ISS On-Orbit Status, 02-11-2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 2 Nov 2003

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously
or below. It was a regular Sunday rest day for the crew.

Today is the third anniversary of continuous station occupancy: On
11/2/2000, at 5:23am EST, Expedition 1 members William Shepherd, Yuri
Gidzenko and Sergej Krikalev opened the hatches from their Soyuz transport
ship and ingressed the ISS via Service Module (SM) "Zvezda". Since then,
ISS has traveled 650+ million miles with humans aboard. (If we were on a
journey to the outer reaches of our solar system, ISS would now be about
halfway between Jupiter and Saturn).

FE Alex Kaleri collected the weekly counter readings of the SM's toilet
flush system (with inspection of the SP urine collection and pretreat
assembly) and SVO water supply status, both for calldown to TsUP/Moscow.

Kaleri also conducted the periodic inspection of the Elektron oxygen
generator's VM gas/liquid system for obstructing air bubbles, and he did the
regular checkup of the BRPK air/water condensate separator in the SM.

CDR Michael Foale completed his second weekly filling out of the FFQ (food
frequency questionnaire), which keeps a log of his nutritional intake over
time on the MEC.

Mike also called down the "ad hoc" O2 partial pressure of the cabin air.
[O2 data for trending analyses by the ground are collected daily by the crew
with the U.S. CSA-CP (compound specific analyzer-combustion products).]

Sasha attended to the daily routine maintenance of the SM SOZh life support
system (including ASU toilet facilities).

Both crewmembers worked out with their daily 2.5-h program of physical
exercise, on TVIS treadmill, RED expander, and VELO cycle with load trainer.

Mike Foale had his regular weekly PFC (private family conference), via
S-band/audio and Ku-band/video. Alex Kaleri had his PFC yesterday, via VHF.

An energetic solar proton event (SPE) commenced today at 12:40pm EST as a
result of an X 8.3 x-ray event on the sun thatpeaked at 12:34pm. Based on
current levels, it is not anticipated that crew action is required, due to
the expected decline of the outbreak. However, the event could trend in
unanticipated directions that could require reassessment of the situation.
[As defined by flight rules, an energetic SPE is one where the 100 MeV
protons exceed 1 pfu (particle flux units). Currently, proton levels have
leveled off at 40 pfu and are in declining trend at 37 pfu. This is well
below the criteria requiring crew action. Orbital phasing is such that ISS
should not receive any additional exposure until after 11/3, 1:30am EST.
This has been confirmed by SPE analysis code and confirmed by on-board
measurement with the IVCPDS (intravehicular charged particle directional
spectrometer). The latter has identified no additional dose from the last
extreme south latitude pass.]

As the crew reported last Friday evening, Kaleri's TVIS harness was torn at
the rear D-ring attachment stitching. Sasha made modifications, sewing a
piece of excess strap to the hip belt 2 inches forward and aft of the
D-rings on each side. [He is satisfied with his fixes and will provide
pictures for assessment by TVIS engineers.]

Today's optional CEO (crew earth observations) targets, limited in the
current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the Lab
nadir/science window, and including the targets of the Lewis & Clark
200-year memorial locations, were Lagos, Nigeria (looking left on both sides
of the coastal lagoon for this ever expanding city, the largest in West
Africa), Havana, Cuba (nadir pass. This is one of the most colorful cities
as seen from above, due to widespread use of red roof tile), Wildfires,
California (Dynamic event. Nadir pass over the mountains where forest fires
have expanded to the largest in California's history. Looking right, since
winds are blowing offshore. Twenty people killed and more than 2,600 homes
destroyed), Guadalajara, Mexico (nadir pass over this compact city that is
easy to see and whose expansion is bounded by a canyon on one side),
Johannesburg, South Africa (looking left of track for the center of the
Wi****ersrand urban region [smallest land parcels, focus point of major
highways and railroads; high-rise buildings downtown are identifiable]),
Recife, Brazil (nadir pass over this port city in northeast Brazil, closest
landfall to the Old World in the Americas in the age of sail), and Buenos
Aires, Argentina (nadir pass over this city of 13 million, fully one third
of the population of Argentina concentrated on the south shore of the River
Plate. Two images may be sufficient to capture the entire urban area with
the 180 mm lens).

CEO images can be viewed at the websites

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

See also the website "Space Station Challenge" at


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



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

Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 09:34:39 GMT, "Jacques van Oene"
wrote:

Today is the third anniversary of continuous station occupancy: On
11/2/2000, at 5:23am EST, Expedition 1 members William Shepherd, Yuri
Gidzenko and Sergej Krikalev opened the hatches from their Soyuz transport
ship and ingressed the ISS via Service Module (SM) "Zvezda". Since then,
ISS has traveled 650+ million miles with humans aboard. (If we were on a
journey to the outer reaches of our solar system, ISS would now be about
halfway between Jupiter and Saturn).

Seems like a damned shame that we aren't.

Dale

Hopefully back to lurking soon