ISS On-Orbit Status, 12-06-2004

ISS On-Orbit Status 12 Jun 2004

All ISS systems continue to function nominally except those noted
previously. Reduced-duty day for the crew.

Saturday's regular station cleaning was moved to tomorrow.

FE/SO Michael Fincke retrieved the Nikon F5 digital camera gear and then
conducted a 30-min. tagup with P/TV (photo/television) specialists,
discussing F5 camera configuring and use.

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.

Also, at 6:45am EDT the crew also held their monthly teleconference with ISS
Program Management via S-band/audio.

The FE/SO performed the regular once-a-week maintenance reboot on the
operational PCS laptops and the restart of the OCA comm router laptop (every
two weeks).

Gennady conducted the routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh life support
system.

The crew completed their daily 2.5-hr. physical exercise program on TVIS
treadmill, RED expander and VELO ergometer with load trainer.

Several new tasks were added to the U.S. "job jar" task list, to be done by
the crew at a time of their choice. [The tasks are audit/inventories of
P/TV equipment, CHeCS (crew health care systems) sampling supplies, and
computer pantry gear, also ThinkPad 760XD laptop shell troubleshooting, and
removal of the 760XD laptop from MCOR (medium-rate communications outage
recorder).]

Weekly Science Update (Expedition Nine -- 7th):

GASMAP: Nothing new.

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

Advanced Ultrasound (ADUM): Padalka was thanked for completing OPE
(On-board Proficiency Enhancer) yesterday. The ground team is reviewing the
data and look forward to the bone session next week.

Hand Posture Analyzer (HPA: Nothing new.

In-Space Soldering Investigation (ISSE): Nothing new.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI): Nothing new. Space
Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS): While the SAMS hardware is down,
MAMS's HiRAP is being used to characterize the vibratory environment in the
US Lab. Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS): Both MAMS
OSS and HiRAP are operating nominally.

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): Nothing new.

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): The BSTC checkout is
currently planned for later in June.

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.

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

Serial Network Flow Monitor (SNFM): 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): More demos in planning.

Crew Earth Observations (CEO): Thanks went up to the crew for the
opportunity to participate in a live crew conference with them this past
Tuesday. It meant a great deal to the entire CEO team to give them a
progress report, feedback on their efforts and to hear the energy and
enthusiasm in their voices for the CEO payload. The crew is providing the
ground with such a high volume of quality imagery that the team can barely
keep up.

Today's optional CEO (Crew Earth Observations) photo targets, limited in
XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on the use of the science window,
which is available for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in
"ram"), were Discoloration zone, Yellow Sea (Dynamic event. A recent image
of the Yellow Sea shoreline shows what appears to be a large sediment plume.
The feature may be plankton, however, since the SeaWiFS satellite shows a
plankton bloom stretching across the Yellow Sea between Shanghai and Korea.
This pass over the west side of the Yellow Sea traverses the core of what
appears to be an evolving plankton event: looking left and right), Madrid,
Spain (nadir pass), Nile River Delta (crew was asked to shoot a mapping
swath across the NE corner of the delta to document new field patterns on
either side of the Suez Canal. The expansion of arable land is a high
priority for Egypt due to population growth. The entire effort is hobbled,
however, by loss of existing cropland due to salt poisoning [salt
accumulation rate in soils has increased since three irrigations per year
began--with Aswan water--rather than the traditional single irrigation], and
Algiers, Algeria (looking a touch right on the coast for this capital city).

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 :-)

www.spacepatches.info