA run on 12/24.], and
• For Mike to fill out the regular FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire) for the fourth time on the MEC (Medical Equipment Computer).

The station residents conducted their regular daily 2.5-hr. physical workout program (about half of which is used for setup & post-exercise personal hygiene) on the CEVIS cycle ergometer (FE-2), TVIS treadmill (CDR, FE-1), RED resistive exercise device (CDR, FE-1, FE-2) and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer (FE-1).

Fincke & Lonchakov talked with their families on scheduled PFCs (Private Family Conferences) via S-band/audio & Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), Yuri at ~6:10am, Mike at ~3:45pm EST.

VolSci Update: For yesterday’s Voluntary Weekend Science program, Mike received kudos from the Payload team: “Excellent job on SHERE’s Dry Run yesterday! You are definitely ready for Wednesday’s science runs, and we are eagerly looking forward to running them with you. Thank you very much for offering to do an additional science run, but we were just not ready to support it thermally in either the MSG or CGBA… We also appreciate the extra camera views you have been giving us in Columbus. It greatly helps the team’s situational awareness, and it’s almost like being there. Wish we were there!”

No CEO (Crew Earth Observations) 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, 8:41am EST [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 353.6 km
Apogee height — 358.7 km
Perigee height — 348.5 km
Period — 91.61 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0007552
Solar Beta Angle — -17.5 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 53 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 57911

Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time, some changes possible!):
01/14/09 — ISS reboost w/SM thrusters
02/09/09 — Progress M-01M/31P undocking & deorbit
02/10/09 — Progress 32P launch
02/12/09 — Progress 32P docking
02/12/09 — STS-119/Endeavour/15A launch – S6 truss segment
02/14/09 — STS-119/Endeavour/15A docking
02/24/09 — STS-119/Endeavour/15A undocking
02/26/09 — STS-119/Endeavour/15A landing (nominal)
03/25/09 — Soyuz TMA-14/18S launch
03/27/09 — Soyuz TMA-14/18S docking (DC1)
04/05/09 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S undocking
04/07/09 — Progress 32P undocking & deorbit
05/12/09 — STS-125/Atlantis Hubble Space Telescope Service Mission 4 (SM4)
05/15/09 — STS-127/Endeavour/2J/A launch – JEM EF, ELM-ES, ICC-VLD
05/27/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S launch
Six-person crew on ISS
08/06/09 — STS-128/Discovery/17A – MPLM (P), LMC, last crew rotation
08/XX/09 — Soyuz 5R/MRM2 (Russian Mini Research Module, MIM2) on Soyuz
09/XX/09 — H-IIB (JAXA HTV-1)
11/12/09 — STS-129/Atlantis/ULF3 – ELC1, ELC2
12/10/09 — STS-130/Endeavour/20A – Node-3 + Cupola
02/11/10 — STS-131/Atlantis/19A – MPLM(P), LMC
04/08/10 — STS-132/Discovery/ULF4 – ICC-VLD, MRM1
05/31/10 — STS-133/Endeavour/ULF5 – ELC3, ELC4
12/XX/11– Proton 3R/MLM w/ERA.