NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 18 December 2004

SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2004) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday, first off-duty day for the crew (except for standard maintenance and optional task list jobs).

CDR/SO Chiao and FE Sharipov performed the regular weekly 3-hr. task of thorough station cleaning. [“Uborka”, done every Saturday, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of the Service Module (SM) dining table and other surfaces with “Fungistat” disinfectant and cleaning fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]

For his “Saturday Science” program, Leroy Chiao today loaded the SNFM (Serial Network Flow Monitor) application software onto the EXPRESS Rack 1 laptop (ELC1). The MFMG/FMVM (Miscible Fluids in Microgravity/Fluid Merging Viscosity Measurement) honey status check remains on the crew-choice task list, to begin 12/20. [There will be no Saturday Science options for 12/25. If there is a Saturday Science on 1/1/05 (New Years Day), available payloads would be CBOSS-FDI (Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems-Fluid Dynamics Investigation) and SNFM.]

Salizhan Sharipov completed the daily routine inspection of the Service Module (SM)’s SOZh/ECLSS life support system (including replacement of ASU toilet facility inserts). The weekly inspection of the BRPK air/liquid condensate separator apparatus was also included today.

Chiao disconnected the Lab RWS UOP (robotics workstation/utility outlet panel) bypass power cable. [As is standard procedure, in addition to opening the RPC (remote power controller) that supplies power to this cable, he also had to issue a command inhibiting RPC closing.]

The crew performed their daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS treadmill, RED exerciser, CEVIS cycle and VELO cycle with bungee cord load trainer.

Afterwards, Leroy completed the daily transfer of the TVIS and RED exercise data files to the MEC (medical equipment computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data, which he then erased on the HRM storage medium.

At ~8:20am EST, the crew held their weekly planning conference (WPC) with the ground, discussing next week’s “Look-Ahead Plan” (prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP/Moscow planners), via S-band/audio, reviewing upcoming activities and any concerns about future on-orbit events.

Working off the Russian discretionary task list, before doing any physical exercise, Salizhan conducted the regular monthly session of the VC6 “Delta” program’s ETD experiment (Investigation of the Coordination of Eye and Head Movements). [After a calibration with the calibrating unit, the experiment investigates horizontal eye and head movement coordination, measured Listing’s plane, and determined the orientation of the vestibulo-ocular coordinate system, using five target marks on the horizontal plane. Each step required another prior calibration run, using visual target cues or the calibration unit.]

A second task called out on the Russian task list for today was another photography session for the Diatomeya ocean observations program, using the Nikon-F5 electronic still camera with 80-mm lens. [Targets for today were the Indian Ocean (area of typhoon formation and their high recurrence), and the Tropical Atlantic (area of cold Benguela current divergence).]

Yesterday, Chiao began the extensive inventory of the Joint Airlock (A/L) “Quest” as scheduled. The audit was not intended to be completed, and the remainder of the tasks will be scheduled at a later date. [This portion of the audit was the first phase of several additional sessions that will be required. The longer-range purpose is to configure the A/L for LF-1 ops, to discard unusable items as trash, and to verify that essential hardware is accounted for. Another objective included the removal and bagging of EMU batteries in preparation of decrewing in the unlikely event that 16P is unable to deliver its cargo. This is to protect the EMUs from battery corrosion from long-term stowage.]

Update on onboard water: Total water on board: 186.2 liters (condensate, potable & technical), These supplies are predicted to last until 1/22/05. In addition to 28L potable water available, Lab condensate water will be processed for crew consumption when required. Plus, there are ~120 L of technical water which also could be processed into potable water. A “cue card” has been uplinked to assist the crew in further inventorying of water supplies. [Average rates are 2.6 L/person/day for drinking, food, hygiene; 1.1 L/pers/day for Elektron (Elektron remains deactivated until 12/23); 0.3 L/pers/day for toilet flushing; 1.3 L/pers/day recovered by the BRPK from condensate; 2.7 L/pers/day total water resupplied.]

Planning for Progress 16P arrival on 12/25 includes scheduling crew sleep cycle shifts to accommodate the 16P timeline. The crew will begin sleep shifting next week, as follows —

• 12/22: wake 2:30am EST (instead of 1:00am), sleep at 6:00pm;
• 12/23: wake 2:30am, sleep 6:00pm;
• 12/24: wake 2:30am, sleep 6:00pm;
• 12/25: wake 5:00am, sleep 9:05pm;
• 12/26: wake 6:00am, sleep 5:30pm;
• 12/27: wake 2:00am, sleep 4:30pm.

Weekly Science Update (Expedition Ten — 8th):

GASMAP: Nothing new..

Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.

Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): The crew was thanked for the excellent ADUM images they were able to obtain this week.

Hand Posture Analyzer (HPA: Nothing new.

