ISS On-Orbit Status 10 Mar 2004<br /><br /> All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted previously<br />or below. Day 144 in space for Expedition 8 (142 days aboard ISS).<br /><br />The crew was thanked for yesterday's "great work" on the extensive TVIS<br />treadmill repair. ["You are expanding the IFM envelope something that<br />will be increasingly important as we plan and execute missions farther and<br />farther from home."]<br /><br />The TVIS IFM (in-flight maintenance) continued today, with 5 hours reserved<br />for both crewmembers. The activity began at ~3:15am EST. The entire<br />operation was estimated to take the two crewmembers ~11 hours, and today's<br />part was the second installment, divided again into a morning and an<br />afternoon session. The activity is closely coordinated with and monitored<br />by the ground specialists. As a result of some trouble the crew had<br />yesterday with fasteners, additional remedial steps were uplinked overnight,<br />for removing and discarding six of eight fasteners and replacing the other<br />two fasteners. [The overall objectives of the IFM are to remove the<br />treadmill from the SM floor (the "pit") and open its chassis up to allow<br />access to the roll-stabilizing gyroscope for removal of its flywheel. The<br />failed gyro bearings were then to be replaced, followed by reassembly of the<br />gyro with careful torque calibration. This required measuring shims and<br />building a new shim stack, while verifying the running torque for the<br />fasteners. After reassembly, an acceptance checkout and power draw test<br />were performed today before nominal TVIS ops will be resumed. The<br />activities were video-recorded.]<br /><br />Mike Foale unstowed and set up the equipment for the FOOT (Foot/Ground<br />Reaction Forces during Space Flight) experiment scheduled for another<br />experiment run tomorrow, preparing the equipment for EMG (electromyography)<br />calibration with camcorder/video recording and the actual data take in the<br />specially equipped outfit. [EMG (electromyography, i.e., electric muscle<br />currents recording) calibrations are performed after donning the TVIS<br />treadmill harness before exercising, after working out with harness removed,<br />and also at end of day prior to removing the LEMS pants. During tomorrow's<br />actual experiment, wearing these black Lycra "biking tights" with 20<br />electrodes as well as shoes fitted with insoles that measure impact forces<br />on the bottom of the foot for the 12-hr session, Foale will go through a<br />typical on-orbit day while reaction forces against the ISS structure are<br />recorded passively to determine how much stress his legs and feet endure.<br />This provides better understanding of the bone loss and loss of muscle mass<br />experienced by astronauts in zero-G (on Mir, for example, cosmonauts lost as<br />much bone mass in a month as post-menopausal women do in a year). The<br />experiment is led by the biomedical engineering department at the Cleveland<br />Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.]<br /><br />Alex Kaleri worked on the Russian condensate water processor (SRV-K2M),<br />removing the BKO multifiltration unit, which has reached its service life<br />limit. It was replaced with a new unit and stowed for deorbiting in<br />Progress 13P. The FE also replaced the SRV-K2M's F-R filter reactor<br />(catalyst). [The BKO, which contains five purification columns to remove<br />dissolved mineral and organic impurities from the condensate, has a service<br />lifetime of at least 450 liters throughput. After it, the condensate water<br />is treated in the BKV water conditioning unit with salts for taste and<br />silver ions for preservation, before it flows to the KPV potable water<br />container.] Before the BKO replacement, Sasha performed closeout steps on<br />the collection of water samples from the KAV water sampler attached to the<br />SRV and from the heating unit of the air/liquid condensate separator<br />(BRPK-M), which he began yesterday.<br /><br />Mike Foale completed the regular weekly maintenance of the TVIS treadmill,<br />including the recently introduced required weekly inspection of the TVIS<br />wire ropes for signs of fraying.<br /><br />Kaleri performed the regular SOZh life support systems maintenance in the<br />SM, comprising the water supply equipment, food supply subsystem (SOP), and<br />sanitary hygiene equipment (SGO), while Mike did the regular routine status<br />checkup of autonomous Increment 8 Lab payloads.<br /><br />Sasha also completed his regular daily inspection of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2<br />("Plants-2") experiment which studies growth and development of plants<br />(peas) under spaceflight conditions in the Lada-4 greenhouse.<br /><br />Today's CEO (Crew Earth Observations) targets, limited in XPOP attitude by<br />flight rule constraints on the use of the science window, which is available<br />for only ~1/4 of each orbit when not facing forward (in "ram"), were West<br />African Aerosols (DYNAMIC EVENT: Satellite imagery and surface station<br />reports continue to indicate a major aerosol event in progress along the<br />southern coast of western Africa where under almost cloudless skies, surface<br />visibilities are less than half a mile. As ISS approached the coast from<br />the NW, the crew was requested to shoot images left of track [eastward]<br />along the coast. Of special interest were the edges of this large pall of<br />dust and smoke and its extent over the darker sea surface), and Patagonian<br />Glaciers (it being now late summer in Patagonia, snow cover is at its<br />seasonal minimum. In the first of three daylight passes over this target<br />area, the crew should have had nadir views of much of the Southern<br />Patagonian Ice Field. They were to use the long lens for details of the<br />smaller, less-well photographed glaciers on the eastern and western flanks<br />of the ice field. During the second daylight pass over this area, which was<br />the most southerly, they were to try for oblique context views of the ice<br />fields while looking northward of the spine of the southern Andes. On the<br />third and last daylight pass over this target area, they were to concentrate<br />on details of the smaller Northern Patagonian Ice Field with nadir views<br />where possible).<br /><br />CEO images can be viewed at the websites.<br /><br />http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov<br />http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov<br /><br />See also the website "Space Station Challenge" at<br /><br />http://voyager.cet.edu/iss/