NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 28 September 2008

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Sunday – off-duty day for CDR Volkov, FE-1 Kononenko & FE-2 Chamitoff. Ahead: Week 24 of Increment 17.

Gregory Chamitoff started out on Part 2 of his FD120 (Flight Day 120) session with the NASA/JSC experiment NUTRITION w/Repository. This is an all-day session, the fifth for Greg, of collecting urine samples several times for 24 hrs through first void tomorrow morning, labeling each sample and storing it in the MELFI (Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for the ISS), Dewar 1 Tray B/Section 1. [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.]

Chamitoff also had three hours reserved for his part of the regular weekly station cleaning in the USOS (US Segment) which was not scheduled yesterday alongside the RS (Russian Segment) “uborka” housecleaning by his two crewmates due to his VolSci (Voluntary Science) program.

Sergey Volkov conducted 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. [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.]

The FE-2 performed the periodic deployment of four passive FMK (Formaldehyde Monitoring Kit) sampling assemblies in the Lab (at P3, below CEVIS) and SM (at the most forward handrail, on panel 307) for two days, to catch any atmospheric formaldehyde on a collector substrate for subsequent analysis on the ground. [Two monitors each are usually attached side by side, preferably in an orientation with their faces perpendicular to the direction of air flow.]

Working off his discretionary “as time permits” task list, FE-1 Kononenko gathered and prepared the Fialka-MV-KOSMOS science hardware, including starting recharging the SONY DCR TRV-900E camcorder battery, for tomorrow’s GFI-1 recording of images and spectra of the ATV “Jules Verne” reentry. [The experiment uses the onboard “Relaksatsiya” (“relaxation”) equipment with its Fialka-MV-Kosmos multispectral hardware (spectrometer, video camera plus Laptop 3 software) to observe the plasma glow and its spectra created by the ATV on its high-speed interaction with the Earth atmosphere.]

At ~10:15am EDT, Greg Chamitoff had his weekly PFC (Private Family Conference) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop).

The crew completed 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 with Vibration Isolation & Stabilization) with vibration isolation (CDR/2.5h, FE-1/2.5h, FE-2), and RED resistive exercise device (FE-2).

Before starting his exercise session, Gregory set up the video equipment for filming his subsequent workout on the treadmill for biomechanical evaluation of his performance and assessment of the hardware status by ground engineers. Afterwards, the camera gear was torn down and stowed. [This was part of Greg’s 60-90 day requirement. Sergey & Oleg have already completed their requirements.]

A second item on the discretionary task list for Oleg was another run of the Russian DZZ-2 "Diatomeya" ocean observations program, using the NIKON-F5 DCS still camera and the HDV (high-definition) video camcorder from SM window 8 for ~20 min to record high production water areas for obtaining data on color field composition in dynamic regions of the ocean and in near-estuary areas of large rivers, plus the current cloud cover above these waters, its rating, and special forms of cloud formation (this was the last day for using film in the NIKON, to be replaced by digital photography in future sessions). [Target zones today in the Atlantic Ocean were the Magellan Strait to the coastal area of Angola as well as the coastal zone of Brazil and Mauritania, in the Pacific Ocean the area west of New Zealand to the upwelling area of Peru.]

Also off the Russian suggestions list, Kononenko performed a session of the Russian GFI-8 "Uragan" (hurricane) earth-imaging program, using the D2X to take telephotos. [Uplinked target zones were the glaciers of the Southern Andes and the Laganaki Plateau, the site of future Olympic Games.]

As generally every day now, today starting at 9:00am and running until 3:00pm, the US CDRA (Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly) is activated intermittently for two half-cycles to control ppCO2 levels. This configuration for the daily ops does not require connecting & disconnecting the ITCS cooling loop. [A forward plan is in work for cycling the CSV (CO2 Selector Valve) to prevent its sticking. CDRA remains “yellow” on the ISS critical systems list.]

Conjunction Update: Latest tracking data for Object 87055, a piece of debris from the Kosmos-2421 satellite, indicate that its pass tomorrow at ~5:04am EDT will be of no concern (miss ~42.5 km). MCC-H specialists are continuing to monitor.

Week 24 Scheduled Main Activities:

• Mon. (9/29): NUTRITION; BMP ch.1 regen; VELO maint.; ASU toilet replmnts; Elektron maint.; MFCV valve adjustments; Node-2, A/L, Lab SD/BF maint.; GFI-1/Relax. exp. (ATV1 reentry); air sampling (CMS, GSC, AK-1M); IP-1 inspect.; KPT/BAR-RM power charge.
• Tue, (9/30): MO-7; BMP ch.2 regen; TEPC relocate; NOA1 exp.; RED inspect.; IWIS reprog.; Node-1 RFCA Flowmeter test, ITCS MTL (MFCV) adjust, A/L MTL Flowmeter meas.; FMK stow; Kazbek fit checks; crew dep. preps.

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, 5:37am EDT [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 352.4 km
Apogee height — 356.8 km
Perigee height — 347.9 km
Period — 91.59 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0006581
Solar Beta Angle — 16.4 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 48 hours — 80 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 56477

Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time, some changes possible.):
09/29/08 — ATV de-orbit (nighttime re-entry for observation from 2 NASA aircraft; ~9:12pm)
10/01/08 — NASA 50 Years (official)
10/02/08 — ISS Reboost (~1.8 m/s)
10/14/08 — STS-125/Atlantis Hubble Space Telescope Service Mission 4 (SM4) 12:33am
10/12/08 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S launch (~3:03am EDT; Lonchakov, Fincke, Garriott)
10/14/08 — Soyuz TMA-13/17S docking (FGB nadir port, ~4:51am)
10/24/08 — Soyuz TMA-12/16S undocking (DC1 nadir) & landing
11/02/08 — Progress 30P reboost
11/16/08 — STS-126/Endeavour/ULF2 launch – MPLM Leonardo, LMC (~7:02pm EST)
11/18/08 — STS-126/Endeavour/ULF2 docking
11/20/08 — ISS 10 Years
11/25/08 — Progress M-65/30P undocking & deorbit
11/26/08 — Progress M-66/31P launch
11/30/08 — Progress M-66/31P docking
12/01/08 — STS-126/Endeavour/ULF2 landing (~1:25pm EST est.)
02/09/09 — Progress M-66/31P undocking & deorbit
02/10/09 — Progress M-67/32P launch
02/12/09 — Progress M-67/32P docking
02/12/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A launch – S6 truss segment
02/14/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A docking
02/24/09 — STS-119/Discovery/15A undocking
02/26/09 — STS-119/Discovery/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 M-67/32P undocking & deorbit
05/15/09 — STS-127/Endeavour/2J/A launch – JEM EF, ELM-ES, ICC-VLD
05/25/09 — Soyuz TMA-15/19S launch
05/27/09 — Six-person crew on ISS (following Soyuz 19S docking)
07/30/09 — STS-128/Atlantis/17A – MPLM(P), last crew rotation
10/15/09 — STS-129/Discovery/ULF3 – ELC1, ELC2
12/10/09 — STS-130/Endeavour/20A – Node-3 + Cupola
02/11/10 — STS-131/Atlantis/19A – MPLM(P)
04/08/10 — STS-132/Discovery/ULF4 – ICC-VLD, MRM1
05/31/10 — STS-133/Endeavour/ULF5 – ELC3, ELC4 (contingency).