NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 3 September 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.
CDR Krikalev and FE/SO 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.]
Krikalev performed the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh environment control & life support system, including the ASU toilet system and today also the weekly inspection of the BRPK air/liquid condensate separator apparatus. [Current ECLSS status: Vozdukh CO2 scrubber — ON (Auto mode); SKV-1 air conditioner — On (alternating weekly with SKV-2); SRVK condensate water processor — On; BMP harmful contaminants purification system — On; Elektron O2 generator — Off (O2 supplied from Progress stores); CDRA CO2 removal unit — Off.]
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The crew reviewed an uplinked “big picture” outline of next week’s planned major TVIS (treadmill with vibration isolation & stabilization) Assembly Changeout with 6-Month Maintenance, scheduled for Wednesday (9/7) & Thursday (9/8). [The new treadmill assembly will receive new forward components (as opposed to aft & middle components) consisting of flywheel case, transfer case and motor box. The first day will focus on the disassembly and replacement of these new components. On the second day, reassembly and routine six-month inspections will be completed, including lubricating components, checking for damage, cleaning screens and checking for loose fasteners. Once complete with the procedure, assuming no anomalies are encountered, John Phillips will perform an activation & checkout session with exercise, which includes an unmanned 10-minute speed characterization, followed by a video taped exercise session using the bungee eyebolt configuration and finally a non-exercising checkout of the new SLDs (Subject Load Devices). The PCMCIA memory card data must then be downlinked for engineers to review prior to further exercise.]
Both crewmembers completed their regular 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on the TVIS, 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, John 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 RED workouts, followed by their erasure on the HRM storage medium (done six times a week).
Working off the Russian discretionary “time available” 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.]
Also added to the CDR’s job list as a new task was another session of the regular monthly ETD experiment (Eye Tracking Device, to investigate the coordination of eye and head movements in zero-G), his sixth, taking place in the DC-1 docking module’s center sphere at his discretion. [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.]
As a third item off the task list, Sergei conducted another run of the “Diatomeya” ocean observations program, using the DSR PD-150P video camera on SM window #7 and Nikon F5 digital still camera with 24/85-mm lens from window #8 to obtain data characterizing the geography of highly productive zones in oceanic areas and the observation conditions at the start of spring in Southern hemisphere. [Observation and imagery targets are color-contrasting formations in aquatic areas along the observation track, drifting icebergs and large chunks of pack-ice (northern propagation boundary), littoral aquatic areas of islands, cloud vortices, jetstream clouds; cloud pack fields, accumulations of large cumulo-nimbus clouds, other structural irregularities in the oceanic cloud field, and anomalies of oceanic reference plane surface. Today’s observations in the Indian Ocean focused on the “Roaring Forties” area (typhoon-prone southwestern and central parts of the ocean; Sumatra foreshore); in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean on the zone of the faults of the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge (dynamically active aquatic areas south of Africa and at the mouth of Mozambique Strait; aquatic areas of Macquarie and Maldives islands; Hindustan shores); and in the South Atlantic on the Argentinean foreshore, the Falklands/Patagonia region of the ocean, the underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge region, the Bengali upwelling, and the Congo runoff region.]
Added to John Phillips’ “job jar” task list for this weekend was the recovery of another SSC (Station Support Computer) Client by deploying and setting up one of the new A31p laptops in the Node as SSC-6, to be used by the FE for video routing for the 19P docking next week.
At ~10:00am EDT, the crew held their regular weekly planning conference (WPC) with the ground, discussing next week’s “Look-Ahead Plan” (prepared jointly by MCC-H and TsUP/Moscow timeliners), via S-band/audio, reviewing upcoming activities and any concerns about future on-orbit events.
Weekly Science Update (Expedition Eleven — 19th):
Human Research Facility/Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology (HRF GASMAP): Three runs were completed in this Increment as planned. A fourth run is expected after GASMAP’s move to the newly arrived HRF Rack 2.
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.
Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): Continuing.
Renal Stone (RS): In progress.
Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT): Four runs were completed in this Increment as planned. A fifth run was added “real time”.
Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): SAMS is Off.
Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): MAMS remains in nominal operations.
Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES): Complete and returned to the PI.
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. New MISSE-5 “suitcase” deployed and unfolded during EVA outside on the U.S. Airlock. Reactivated after EVA-14. Nominal and collecting data. Old unit was returned on LF-1.
Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test (DAFT): Nothing new.
Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): Complete.
Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): Complete.
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): Complete.
Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Through 8/22 the ground has received for review and cataloging a total of 5,108 of ISS CEO images. With the station’s current daylight orbit tracks temporarily confined to the Southern Hemisphere in late winter, few worthwhile targets are available. Investigators are looking forward to seeing recent CEO views of the Patagonian Glaciers and Lake Poopo target regions. A fine contextual view centered on Yellowstone Lake will be published on the Earth Observatory Website of NASA/GSFC this weekend.
Today’s optional CEO photo targets, limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, which is available for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in ram), were Internal waves, South China Sea (ISS passed along the coast of Sarawak with the South China Sea left of track. Shooting obliques of any internal waves that cross the glint point), and Super Typhoon Nabi, Western Pacific (this super typhoon is strengthening to a Category 5 storm by the time the crew could see it right of track in late afternoon light. It will probably be a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in China, Korea or Japan — at least as strong as Hurricane Katrina).
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.
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ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 6:38am EDT [= epoch]):
- Mean altitude — 351.8 km
- Apogee height — 353.0 km
- Perigee height — 350.7 km
- Period — 91.58 min.
- Inclination (to Equator) — 51.64 deg
- Eccentricity — 0.0001687
- Solar Beta Angle — 48.2 deg (magnitude decreasing)
- Orbits per 24-hr. day — 15.72
- Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours — 172 m
- Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. 98) – 38799
Upcoming Events (all times EDT):
- 09/07/05 — Progress M-53/18P undocking (6:23am)
- 09/08/05 — Progress M-54/19P launch (9:07:50am)
- 09/10/05 — Progress M-54/19P docking (10:50am).
Backup Opportunities:
- 09/10/05 — 19P launch (8:19:36am)
- 09/12/05 — 19P docking (10:24am).
19P is manifested to deliver to the ISS the following cargo: 800 kg propellants; 110 kg gas (oxygen/air, thanks to 14 additional gas tanks installed by RSC-Energia externally for an extra delivery capability of 60 kg O2); 300 kg water; 1230 kg dry cargo, comprising 139 Russian cargo items (including a new Elektron-VM Liquid Unit and 16 SFOG candles) and 83 NASA items (including two IBM 760XD laptops).
- 09/30/05 — Soyuz TMA-7/11S launch (~11:54pm)
- 10/03/05 — Soyuz TMA-7/11S docking (~1:20am)
- 10/11/05 — Soyuz TMA-6/10S landing (~9:06pm)
- 10/18/05 – ISS Reboost
- 11/18/05 — Soyuz TMA-7/11S relocation (from DC-1 to FGB nadir port)
- 12/21/05 – Progress M-55/20P launch
- 12/23/05 — Progress M-55/20P docking.
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.