In-Space Soldering Investigation (ISSI): The ground is looking forward to the crew’s ISSI work next week, which will help complete ISSI operations altogether.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): Nothing new.

Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS continues collecting numerous channels of acceleration data that serve toward characterization of the dynamic vibratory environment on the ISS.

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): Thank you to the crew “in advance for our upcoming MAMS filter cleaning!”

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): The crew was thanked “in advance for helping with the STES filter cleaning”.

Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope (PromISS): Nothing new.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE): Nothing new.

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3): Leroy was thanked for his work in taking more BCAT photos last Friday. The ground team is in the process of analyzing the images and looks forward to their next chance to work with the crew.

Renal Stone (RS): Nothing new.

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SHERES): Nothing new.

Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT): Nothing new.

Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside on the U.S. Airlock. Nominal and collecting data.

Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems-Fluid Dynamics Investigation (CBOSS-FDI): Nothing new.

Biotechnology Specimen Temperature Controller (BSTC): Nothing new.

Yeast Group Activation Packs (Yeast GAP): Nothing new.

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): Nothing new.

Earth Science Toward Exploration Research (ESTER): Nothing new.

Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): Leroy was thanked for today’s loading of SNFM on EXPRESS Rack 1. After the loading, investigators are looking forward to a future SNFM capture that will provide more detail about data packet traffic in Rack 1.

Fluid Merging Viscosity Measurement (FMVM): The FMVM PI is looking forward to a crew conference to describe the FMVM experiment and some things learned from previous operations.

Viscous Liquid Foam–Bulk Metallic Glass (Foam): Nothing new.

Effects of Prolonged Space Flight on Human Skeletal Muscle (BIOPSY): Nothing new.

Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2): Planned.

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA): Nothing new.

Miscible Fluids in Microgravity (MFMG): The crew was thanked for their interest in MFMG.

Educational Payload Operations (EPO): Leroy and Salizhan were thanked for their efforts in completing the Lab Tour Demo this week. These extra efforts in contributing to education for NASA “do not go unnoticed and will help inspire our next generation of space explorers”.

Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE): Nothing new.

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): A recent ISS image of the Finger Lakes region of central New York will be published this weekend on NASA’s Earth Observatory website. It nicely illustrates the distribution of snowfall over the area and how the brightness of the snow enhances the details of the terrain under otherwise low-light, low contrast, winter conditions. The ground has received so far 4,404 of CEO images through 12/13. In general, the quality of the imagery remains good to excellent in terms of focus and composition, and the crew is indeed acquiring some useful imagery of the targets as time and circumstances permit.

Today’s optional CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets, limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the science window, which is available for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in ram), were Muglad Basin fans, SW Sudan (this overpass provided an opportunity for high-resolution oblique photography of the Muglad megafan complex. The Muglad basin has had active stream processes for the past one hundred million years and has produced oil. Images of the drainage patterns are useful for delineation of individual fan boundaries), Internal Waves, Caribbean Sea (weather was predicted to be mostly clear for internal wave photography. Looking to the right and slightly ahead of track for the sunglint point. Interesting wave patterns may have been present near the Venezuelan coastline), and Internal waves, Patagonian Shelf (this overpass provided an opportunity for photography of internal waves along the Patagonian coastline. The sunglint point was located behind and to the right of track).

CEO photography can be viewed and studied at the websites:

• http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
• http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
• http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/AstronautPhotography/

See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at:

• http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 10 crew visit:

• http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-10/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.

Expedition 10 Flight Crew Plans can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/timelines/

Previous NASA ISS On-orbit Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Station Status Reports can be found here. Previous NASA Space Shuttle Processing Status Reports can be found here. A collection of all of these reports and other materials relating to Return to Flight for the Space Shuttle fleet can be found here.

The last day for CEO targets will be 12/23 until after the new year. However, weather predictions are favorable for Santa sightings around the world on 12/24.

Upcoming Key Events:

• Progress 15P undocking & destructive reentry — 12/22 (2:37pm EST).
• Progress 16P launch — 12/23 (5:20pm EST);
• Progress 16P docking — 12/25 (7:04pm EST);
• EVA-12 — 1/25/05;
• Progress 16P undocking & destructive reentry — 2/27/05;
• Progress 17P launch — 2/28/05.
• EVA-13 — 3/25/05;
• Soyuz 9S undock — 4/25/05 (after 193 days on orbit, 191 days on board ISS).

ISS Altitude History

Apogee height — Mean Altitude — Perigee height

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide ISS naked-eye visibility dates/times, see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html. In addition, information on International Space Station sighting opportunities can be found at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ on NASA’s Human Spaceflight website. The current location of the International Space Station can be found at http://science.nasa.gov/temp/StationLoc.html at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Additional satellite tracking resources can be found at http://www.spaceref.com/iss/tracking.html.