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13 July 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 12 Jul 2003

Part 1 of 2

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously. First crew rest day of this weekend.

As generally on Saturdays, Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight
Engineer/Science Officer Ed Lu performed the weekly 3-hr. station
cleaning. [This includes removal of food waste products, cleaning of
compartments with vacuum cleaner, wet cleaning of the Service Module
(SM) dining table and other surfaces with "Fungistat" disinfectant
and cleaning fan screens to avoid temperature rises.]   Malenchenko
attended to the daily routine maintenance of the SM SOZh life support
system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Ed Lu prepared the
daily IMS delta file for automatic export/import to update the
database. 

Both crewmembers completed their daily physical exercise program on
TVIS treadmill and RED resistive expander.

Yuri and Ed conducted the weekly planning conference with the ground,
discussing next week's "Look-Ahead Plan" (regularly prepared jointly
by MCC-H and MCC-M planners), via S-band/audio.

The crew also had their regular weekly teleconference ISS Program
Management, via S-band/audio.

Overnight, at 1:36am EDT, the station maneuvered back to sun-oriented
XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane) attitude, after it had
been in LVLH +YVV/"Barbecue" mode for six orbits for data
collection.  At 2:00am, both P6 arrays were placed back in "directed"
(non-suntracking) position, optimized for drag reduction.  [Solar
array wing (SAW) 2B was fixed at 279 deg, 4B at 81 deg, were they
produce 12+ kW through the end of next week.  The "sun slicer" drag
reduction scheme has worked remarkably well to date, as demonstrated
by significantly reduced daily orbit decay.] 

Should the evacuation of MCC-Houston become necessary early next week
due to tropical storm/hurricane Claudette, ISS flight control would
be handed over to the BCC (Backup Control Center) at HSG (Houston
Support Group) in Moscow, located at TsUP in Korolev.   [This has
happened before, when MCC-H was shut down last year (on 10/2 at
4:00am EDT) during the Hurricane Lili contingency.  There also have
been a number of BCC mode sim runs.  A multi-page list of onboard
systems configurations, configuration changes and other required
activities in such an event has been uplinked to the crew. Steps will
be taken to minimize necessary onboard activities in the event of
evacuation; others will be performed by preloaded time-tag commands.
Claudette at this time (Saturday afternoon) is still 410 mi. off the
Texas coast, SE of Brownsville.]

Weekly Science Update (Expedition Seven -- 10th): This week had very
few payload activities, but EarthKAM has proved very successful.

GASMAP:   Next 30-day health check is planned for 7/14 (Monday).
Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS):   Continuing.

Ultrasound (USND):  Next Ultrasound session is planned for
mid-September.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI):  Waiting to begin
operations.

Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS):  SAMS is nominal and
currently analyzing data in support of general characterization of
the ISS acceleration environment.

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS):  MAMS is nominal
and currently analyzing data in support of general characterization
of the ISS acceleration environment.

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System
(PCG-STES): PCG-STES continues to operate nominally.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal
Emulsions (InSPACE):   Current test matrix is complete.

Materials ISS Experiment (MISSE):  In progress.  Deployed outside.
Nominal and collecting data.

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM):  A
total of 819 images were captured; 86 images with the 50mm lens and
733 images with the 180mm lens while EarthKAM was operational.  Even
with the small interruption, the mission went very smoothly.  This
summer mission was an opportune time to provide hands-on instruction
to many teachers who are looking to include EarthKAM operations in
their classrooms this fall.  Ten schools were also involved in
requesting images during this period and the students exhibited an
overwhelming interest.  A few of the images gathered were uplinked to
the crew for their viewing pleasure. 

Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2):  Operations for
CSLM-2 will begin next week. The ground team is excited about the
start of operations. 

Educational Payload Operations (EPO):  The ground has completed the
lesson plan for the Pu'ili Hawaiian flute activity and plans to
uplink it for crew review soon followed by a crew conference to be
scheduled at a later date to discuss any outstanding issues with the
Pu'ili activity. 

Crew Earth Observation (CEO):  Lewis &Clark images are being well
received at conferences and are drawing lots of hits on the our
website.  Although you will lose light over these targets for the
next few weeks, we will continue to refine our location and
description information for next time. Most of the new CEO images
were taken with the 400 or 800mm lenses.  While this technique
captures incredible detail of targets, the crew was reminded that
this detail usually exceeds that of the maps available of most of the
world.  It was recommended that the crew take context views of the
areas either as high obliques as they approach or depart, or take
additional views with the shorter lenses to include landmarks and
features that are easily located.  Otherwise some of the location of
some images may never be precisely determined.   Today's CEO targets,
limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight rule constraints on
the use of the Lab nadir/science window, and including the targets of
the Lewis & Clark 200-year memorial locations, were Algiers, Algeria
(nadir pass), Great Falls, MT (LEWIS & CLARK SITE:  The Missouri
River drops more than 400 feet in ten miles here. The explorers noted
the value of this site for hydro-power generation.  Now the Ryan Dam
occupies the site.  The site lies on the river, at the city of Great
Falls, where the highway crosses the river, all near nadir a touch
right of track), Pompey's Pillar, MT (LEWIS & CLARK SITE: Nadir pass.
The site lies in the Yellowstone River valley where the river flows
east northeastward from the city of Billings. Pompey's Pillar is a
200 foot-high rock formation on the south bank of the river near the
point where Interstate Highway 94 converges to within half a mile of
the river and then runs parallel with it.  Captain Clark's dated
signature is engraved in the rock), Monterrey, Mexico (nadir pass),
Laysan Atoll, Hawaiian chain (detailed views of coral reefs were
requested), Maro Atoll, Hawaiian chain (nadir pass.  Detailed views
of coral reefs requested), and Lake Poopo (looking left to document
water levels in this high Andean lake.  This is one of the best
proxies for multi-year rainfall in this arid region close to the
source of the El Nino phenomenon). CEO images can be viewed at the
websites

 - Continued -

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