NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 23 July 2005
SpaceRef note: This NASA Headquarters internal status report, as presented here, contains additional, original material produced by SpaceRef.com (copyright © 2005) to enhance access to related status reports and NASA activities.
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below. Saturday — off-duty day for Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, except for some housekeeping and voluntary work. Today the Increment 11 crew is spending their 100th day in space (after launch in Baikonur on 4/14).
Krikalev and Phillips completed the regular weekly 3-hr. task of thorough station cleaning, wearing protective garment. [“Uborka”, done every Saturday, includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, damp cleaning of the Service Module (SM) dining table, other surfaces and the CDR’s sleep station with “Fungistat” disinfectant and cleaning fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]
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The CDR conducted a second experiment session with the Russian/German Plasma Crystal-3 (PK-3) payload, activating the evacuation turbopump and starting the evacuation of the vacuum chamber (ZB) and subsequent all-day PK-3 operations. The turbopump will be deactivated again tonight at ~5:25pm EDT. [The experiment is performed on dusty plasma, i.e., fine particles charged and excited by RF/radio frequency power inside the evacuated work chamber as it crystallizes. Experiment ops are automated.]
Session 2 of the EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students) experiment from the University of California in San Diego concluded today, with John Phillips shutting down, disassembling and stowing the hardware. Number of schools involved: 46; number of requests: 884; number of photos taken: 649 (as of yesterday, 12:42pm EDT). The Payload Developer reported: “A vast majority of the images are beautiful.” [EarthKAM was activated the day before yesterday, running without crew intervention. EK is using a Kodak ESC 460C electronic still camera with 50mm (f/1.4) lens, now powered by 16Vdc from a 28 Vdc adapter, taking pictures by remote operation from the ground, without crew interaction. It is available for students who submit image requests and conduct geographic research. The requests are uplinked in a camera control file to the IBM 760XD SSC laptop which then activates the camera at specified times and receives the digital images from the camera’s storage card on its hard drive, for subsequent downlink via OpsLAN. This summer session was especially important for teachers to increase their image selection proficiency and to acquire images for use during the upcoming school year.]
Krikalev and Phillips conducted their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS treadmill, RED resistive machine and VELO bike with bungee cord load trainer. [Sergei’s daily protocol prescribes a strict four-day microcycle exercise with 1.5 hr on the treadmill and one hour on VELO plus load trainer (today: Day 1 of a new set).]
Afterwards, the FE transferred the exercise data files to the MEC (Medical Equipment Computer) for downlink, as well as the daily wristband HRM (heart rate monitor) data of the workouts on RED, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium (done six times a week).
At ~6:30am EDT, the crew held their weekly teleconference with ISS Program Management at JSC/Houston via S-band/audio.
At ~9:30am, John and Sergei engaged in the regular weekly planning conference (WPC) with the ground, discussing next week’s “Look-Ahead Plan” (prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP/Moscow timeline planners), via S-band/audio, reviewing upcoming activities and any concerns about future on-orbit events.
At ~9:50am, FE Phillips had a PFC (private family conference) via S-band/audio.
The CDR did the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s environment control & life support system (SOZh), including its toilet system (ASU).
The FE was thanked by the Houston Flight Control Team (FCT) for his hard work with the ULF1.1 pre-pack and MPLM “Raffaello” kit audit activities yesterday, which served to update the IMS (Inventory Management System) databases.
Working off his voluntary “time available” task list, Sergei had another session with the “Uragan” (hurricane) earth-imaging program, focusing the Nikon D1X digital camera with f400 or 800 mm lens and a video camcorder from an SM window on targets specified by an uplinked list. [Today’s targets included the Medvezhy Glacier and the, Glacier of the Russian Geographic Society, the largest Tien Shan glaciers at exact nadir, the Irkut River valley from northernmost tip of Lake Hovsgol towards Lake Baikal and the city of Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, townships in Buriatiya, the left Russian bank of Argun River, the Russian bank of the Amur River and the Veya River valley in the vicinity of the city of Svobodny, logging sites in Khabarovsk Territory, the Bay coast in the southern part of Sakhalin Island, the Kuriles, the Katun River valley in the vicinity of the city of Gorno-Altaisk, the northern and southern banks of Lake Teletskoye, wooded mountainous area along eastern bank of Angara River in vicinity of Lake Baikal, etc.]
