Space Station Status Report, 12-11-2004

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington Nov. 12, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS04-038

NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao is getting his arms around his
job as Expedition 10 commander with a little help from the
International Space Station's robotic arm.

As is the case with every Station crew, practice sessions
with the Station's 58-foot robotic arm, Canadarm2, are
scheduled early in the mission to exercise the arm and
provide practical training for astronauts. Monday, Chiao, in
the Destiny Laboratory, used the arm to give engineers in the
Mission Evaluation Room of Mission Control video of a
protective panel on the outside the module. A possible
indentation was seen there in imagery from the most recent
Space Shuttle mission to the Station in November 2002 (STS-
113/11A).

Chiao positioned the arm, so cameras could zoom in on the
area. The video helped engineers determine the indentation
was not caused by a micrometeoroid or debris strike. The flat
spot on the lab shield appeared to be similar to flattened
areas seen in shields on the Unity module.

Engineering analysis of the imagery showed these flat spots
could occur on the forward and aft triangles of the shields
possibly as the result of temperature changes. The shields'
protective function and fit is not affected.

The robotic arm practice was one of the duties he and Flight
Engineer Salizhan Sharipov performed this week, as they
neared the one-month mark in space since their launch Oct.
14.

Earlier today, Chiao again took command of the robot arm and
moved it into position to allow its cameras to view the
relocation of the crew's Soyuz spacecraft, a maneuver
scheduled for Nov. 29. The crew will fly the Soyuz from the
Pirs Docking Compartment to a docking port on the Zarya
Control Module. The move will clear the Pirs module for two
Russian spacewalks in 2005.

While the crew continued routine housekeeping and exercise
chores, scientific research work continued as well. The focus
of attention this week was the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test
(BCAT), which investigates long-term behavior of particles
suspended in various liquids such as ink, paint and milk, in
microgravity.

Chiao worked with the experiment twice this week to assist
investigators in determining what types of colloids should be
studied by future crews. Ultimately, the data could help in
development of new products for the communications and
computer industries.
At midweek, Chiao tried to fix a faulty U.S. spacesuit pump
that caused a lack of cooling as discovered in testing during
Expedition 9 earlier this year. The work was halted when a
small washer-shaped shim could not be found. Flight
controllers ended the search yesterday and will evaluate the
next course of action. The U.S. suits are not scheduled for
use until Space Shuttle flights resume. A new shim may be
delivered to the Station aboard the next Progress resupply
spacecraft in December.

Yesterday, a circuit breaker tripped aboard the Station that
had been powering several pieces of crew equipment. The
circuit breaker remains off while the crew and ground teams
plan to check the equipment that had been powered. The
equipment includes a laptop, the cycle ergometer and a light.
Those items will be tested to ensure no problems with them
caused the breaker to trip. Today, the crew took photos of
the setup for engineers on the ground.

Among activities next week will be a reboost of the Station's
altitude, a maneuver performed periodically to maintain the
complex's orbit.

Information about crew activities on the Space Station,
future launch dates and Station sighting opportunities from
Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

For information about NASA and other agency missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

-end-


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

Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info

Engineering analysis of the imagery showed these flat spots could
occur on the forward and aft triangles of the shields possibly as the
result of temperature changes.

Aha!

As I suspected on this group...