NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 3 Oct 2003
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below. The crew was thanked for “a great payload week” (CBOSS, PFMI, EPO, ESTER, PromISS). >>Forty-one years ago today, in 1961, Mercury Astronaut Wally Schirra rocketed into space in “Sigma 7” on an Atlas.
No breakfast this morning for CDR Yuri Malenchenko until after completion of the Russian medical experiment PZE MO-11 (blood chemistry analysis). Malenchenko last night had destowed kits and accessories of the German-built Reflotron 4 blood analyzer (earlier versions were already flown on Mir). [For the test. fresh blood was drawn from the subject’s finger with an Autoclix mini-lancet and a pipette, after the subject had imbibed 250 ml of warm water or plain (unsugared) tea. Clinical parameters are then determined from the collected sample. Using various reagent tabs, the blood is tested for such parameters as hemoglobin, glucose, bilirubin, amylase, uric acid, triglycerides, urea, etc. The tubes with blood samples are then stored in the refrigerator. The Reflotron 4 uses 40 W of power, supplied by the Service Module’s (SM) electrical system.]
Ed Lu meanwhile replaced the battery of the EXPRESS rack 3 (ER3) laptop computer (ELC) with the battery from ER5, in order to determine the latter’s charging capability. The laptop was then turned on via ground command. Ed performed a battery check, as read from the laptop’s status indicator, then configured the computer’s settings. Later in the day, Ed powered the ELC down and swapped batteries again with the ER5 ELC.
The SO then worked on four PCS (portable computer system) hard drives, loading them via ghost recovery procedure with the new software.
Malenchenko completed the periodic inspection and functionality checkup of the BRPK-2 air/liquid condensate separator in the SM, while Ed Lu conducted another inventory audit of the available CWCs (contingency water containers) and their contents, to keep track of onboard water supplies.
Later, Yuri collected condensate water from the Lab tank and consolidated the CWC water storage.
Ed Lu performed the scheduled EPO (Educational Payloads Operation) demonstration of Center of Mass (COM), videotaping the activities with the camcorder for educational purposes on the ground.. [The demo involved (1) a rope with weights, to identify the COM of a dynamic system and note its straight line travel through space regardless of other factors that affect the system, (2) a spinning solid object of Ed’s choice to identify the COM of an object and note its straight line travel through space regardless of the tumbling motion of the object, and (3) an inertial rod (if time permitted and if this demonstration can be performed), in order to demonstrate the stability achieved in a system by moving the mass concentrations away from the COM.]
Conducting another session of the Russian Uragan earth imaging program from the task list, the CDR focused the Kodak DCS760 digital camera with 800-mm lens on new targets of nature and industry environment conditions. [Targets for Uragan today were Landscape survey of the desert along the Mediterranean Sea coast at both sides of the track from nadir to the horizon without changing lens, parts of northern coast of the Crete Island and of the Asia Minor coast at crew discretion, and the Krasnodar Water Reservoir to the left of track.]
Yuri also conducted more observations for the Diatomeya ocean research program. [He used the Nikon F5 with f/80 mm lens and the DVCAM 150 digital camcorder for continual recording of video and voice-over audio of highly bioproductive waters Atlantic in the area of Falkland Islands and Patagonia.]
Both crewmembers worked out according to their regular daily physical exercise program of 2.5 hrs on TVIS treadmill (aerobic) and RED exerciser (anaerobic). Ed Lu then transferred data files from the physical exercise equipment to the MEC (medical equipment computer) via memory card and RED log entries, for downlink on OCA comm.
Later, he also performed the periodic transfer of accumulated data files from the wrist-band HRM (heart rate monitor) receiver stations to the MEC for downlink, then deleted them on the HRM.
Ed and Yuri today also had their weekly conference with the JSC Astronaut Office (Kent Rominger).
Ed Lu conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), prepared the daily IMS (inventory management system) “delta” list for updating the IMS databases, and performed the regular routine status checkup of the autonomous Lab payloads..
Yuri checked up on the Molniya-SM/LSO hardware, mounted at SM window #3, which continues its automated recording session, to be terminated automatically on 10/6, with the French-provided EGE-1 laptop running the latest NORAD orbital parameters (TLEs, two-line elements). [Objective of Molniya-SM, similar to the French LSO experiment, is to record storm phenomena and other related events in the Earth’s equatorial regions. Objective of LSO, originally part of Claudie Haigneré’s French “Andromeda” payload package of taxi mission 3S, was to study rare optical phenomena occurring in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, so-called “sprites” (i.e., puzzling glow phenomena observed above thunderstorm clouds).]
ESTER (Earth Science Toward Exploration Research) is continuing to capture images in order to test the software and ability to acquire sites with the 400 mm lens. The hardware is working well.
