ISS On-Orbit Status, 10-07-2004

ISS On-Orbit Status 10 July 2004

All ISS systems continue to function nominally except those noted previously
or below. Saturday -- first weekend rest day aboard ISS.

The crew awoke to thanks from Flight Control for yesterday's thorough filter
cleaning and smoke detector inspection, and to commendations for their "good
work on the Emergency Response-to-Fire OBT". In the morning before
physical exercise, working off the discretionary Russian task list, CDR
Gennady Padalka had his second session with the biomedical MBI-9 "Pulse"
experiment, preceded by setting up the equipment. These cardiological tests
are done monthly. [Execution of the medical cardiological assessment is
controlled from the Russian payload laptop, using a set respiration rate
(without forced or deep breaths) and synchronizing respiration with
computer-commanded "inhale" commands. First, arterial blood pressure is
measured with the "Tensoplus" sphygmomanometer, followed by the "Pulse" test
to record the ECG (electrocardiogram), and a tag-up with ground specialists.
After the test, laptop 3 is reconfigured to its original settings.]


Padalka and FE/SO Michael Fincke 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.]

Fincke conducted today's "Saturday Science" program, for which he had
selected a demo of the ISSI (In-Space Soldering Investigation) experiment
started originally by Ed Lu last October. [Mike began with a check, and
recharge if required, of the battery for the soldering iron. He then
reviewed an ISSI OBT (on-board training) course, including procedures, and
subsequently had a 15-min. teleconference with the ISSI Principal
Investigator (PI). Later in the day, the SO set up the tools and brackets
within the MWA (Maintenance Work Area) containment system, replaced the
vacuum cleaner filter and checked out the battery source and soldering iron.
The crew then conducted Test 1, by soldering 18 different shaped wire
coupons (six "Straight 1" wrapped with solder, six "Straight 2" also wrapped
with solder, and six "Straight 3" with the solder fed onto selected
coupons). Another hour went by for allowing the soldering iron to cool
down. The activities were videotaped on the VTR for subsequent downlink to
POIC (Payload Operations & Integration Center). The gear will be stowed
again in the evening.]

Between ISSI tasks, Fincke took the periodic CO2 partial pressure
measurements in the SM and Lab using the U.S. CDMK (CO2 monitor kit), for
calldown to MCC-Houston (along with the battery status) for use in trending
analyses.

Gennady completed the routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh environment
control & life support system.

The FE supported a ground-commanded power-down of ER2 (EXPRESS rack #2) by
shutting off the ER2 laptop computer. [The ER2 POP (payload on-orbit
processor) power-down by POIC included RPC (remote power controller) circuit
breakers opening, RFCA (rack flow control assembly) configuring, payload
shutdown notification, RIC (rack interface controller) resetting, etc.]

At 9:45am EDT, the crew conducted the weekly planning conference (WPC) with
the ground, discussing next week's "Look-Ahead Plan" (regularly prepared
jointly by MCC-H and MCC-M planners), via S-band/audio.


Weekly Science Update (Expedition Nine -- 11th):

GASMAP: Next activity will be a Routine Health Check sometime next month.

Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS): Continuing.

Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): The crew was thanked for their two outstanding
sessions this week. The ground team is really enjoying working with them in
obtaining these exclusive images, appreciating their feedback and discussing
ways to implement them into future operations. More next month.

Hand Posture Analyzer (HPA: Nothing new.

In-Space Soldering Investigation (ISSE): "Saturday Science" demo today.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): Nothing new. Space
Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): A software modification is being
prepared that will allow the SAMS ICU laptop to operate with a missing,
defective, or discharged battery. The ground team will use an Express FTP
process to load the new software. Initial software testing successfully
completed at MSFC. Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS):
The MAMS OSS (Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment Sensor Subsystem)
continues collection of quasi-steady acceleration measurements from the
station. The HiRAP (High Resolution Accelerometer Package) is also enabled
to capture vibratory data below 100 Hz in EXPRESS Rack 1

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System (PCG-STES):
Nominal.

Protein Crystal Growth Monitoring by Digital Holographic Microscope
(PromISS): Nothing new.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal
Emulsions (InSPACE): Planned.

Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3): The BCAT-3 photosof the colloidal
polymer (col-pol) critical point samplesthat cameback from Mike's last
"Saturday Science" activities were evenbetter than researchers had
thoughtpossible.The modified proceduresand their resultshave established a
new benchmark to which now will have to be compared the ground's "ideal"
photographs. Even the practice photos of theHarvard col-pol samplesthat were
not on the officialtasklist provided new information and insights because of
their exceptional clarity. The new camera procedures which provided such
wonderful results for the Harvard samples in BCAT-3 may need to be extended
to capture a range of angles in order tophotograph Bragg refraction from the
U.Penn. surface crystal samples. Their photos were very clear, but it is
suspected that Bragg scattering may be visible (but perhaps challenging to
capture with a camera) at other angles.

Renal Stone (RS): Nothing new.

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites
(SHERES): Nothing new.

Foot/Ground Reaction Forces during Space Flight (FOOT): Nothing new.

Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE): In progress. Deployed outside on the U.S.
Airlock. Nominal and collecting data.

Cellular Biotechnology Support Systems-Fluid Dynamics Investigation
(CBOSS-FDI): Nothing new.

Biotechnology Specimen Temperature Controller (BSTC): Planned.

Yeast Group Activation Packs (Yeast GAP): Nothing new.

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM): There is one
more session scheduled for this Increment, in July.

Earth Science Toward Exploration Research (ESTER): Nothing new.

Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): SNFM packet capture on 7/8 was
successful. However, HRF downlink was done earlier than timelined and ADUM
packet statistics were not captured. The team is looking forward to next
ADUM data opportunity.

Fluid Merging Viscosity Measurement (FMVM): The crew conference was
"great". Ground specialists are looking forward to the FMVM set up and Ops
on 7/12.

Viscous Liquid Foam--Bulk Metallic Glass (Foam): The Foam team members look
forward to "Saturday Science" Conference planned for 7/12 or 7/13. They
reported that "the remote-user console works great".

BIOPSY (Effects of Prolonged Space Flight on Human Skeletal Muscle):
Nothing new.

Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2): Planned.

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA): Nothing new.

Miscible Fluids in Microgravity (MFMG): Nothing new.

Educational Payload Operations (EPO): In planning.

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): One of the recent ISS/CEO images of Tucson,
AZ will be published on NASA's Earth Observatory website this week as it
highlights the rapid growth urban areas and great variety of land use in
America's desert southwest region. With the recovery and restoration of the
CEO team's image and website server, they are once more able to review,
catalog, and distribute ISS imagery. As soon as daylight-awake orbit tracks
return to better lighting conditions, practice and targeting with the 400mm
lens and doubler will be resumed. Last week's imagery of Wake Island was
well-timed and composed, but more practice is needed to attain the desired
focus. The best features to practice on are usually manmade ones like
cities and agriculture. The best views require good illumination, clear
air, low look angles, and subtle tracking of the target to reduce ground
smear. Lighting conditions will be getting much better next week.

Today's optional CEO photo targets, in the current LVLH attitude no longer
limited by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science
window, except for the shutter closure and condensation-prevention plan
(limited to 90 min. in 24 hours), were Internal waves, Tuamotu Archipelago
(weather was marginal this pass as a dissipating cold front increases
cloudiness over the region. However, the crew was to look left of track for
glint among the atolls and islands of the main Tuamotu Archipelago), and
Internal waves, Patagonian Shelf (marginal weather for this target. This
pass looked to be the best of several the crew had today. Looking left of
track for glint right along the coast from the Valdes Peninsula
northeastward).

CEO images can be viewed at these websites:


http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

See also the website "Space Station Challenge" at:


http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/

To view the latest photos taken by the expedition 9 crew visit:


http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/.../ndxpage1.html at
NASA's Human Spaceflight website.


ISS Orbit (as of this morning, 8:44am EDT [= epoch]):


Mean altitude -- 359.9 km
Apogee height -- 364.1 km
Perigee height -- 355.8 km
Period -- 91.7 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.6308 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0004037
Solar Beta Angle -- 72.3 deg
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.70
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 18 m (!)
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 32198



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.


--
---------------------------

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info