Status Report

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 31 May 2003

By SpaceRef Editor

May 31, 2003

Filed under ISS On-orbit status, NASA HQ, US

NASA Space Station On-Orbit Status 31 May 2003 — iss

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously or below.

After breakfast (2:40 am EDT), Yuri Malenchenko and Edward Lu worked their way through the regular weekly housecleaning, with three hours set aside for the “uborka”. [Running under the heading of Bioenvironmental Surveillance, the extensive cleanup, nominally every Saturday, focuses on removal of food waste products, periodic cleaning of compartments with vacuum cleaner, and wet cleaning of surfaces.]

FE/SO Lu completed the weekly transfer of accumulated data files from the CMS HRM (crew medical systems/heart rate monitor) to the MEC, then deleted them on the HRM. [Last time done: 5/23/03.]

Afterwards, Ed transferred storage files with exercise data from the TVIS and RED exercise equipment to the MEC via PCMCIA cards (personal computer memory card international association) for subsequent downlink to Earth.

Malenchenko conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM’s SOZh life support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Ed Lu prepared the daily IMS inventory “delta” file.

The crew 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.

The planning conference was followed by the weekly ISS crew tag-up with Program management, also via S-band.

As an optional task for today, on the “job jar” task list and hard-scheduled for Monday, the crew had another Increment 7 audit, containing three separate assignments. [The audit focuses on counts of (a) selected office supplies plus any crew requests for additional office supplies, (b) contingency trash bags, and (c) utensil rinse wipes and disinfectant wipes; each count taking approx. 30 min. Data collected in these counts are needed soon for Progress manifesting decisions.]

Another run with the Diatomeya-2 ocean observation program was placed on Yuri Malenchenko’s task list for his disposition, today focusing on locating and checking out the Rubinar equipment, and testing the Diatomeya-2 experiment results processing program. [The Rubinar instrument is a binocular telescopic device, with ancillary electronics, to be installed at a Service Module window. It can be used in support of both the Diatomeya and the Uragan research programs.]

After yesterday’s major maintenance work on the TVIS treadmill, ground specialists are going over the details of the R&Rs (removal and replacements) made by the crew. [Ed Lu was asked for a description of the damaged TVIS harness and the modifications he made. Should the harness have lost all functionality, there is one spare harness onboard. The crew was also given the Go to stow the old transfer case (gear box) and flywheel case in Node or Lab at their choice, then update the IMS accordingly.]

MCC-H is working several flight attitude and onboard power options for the 11P docking on 6/11 (Wednesday). [Depending on the time of U.S. solar array feathering prior to the docking (to protect the photovoltaic cells against surface contamination from thruster plumes), P6 channel 2B and 4B storage batteries will be more or less discharged for powering needed station systems. If the first docking attempt in automated Kurs mode fails, contingency dockings (in Kurs or manual TORU mode) represent additional cases to be analyzed.]

Yesterday’s as-planned collision avoidance burn by Progress (12:50pm EDT) yielded 0.99 m/s delta-V (prelim. measurement by U.S. space acceleration measurement system SAMS) and resulted in 1.7 km (1.06 mi.) altitude increase. Almost all of the props left in the 10P refueling tanks were used, except for about 0.5 m/s worth of usable residuals.

The current geomagnetic storms, due to large coronal mass ejection (CME) events from multiple solar flares, are the strongest since October 2002. They are causing spectacular auroras over the southern hemisphere. A list of Aurora Australis opportunities over the next three days (5/31-6/2) was uplinked for the crew. [Times listed were for ~45 deg south latitude for each orbit, which gives a 6-minute window for night-time views, looking right of track (south) before sun-up]

Today’s optional CEO targets, limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, also excluding any night target viewing, were Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (looking left and right of track for evidence of early burning in the thick savanna forests south of the Congo rainforest), La Paz, Bolivia (nadir opportunity), Cloud vortices, Canary Islands (Dynamic event. Von Karman vortices being shed south off the islands. Looking left of track. Then ~3 min later looking left for sunglint on W Mediterranean for evidence of arcuate internal waves propagating through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean), Western Mediterranean Aerosols (looking left for industrial haze over the sea near the Rhone valley of southern France and in the Po valley of northern Italy [and the Adriatic into which this haze drains]), Western Europe clear (Dynamic event. From the coast of Brittany to sunset over Poland, skies had cleared, giving first opportunities for daylight-awake photography in many weeks. Panoramas north of track suggested over northern France looking towards England, and then towards Denmark and the Baltic Sea).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 5:21am EDT [= epoch]):