ENEIDE Progress Report No.4

Mission Information Report No. 4

Flight Day 6 (20 April 2005, GMT Day 110):

Biology
AES: For the "Agrospace Experiment Suite" experiment, the ESA astronaut,
Robert Vittori, made the daily check of the germination state. Roots were
observed on all packages of Agrospace.
CRI: Following plan, the ESA astronaut opened the KUBIK incubator cover to
provide some fresh air to for the "Crickets in Space" inside. He confirmed
temperature setting at 27.5 degrees C. This temperature is fine for the
crickets and the environment conditions for the experiment that is
progressing nominally.
Human Physiology

HPA: As planned for Flight Day 6, the set-up of the Hand Posture Analyser
(HPA) experiment hardware and the execution of the experiment were performed
nominally by the ESA astronaut and the experiment data were successfully
downlinked to Earth. The Hand Posture Analyser experiment makes use of a
facility of instruments for the study of the performances of the upper limb
of an astronaut. In particular, the experiment addresses two main aspects:
1) motor coordination during reaching and grasping of objects, and 2) muscle
fatigue assessment during the execution of sustained handgrip and pinch
force. The HPA hardware consists of two dynamometers, i.e. the Handgrip and
Pinch Force Dynamometers (HGD/PFD) for measuring handgrip and pinch forces,
together with a gloved instrumentation device, called Posture Acquisition
Glove (PAG) that the astronaut wears during the execution of the experiment,
which allows for measurement of the bending angles on individual fingers.
This is attached to an electronic box, called Wrist Electronic Box (WEB),
which houses an inertial tracking system made up of accelerometers and
gyroscopes in order to determine the linear and angular motion, rotation and
acceleration of the hand and forearm in all directions.
The Hand Posture Analyser hardware was already launched to the ISS on
Progress flight 12P in August 2003 and used during Increment 7 and 8 of the
ISS by astronauts Ed Lu and Michael Foale. The preliminary version of the
same hardware was used on board the ISS during ESA astronaut Roberto
Vittori's first mission, the Marco Polo mission in 2002. These experiments
assessed respectively the short-term and long-term effects of weightlessness
on the upper limb performance.

MOP: Roberto Vittori completed the daily questionnaire for the "Motion
Perception" experiment as planned.
NGF: The second of three saliva sampling for the Nerve Growth Factor
experiment was performed as planned today by the ESA astronaut.

Technology

ENE: The second run of the ENEIDE experiment onboard the ISS was
successfully performed by the ESA astronaut. This included the switching on
of the laptop computer and the receiver, monitoring of the correct operation
of the receiver, the copying of the experiment data from the laptop computer
to the memory card and finally the switching off of both receiver and laptop
computer. All was nominal. With this second run, the "Esperimento di
Navigazione per Evento Italiano Dimonstrativo di EGNOS" to measure and
verify GPS and EGNOS signals in low Earth orbit is successfully completed.

ENM: The "electronic nose" for the "Electronic Nose Monitoring" experiment
(ENM) to be executed later during the coming days was successfully installed
and activated by Roberto Vittori. The ENM is a technology demonstration
experiment that uses a new class of chemical sensors that are designed to
provide the overall olfactory profiles of a large number of chemical
compounds within a closed environment. The objective of the experiment is to
test the sensor under microgravity conditions and thus verify its
applicability to space. Such a nose could also have various applications on
Earth in food control, identification of noxious gases and compounds in
industrial sites and biomedicine.

EST: The required daily activation of the Electronics Space Test experiment
was performed as planned by the ESA astronaut. The EST experiment shall
demonstrate that industrial electronic components can be implemented in
space, if they are adequately protected and used correctly.

LAZ: The "trouble-shooting" activities planned for today, i.e. the failure
analysis and corrective measures taken for the LAZIO experiment, have been
completed. The experiment had switched off unexpectedly on Flight Day 3
after some hours of operations. The Main Electronics Box of the experiment
hardware has now been moved slightly inside the ISS to a place where it
obtains better ventilation. The results of the trouble-shooting were
reported to the ground by Roberto Vittori and provided to the Lazio User
Centre operations team and the Principal Investigator team for further
analysis. Following the trouble-shooting, the equipment was switched off
again by Roberto Vittori. Tomorrow, the ESA astronaut will replace a PMCIA
card and then power up LAZIO again. The correct functioning of the Main
Electronic Box is required to take measurements of the magnetic environment
inside the ISS and its relationship with the particle flux variations due to
solar and geophysical phenomena.

Education

ARS: The second and final Amateur Radio on International Space Station
educational experiment was performed with great success today. As with the
first session, this event went extremely well, with Roberto answering
questions from school children using his call sign IZ6ERU for operating the
amateur radio equipment on the ISS which has the international radio amateur
call sign NA1SS. About 200 school children at the age of 7-8 years gathered
at ESA's ESRIN establishment in Frascati, near Rome, for the event which was
named "mISSione impossibile". As the ISS was unfortunately not flying over
Frascati at the time of the education event, a communication chain was
establishment which used the amateur radio station of a group of ISS
enthusiasts in Greenbelt, near Washington, USA, who have a call sign -
NN1SS - which expresses clearly their affinity to the ISS, and who were in
direct radio visibility with the Station at the time of the event, and from
Greenbelt the communication was further relayed via telephone to Frascati.
It is interesting to note that the school children participating in the
event will have in 2030 more or less the same age as Roberto Vittori has
today, when ESA hopes to see the first landing of a European astronaut on
Mars. Who knows if this astronaut was not already present today among the
children in Frascati?


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

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info