Also from the “job jar” task list, Krikalev used the automatic temperature recorder (ART) for the regular temperature check on the BIO-11 “Statokonia” payload with the ULITKA (“snail”) incubator, set up in the SM with new material delivered on 18P. [BIO-11 studies the composition of statoconia, i.e., the organ of equilibrium in snails, and other phenomena exhibited by “ulitka” in zero-G and post-flight.]
Update on LF-1: Countdown for STS-114/Discovery got underway today at noon EDT, 70 hours before the targeted liftoff on Tuesday, 7/26, at 10:38am EDT. Tropical depression Franklin is keeping off-coast of Florida and away from KSC, moving in northeasterly direction, at this time posing no danger to launch plans.
Weekly Science Update (Expedition Eleven — 13th):
Human Research Facility/Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology (HRF GASMAP): Planned.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.
Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): Continuing.
Renal Stone (RS): Continuing.
Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT): Next week the Science Officer will be performing his fourth FOOT data collection.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is nominal and receiving acceleration data.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS remains in nominal operations.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): PCG-STES is performing nominally.
Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3): BCAT-3 Slow Growth Sample Module will be left undisturbed in its current location by the E11 crew. In order for the samples to potentially grow crystals that can be photographed during Increment 12 operations, the Sample Module must be left undisturbed.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside on the U.S. Airlock. Nominal and collecting data. To be exchanged during LF-1.
Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test (DAFT): Nothing new.
Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): New session ended today. Number of schools involved: 46; number of requests: 884; number of photos taken: 649 (as of yesterday, 12:42pm EDT). The Payload Developer reported: “A vast majority of the images are beautiful.”
Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): Completed.
Fluid Merging Viscosity Measurement (FMVM): Nothing new.
Space Experiment Module (SEM): Nothing new. Experimenters and kids are working to get the next two satchels on ULF1.1.
Miscible Fluids in Microgravity (MFMG): MFMG payload operations are finished.
Educational Payload Operations (EPO): Nothing new.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): As of 7/20, the ground has received a total of 4,310 of Increment 11’s CEO images. A nicely composed image of the eye of Hurricane Emily with the rising Moon in the background was used by both PAO and NASA/GSFC’s Earth Observatory website earlier this week. Quick-looks at the crew’s recent imagery shows continued improvement in the focus of their 400mm views.
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Today’s optional CEO (crew earth observations) photo targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, were Glacial features, North Libya (weather was clear over northern Africa. Looking for sinuous features on the landscape– these are the remnants of ancient glacial outwash channels. Overlapping nadir frames are desired for mapping these features), Internal waves, Azores, Atlantic (weather conditions were predicted to be favorable for internal wave photography. Looking to the right of track for the sunglint point, and if possible using overlapping frames to link images back to a geographic reference point [such as an island], St. John reefs, Virgin Islands (this nadir pass provided an opportunity for high-resolution mapping of reef systems in the Virgin Islands. Overlapping frames of St. John and the following reef site of St. Thomas are useful for assessing reef extent and morphology), St. Thomas reefs, Virgin Islands (this nadir pass provided an opportunity for high-resolution mapping of reef systems in the Virgin Islands. Overlapping frames of St. Thomas and the preceding reef site of St. John are useful for assessing reef extent and morphology), Luquillo Forest, Puerto Rico (overlapping mapping frames of this Long Term Ecological Research [LTER] site may be used to map the distribution of tropical forest and landforms), and Florida Coastal Everglades (weather was predicted to be clear over southern Florida. This LTER site is focused on ecological changes in the Everglades marsh and estuarine system. Overlapping nadir frames will help map the extent of vegetation and water courses in the site area).
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:
To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 11 crew visit:
- http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-11/ndxpage1.html at NASA’s Human Spaceflight website.
Expedition 11 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.
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.
