James Oberg wrote:
"Minutes of Sep 10 Meeting When Life Sciences Was 'No Go' For New Crew
Launch"

Thank you. Most interesting.

Mr. Walters reviewed details regarding the degraded modes and use of
spares for Exercise Countermeasures, and that crew health maintenance is in
a best effort mode with two crewmembers

Is this a case of Houston panicking because they don't get data from the
exercise equipment and not trusting that the crew will do their daily
exercises ?

They should see this as an opportunity to do REAL research in space: find out
how to exercise without a fancy multi-billion dollar threadmill.Let the crew
members experiment with various exercise methods instead of just following
sciripts like robots.

Also, an Extravehicular Activity
(EVA) had been added to this increment which would be difficult to perform
due to the lack of resistance training and additional crew.

Russians had performed 2 crew EVAs on Mir, hadn't they ? And the planned EVA
is to be done with Russian suits/Pirs, right ?

From an Environmental Health perspective, Mr. Walters stated that the
air and water samples were good, but that there was an immense need for
operative monitoring equipment on-board.

Again, it seems to me like Houston is panicking because they are blind. I
recall a malfunction of the CO2 regenerative unit in Quest. It wasn't fancy
multi-billion dollar sensing equipment that rang the alarm, it was crew
member's noses that detected the strange odours and they used their noses to
find out it came from Quest.

Also, does Zvezda have the same amount of ECLSS capabilities (especially with
regards to air purification) that Mir had ? So even if the USA segment's air
cleaners fail, shouldn't life support still be possible via the russian
segment ?

Also, so far, is it correct to state that the only ECLSS failures on the USA
segment are with monitoring equipment ?


were to return on 6S, the results of the samples would be unknown for
several weeks and that crew exposure limits would not be determined until
the end of the increment.

This may sound really stupid, but don't they trust crew member's noses to
detect anomalies ?
I realise that some ground folks rely on data from ISS to do their work on the
ground, but just because they don't get their data or get it late doesn't mean
that the station is dangerous.

discussed in length to resolve these issues, but ultimately if crew health
continues to degenerate, the only alternative would be to bring the crew
home.

"continues to degenerate". Interesting statement. Do they have hard data
that expedition 7's health has degenerated more than previous crews ? Or is
this the first time americans stay for so long, and NASA doesn't have baseline
comparisons to compare actual crew health with expected health for such a
duration flight ?


manifest items would be a potential resolution. SF/W. Langdoc stated that
this was the first increment that a visiting vehicle had not docked with ISS
in a six-month period and that currently the ISSP is flying in a contingency
mode and that no nominal situations exist.

Surely the Russians have had such experiences with Mir ?

No-Go for 10.2 psia ops for USOS EVA

Does anyone have specific information on why this is the case ? Something
broken in Quest ?

Issues with resealing of the tubes post sample acquisition
-High levels of hydrocarbons in samples from Shuttle mid-deck
-Not (never) observed in GSC's
-Indicative of Moscow air

Ok, since the Shuttle hasn't been involved with ISS in a very long time, why
this mention of shuttle air samples ?

and what is the "indicative of Moscow air" supposed to mean ?

system (TCS) heat exchanger exist, but controls are in place to prevent a
large release of ammonia.

I thought all ammonia lines were outdoors exactly to prevent any ammonia leaks
indoors ?

freezing/rupturing of the interface heat exchanger (IFHX) and that a watch
item is in place for Node 3 regenerative ECLSS.

Are they talking about the same space station as the one currently in orbit ?
As far as I know, Node3 isn't even built yet, so what would that have to do
with environment safety on the current ISS flying right now ?

Dr. Packham also presented details of the thermal items stating that
there had already been large releases of Freon 218 from SKV compressors,

Ouch. bad for the ozone layer :-)

-Not meeting requirements for crew health and safety

Are those requirements for crew health or are those requirements for the
benefit of giving tons of data to ground personel to monitor the crew's health ?

Sorry, but most humans survive a long life with just periodic visits to
doctors and no constant data gathering equipment sending data to their
doctors. Humans have enough built-in sensors to ring an alarm in the brain
when something is wrong with the body.

-Longest mission ever without a visiting vehicle nor sample return

Is that really the longest mission ever ? Wouldn't Mir have had longer
missions ?

Additionally, he noted that there are 47 Medical Operation Requirements
not being met.

"Requirements" or "Experiments" ? I think that they should have a clear line
between crew health and experiments measuring crew health. Measuring crew
health with a gazillion gadgets is not a "requirement". It is an experiment.

And in those discussions, I saw no mention that both crew members have had
experience with long space flights on Mir and that they should be able to
gauge their health more autonomously since they have personal experience to
compare with. They aren't sending 2 kids who need their parents to monitor
them constantly. They are sending 2 very experienced astronauts who can handle themselves.

It is one thing to have concerns because monitoring is degraded and they will
have to rely more on cremember's own intelligence/noses/nerves/brains. But
another to try to declare this a "no-go" situation.

If crewmembers do get sick, then they can come down. This has always been a
possibility and nothing has really changed here. And it is exactly because
they can come back down that there is no reason to oppose sending them up.