NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 7 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 7 of Increment 18.

FE-1 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.]

CDR Fincke serviced the US WRS (Water Recovery System) by refilling the WSTA (Water Storage Tank Assembly) with pretreated urine from EDV-U container for processing by the UPA (Urine Processing Assembly). [The WSTA should be filled to no more than 60%. Besides the regular refilling for processing, WRS sampling & checkouts are being conducted for 90 days: every 4 days – WRS water hose (TOCA inflight analysis) & microbial bag sample (inflight bacterial visual enumeration plus archival for return on 15A), every 8 days – an archival water sample (return on 15A), and monthly – a TOCA bag sample from PWD (tested inflight).]

Lonchakov had ~40 min to downlink five TV PAO messages of greetings for various upcoming anniversaries and holidays: (1) to the workers of the S.P. Korolev Experimental Machine-Building Plant on the plant’s 90th anniversary; (2) to personnel of the Reutov City Garrison Military Court on its 40th anniversary; (3) to the Military Counterintelligence Department of the Petrograd-Leningrad Military District on their 90th anniversary; (4) to the FSB Academy Science & Education Department on Russia’s National Security Service Personnel Day; and (5) to the personnel of the Criminal Investigation Bureau #8 of the Russian Ministry of Interior.

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 TVIS treadmill (CDR, FE-1, FE-2), RED resistive exercise device (CDR, FE-1, FE-2) and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer (FE-1).

The CDR & FE-2 had their weekly PFCs (Private Family Conferences) via S-band/audio and Ku-band/MS-NetMeeting application (which displays the uplinked ground video on an SSC laptop), Mike at ~2:50pm, Sandra at ~3:35pm EST.

Working off the Russian discretionary “if time permits” task list, Lonchakov performed a session of the 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 for digital photo/video documentation of Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic color contrast formations and cloud cover along the flight path. [Target zones in the Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic were from the west of Chile to the west of Ireland, and from the east of New Zealand to offshore Mexico.]

Also off the work suggestions list, Yuri 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.

As a third item on the discretionary job list, the FE-1 conducted 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). The payload hardware includes a module (MIS/Module for the Investigation of Substrates), the MIS control unit (BU), a nitrogen purge unit (BPA) and other accessories. During its operation, the experiment requires regular daily maintenance of the experiment involving monitoring of seedling growth, humidity measurements, moistening of the substrate if necessary, and photo/video recording. LADA consists of a wall-mounted growth chamber that provides long-term, ready access for crewmember interaction. It provides light and root zone control but relies on the cabin environmental control systems for humidity, gas composition, and temperature control. Cabin air is pulled into the leaf chamber, flows over the plants and vents through the light bank to provide both plant gas exchange and light bank cooling.]

VolSci Kudos: Mike & Sandy received special kudos from ground teams for the great jobs with their selected Voluntary Weekend Science activities on their off-duty day, yesterday, Fincke for his preparations of the FCF CIR (Fluids & Combustions Facility/Combustion Integrated Rack) outfitting, Magnus for the JAXA Marangoni Clean Up (Part 1 of 2), very important for the next Marangoni Experiment Series. Arigato Gozaimasu!

No CEO (Crew Earth Observation) photo targets uplinked 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, 5:18am EST [= epoch]):
Mean altitude — 353.8 km
Apogee height — 358.2 km
Perigee height — 349.4 km
Period — 91.62 min.
Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
Eccentricity — 0.0006517
Solar Beta Angle — -48.6 deg (magnitude increasing)
Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
Mean altitude loss in the last 24 hours — 64 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) — 57579.

Significant Events Ahead (all dates Eastern Time, some changes possible!):
12/07/08 — Progress M-65/30P reentry (after 3 weeks autonomous flight for geophysical experiments)
12/22/08 — Russian EVA-21 (hatch opening ~7:15pm)
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/Atlantis/17A – MPLM (P), last crew rotation
08/XX/09 — Progress/MRM2 (Russian Mini Research Module, MIM2) on Soyuz
09/XX/09 — H-IIB (JAXA HTV-1)
11/12/09 — STS-129/Endeavour/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/Endeavour/ULF4 – ICC-VLD, MRM1 (contingency)
05/31/10 — STS-133/Endeavour/ULF5 – ELC3, ELC4 (contingency).