NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 26 Jul 2003
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. Day 93 in space for the Expedition 7 crew, and we are nearing the halfway point of this Increment. First crew rest day of this weekend.
As generally on Saturdays, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer/Science Officer Ed Lu performed the weekly 3-hr. station cleaning. [This 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.]
Malenchenko attended to the daily routine maintenance of the SM SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Ed Lu prepared the daily IMS delta file for automatic export/import to update the database.
Both crewmembers completed their daily physical exercise program on TVIS treadmill and RED resistive expander.
Yuri and Ed conducted the weekly planning conference with the ground, discussing next week’s “Look-Ahead Plan” (regularly prepared jointly by MCC-H and MCC-M planners), via S-band/audio.
On the operational PCS (portable computer system) laptops in the station, Ed performed the regular once-a-week maintenance reboot. (Last time done: 7/18).
All objectives of yesterday’s MSS (mobile service system) ground control demo were completed successfully. [The crew had worked ahead to free additional time on their schedule for a possible overrun of the Robotics operations, which turned out to be a good idea. A lot of valuable information was obtained about the planning and execution of MSS ground control. The SSRMS was left in a PDGF 3 ( power and data grapple fixture 3) pre-grapple position. This will be the starting position for the Robotics ops that are scheduled for next week.]
CDR Malenchenko was asked to perform, as a new Russian task list item, another session with the Diatomeya ocean observing program, if time permitted. [Today’s and tomorrow’s observations present an opportunity to investigate bioproductive waters in the areas well covered by ship-based observations, namely, the areas in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean featuring pronounced temperature gradients. Photos were to be taken of sea bloom features and anomalies of the cloud cover over today’s targets, viz., the South Equatorial Current divergence zone East of Madagascar, and the Western flank of the Sub-Arctic Frontal Zone near the Falkland Islands.]
Yesterday’s MSG/CSLM (microgravity science glovebox/coarsening in solid/liquid mixtures) activities showed that SPU-6 has a bent mounting plate. Therefore, the plan for next week is to evacuate and process SPU-1. [For SPU-1, the sample chamber will be vented for 24 hours, followed by a short opening of the water valve, and then at least 30 more minutes of venting. Ed Lu will then initiate sample processing, which will last for 48 hours.]
Weekly Science Update (Expedition Seven — 12th):
GASMAP: The 30-day health check for July was completed successfully. Next: mid-August.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.
Ultrasound (USND): Next Ultrasound session is planned for mid-September.
Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): Waiting to begin operations.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is nominal and currently analyzing data in support of general characterization of the ISS acceleration environment.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS is nominal and currently analyzing data in support of general characterization of the ISS acceleration environment.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): PCG-STES continues to operate nominally.
Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE): Current test matrix is complete.
Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside. Nominal and collecting data.
Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems (CBOSS): Hardware checkout next week.
Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): Activities are completed for Increment 7.
Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2): After minor problems, the setup of the hardware and reprogramming of the ECU to change the SPU soak times in support of next week’s engineering run were successful. The vacuum vent leak test was also successful. Next week Ed Lu will evacuate the sample chamber and then perform a 48-hour test run.
Educational Payload Operations (EPO): NASA Education and the payload developers from the Museum Aerospace Education Alliance are looking forward to the Pu’ili educational demonstration next week.
Crew Earth Observation (CEO): The crew was successful in shooting Macau and the area of Ed Lu’s dad’s hometown (Panyu) south of Guangzhou. Ed used the long lens and they were high obliques, but quite recognizable. Obliques with the long lenses tend have low contrast because of the optical thickness of the atmosphere. Also, unless the ground has a good idea of what the crew was looking for at the time, these views can be quite difficult to locate and catalog. Bright targets such as clouds, ice, or sand with shadows make much better targets for this type of view.
Today’s CEO (crew earth observation) targets, no longer limited in the current LVLH attitude and including the targets of the Lewis & Clark 200-year memorial locations, were Mariana Islands (ISS approached the southern end of this archipelago from the SW, and the crew was asked to use the long lenses in nadir views for details of visible coral reef structures), St. Louis, Missouri (CITY AT NIGHT – Looking left of track for this riverside city as ISS approached from the NW), Atlanta, Georgia (CITY AT NIGHT – For a view of “Hotlanta” on a summer’s night looking slightly left of track), Jakarta, Indonesia (this is a difficult target because of frequent cloud cover. Crew had a fair chance with this near-nadir pass approaching from the southwest. The city is on the NW coast of the large island of Java), El Paso, Texas (CITY AT NIGHT – This was a nadir pass over this famous border city on the Rio Grande River), Monterrey, Mexico (CITY AT NIGHT – As ISS tracked southeastward across northeastern Mexico, crew was to look just right of track for this large city), La Paz, Bolivia (CITY AT NIGHT – It should have been a clear, crisp night for viewing the Bolivian capital, just right of track), Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (this was a nice, long clear pass over a major biomass burning area. Trying for nadir views of both active fires and burn scar patterns), Kinshasa, Zaire (this mega city is situated on the S bank of the Congo River just opposite the city of Brazzaville. Crew was to use the 180 lens on this nadir pass), Buenos Aires, Argentina (with this nadir pass in clear weather, crew was to try to capture the entire city in a single view), Sao Paulo, Brazil (using this nadir pass for a good single view of this sprawling city, just inland from the coast), Lishan, Taiwan (CITY AT NIGHT – This was nadir pass over the north end of Taiwan approaching from the NW), and Lake Poopo (looking for shoreline changes in this post-El Nino period, and trying for views of both the lake and the large salars to the southwest).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites
See also the website “Space Station Challenge” at
http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/
