ISS On-Orbit Status, 23-07-2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 23 Jul 2003

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously
or below. Day 90 in space for the Increment 7 crew.

Before breakfast and physical exercise, CDR Yuri Malenchenko and FE/SO
Edward Lu conducted another round of the Russian crew health-monitoring
program's medical assessment MO-9/Urinalysis. Tomorrow, the crew will
complete the PHS (periodic health status) exam and perform the clinical
evaluation. After the sessions, Malenchenko stowed the equipment. [MO-9 is
biochemical urinalysis, conducted regularly every 30 days (and also before
and after EVAs), and it is one of five nominal Russian medical tests adopted
by NASA for US crewmembers for PHS evaluation as part of the "PHS/Without
Blood Labs" exam. The analysis uses the sophisticated in-vitro diagnostic
apparatus "Urolux" developed originally for the Mir program. ]

Both crewmembers then underwent the IMG PHS (Integrated Medical
Group/Periodic Health Status) assessment with blood labs, each one acting
first as CMO (crew medical officer) and then being the examined subject.
Afterwards, Ed Lu completed data entry for both crewmembers and stowed the
hardware. [The PHS exam includes blood analysis with the PCBA (portable
clinical blood analyzer), MO-10 (see above) and clinical evaluation, guided
by special software (IFEP, in-flight examination program) on the medical
equipment computer (MEC). While PCBA analyzes total blood composition,
MO-10 particularly measures the blood's hematocrit.]

Completing the T+2d analysis of water samples collected on 7/21 from all
three potable water ports with the WMK (water monitoring kit), Science
Officer Lu entered the microbiological data in the MEC (medical equipment
computer) and called them down to the ground.

The crew conducted the scheduled Soyuz descent training exercise, supported
by a tagup with ground experts at TsUP/Moscow. The Increment 7 crew will
return on Soyuz 6S on 10/27, landing at 9:23pm EDT. (Launch of 7S: 10/18,
1:37am EST; all dates prelim.) [The training session included a review of
the pertinent FDF (flight data files), specifically the books on Soyuz
Ascent & Descent Procedures, Emergency Descents, and Off-Nominal Situation
Procedures.]

Malenchenko completed the regular periodic (weekly) inspection of the BRPK-1
air/liquid condensate separator in the SM.

Both crewmembers performed their daily physical exercise program on TVIS
treadmill, RED expander and CEVIS cycle ergometer.

Yuri also completed his regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2
("Plants-2") experiment which researches growth and development of plants
under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-2 greenhouse.

Later, the CDR attended to the daily routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh
environment control & life support system as well as the daily preparation
of the IMS "delta" file, responding to specific stowage questions uplinked
overnight, while the Science Officer performed the regular daily status
checkup of autonomously running Lab payloads (PCG-STES010, SAMS, MAMS).

The Science Officer continued the planned week-long EMU (extravehicular
mobility unit) battery maintenance activities. [Today, discharge of
batteries #2032 and #2033 in the BSA (battery stowage assembly) was
terminated, and the batteries were allowed to cool down for one hour. Charge
of EMU batteries #2029 and #2030 was then initiated.]

Ed and Yuri today also had their weekly conference with the JSC Astronaut
Office (Kent Rominger) on their schedule.

TsUP/Moscow is continuing the checkout tests of the newly installed Russian
ASN satellite navigation antenna system which has encountered technical
problems. The testing will be continued for the rest of this week,

Today's CEO (crew earth observation) targets, no longer limited in the
current LVLH attitude and including the targets of the Lewis & Clark
200-year memorial locations, were Jakarta, Indonesia (looking a touch right
on the north side of Java. This view angle may have revealed a large,
coherent pollution plume that has been documented for the sister city of
Surabaya. The ISS pass crossed the major volcano Krakatau, which appears in
the strait between Java and Sumatra [as a group of four irregularly shaped
islands -- remnants of a single volcano which suffered explosive destruction
in 416 AD and again in 1883 with the largest recorded explosion]), Typhoon
Imbudo, Philippines (Dynamic event. Looking left of track for this storm
which is reduced to category 2 level after raking central Luzon. Low sun
should enhance views of cloud structure), Patagonian Glaciers (relatively
clear conditions. Looking for glaciers on the drier inland side),
Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (ISS/CEO images have shown significant change
in burn scar patterns over two decades [one such image is being prepared for
website display]. Very wet recent summers have produced unusual savanna
growth and hence flammable biomass. A mapping swath of several half-oblique
views across arid Zambia may reveal more such changes. Since trees take
years to grow to full size, burn scars of different age are one of the main
controls of savanna plant structure over wide areas. [Relative ages of burn
scar are easy to determine by remote sensing. Burn scars are also the
dominant visual from low earth orbit in tropical Africa south of the Congo
rainforests]), Kinshasa, Zaire (looking right, on the south side of the
Congo River for this major capital city. The crew's visual cue was the
great widening in the Congo River known as Stanley Pool, with Kinshasa on
the south shore), Buenos Aires, Argentina (good panorama of the entire urban
system [combined population of more than 14 million], mainly on the south
shore of the estuary known as the River Plate), Ed's Hill, New Zealand
(nadir pass. Looking on the coast), Lake Poopo, Bolivia (looking a touch
right for this major ecology site. Lake levels are the feature of interest),
and La Paz, Bolivia (looking a touch left for the city which lies on the
cliff-like edge of the high Andean plateau).

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/



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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

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