Crew's Week Begins With Science and Maintenance<br /><br />Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov spent Tuesday<br />aboard the International Space Station performing science, maintaining<br />equipment and exercising. Future activities include a Station reboost, a<br />second spacewalk and the mid-April launch of the Expedition 11 crew.<br /><br />Chiao and Sharipov measured their body mass and their calf volume.<br />Scientists on the ground will use the data to understand deconditioning in<br />microgravity, as well as the effectiveness of countermeasures. Also,<br />Sharipov continued with the second part of a Russian fitness test series<br />meant to study preventive health maintenance. He trained on the VELO cycle<br />ergometer.<br /><br />Chiao completed wrap-up and closeout tasks after replacing a heat exchanger<br />in the Joint Airlock. Ground controllers were extremely pleased about the<br />successful replacement and subsequent leak checks. On a similar note,<br />Sharipov installed a water sampler in the Service Module that will sample<br />humidity produced by the environment control and life support system.<br /><br />The commander worked out for 2 ½ hours on the Station's treadmill and the<br />Resistive Exercise Device then prepared his exercise data files for downlink<br />to Mission Control. Sharipov got his exercise during the Russian fitness<br />test.<br /><br />On March 25th the Station is planned for an orbital reboost and three days<br />later a second spacewalk for Expedition 10 is scheduled. In mid-April<br />Expedition 11 is set to launch from Russia in a Soyuz spacecraft, dock with<br />the Station and replace Expedition 10.