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29 June 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 28 Jun 2003

Part 1 of 2

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously. 

Except for some standard maintenance and optional task list jobs, the
crew's day was off duty.

As generally on Saturdays, CDR Yuri Malenchenko and FE/SO Ed Lu
performed the regular ezhenedeljnaya (weekly) 3-hr. housecleaning.
[This job 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.]

In the SM, Malenchenko started another regeneration cycle on
absorbent bed #1 of the BMP harmful impurities unit, leaving channel
#2 in Purify mode. [The "bakeout" cycle in the filter beds is
repeated every 20 days.  Each bakeout to space vacuum takes about 24
hours.] 

Yuri also completed the daily routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh
environment control & life support system, while Ed attended to the
daily preparation of the IMS inventory "delta" file.

CDR Malenchenko set up the SM video and audio system for an SPP
(automated time sequencer)-initiated 10-min. TV downlink, joining in
a live forum discussion of the presence and future of the Russian
space program.   [The forum was organized by Russian TV Channel One's
news division ("Vremya" program) from the Druzhba Sports Complex in
Luzhniki.  It included TV link-ups ("bridges") with the governors of
the Russian Federation regions, prominent individuals representing
arts and culture as well as science and technology fields, and
representatives of various non-governmental organizations.]

As on most every Saturday, at 9:30am EDT the crew held their weekly
planning conference with the ground via S-band/audio, discussing next
week's "Look-Ahead Plan" (regularly prepared jointly by MCC-H and
MCC-M planners).

Both crewmembers completed their daily 2.5-h program of physical
exercise, on TVIS treadmill, RED expander and, for Yuri, on the
Russian VELO cycle ergometer with load trainer.

Tomorrow night between 10 and 11pm EDT, station attitude will be
changed from sun-pointing XPOP (x-axis perpendicular to orbit plane)
to earth-oriented LVLH (local vertical/local horizontal) tomorrow

Weekly Science Update (Expedition Seven -- 8th):

This was another successful week of payloads activities on ISS.  The
crew completed the Ultrasound CBT (computer-based training) and
Ultrasound test activities.  A few days later they powered up the HRF
Rack for downlinking the Ultrasound data to the ground and their
subsequent transfer to the PI for analysis.  There was another
successful run of InSPACE that will prove to be a useful point for
data analysis, and the InSPACE team is looking forward to getting the
data from the final runs next week for analysis.  The earth imagery
downlinked this week was truly remarkable and the CEO team is working
to add the crew's targets of interest to the daily target list. 

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

Ultrasound (USND):  The joint HRF and Space Medicine activity
confirmed that remote guidance allows excellent quality images to be
obtained even without extensive ultrasound training and experience.
This will likely open the doors to using the HRF Ultrasound for
future scientific investigations. 

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.  The firing of pyro valves is a new
event that will be investigated for impacts.

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS):  MAMS is nominal
and currently analyzing data in support of general characterization
of the ISS acceleration environment.  The firing of pyro valves is a
new event that will be investigated for impacts.

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System
(PCG-STES): Since the PCG STES unit contains 81 different experiments
from a number of different investigators, the ground really
appreciate the crew's good work in keeping the filters clean. The
temp hasn't varied more than +/- 0.03 deg C from the setpoint in the
last eight weeks. 

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal
Emulsions (InSPACE):   InSPACE had one run this week, at much lower
frequencies which resulted in excess dispersion of the particles and
smaller chain structures during the pulse periods. Therefore, the
ground could not see the evolving structures except during the brief
steady periods. Next week two final tests will be conducted with the
smallest particle sample, and not much is expected to be seen except
during the monitor periods. 

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

Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM):
National Geographic Society is sponsoring a 7-day training seminar
for 20 teachers during the upcoming July session.  The teachers are
really excited about this training opportunity.

Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures-2 (CSLM-2):  Waiting to begin
operations.

Educational Payload Operations (EPO):  The ground is working the
final issues with the remaining EPO activities and plans to resume
activities soon.

Crew Earth Observation (CEO):   Two targets have been chosen for the
NASA Earth Observatory website.  One is the mosaic of dust and
related clouds over the southern Red Sea, Saudi and Eritrea.  The
second is the broad and highly detailed images of the Kitty Hawk site
with the Kill Devil Hills. Other successes are two hard-to-find
Lewis & Clark sites.  The ground team also wants to stress how the
"mapping series" technique helps speed up cataloging of detailed
views, which can otherwise be extremely difficult to locate.  In a
string of images, a recognizable point can almost always be found.
Panoramas/wider views perform the same valuable function. 

 - Continued -

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