3 June 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 30 May 2003

Part 1 of 2

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

The crew's day today was largely dominated by the yearly TVIS
(treadmill with vibration isolation and stabilization) maintenance.
A healthy chunk of 6.5 hrs had been reserved on the timeline for the
task, which involved a close inspection, several replacements of
worn-out parts and subsequent activation and checkout, particularly
of the vibration isolation system (VIS), including a power draw test
and actual exercise run.  Imagery of the activities was obtained with
a video camcorder set up beforehand and a digital still camera.
[Starting at 4:00am EDT, Edward Lu and Yuri Malenchenko were
scheduled to remove TVIS from the Service Module (SM) "pit", replace
the transfer (gearbox) case and flywheel case with new ones brought
up by Soyuz 6S with Expedition 7, reposition the forward gyro bracket
lip top wire plate in its proper orientation and replace IRBA
(isolation restoration bungee assembly) bungees.  Their tasks also
included inspection of the SM pit subfloor for any debris or
material, checking gyroscope positioning, verification of torque
values on accessible fasteners for SPDs (subject positioning
devices), aft stabilizers, VIS, and electronics box, identification
of stabilizer locations, and removal of an old battery from a spare
electronics box in stowage.] 

As part of regular daily tasks, CDR Yuri Malenchenko inspected the
BRPK-1 air/liquid condensate separator of the SM's SRVK water
processing system and conducted his regular daily
monitoring/servicing of the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 zero-G plant growth
experiment, checking water level in the Lada-2 greenhouse water
container and the seed status. 

Meanwhile, FE/SO Ed Lu did the regular status checkup of the
autonomous Lab payload (PCG-STES010, SAMS, MAMS).

To improve cabin ppCO2 analyses in the Russian segment (RS),
Malenchenko performed a 45-min. recalibration of the SM's gas
analyzer (IK0501) for CO2 readings.   [IK0501 analyzes the air flow
pumped through it for humidity (H2O), oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide
(CO2) and hydrogen (H2), and converts its measurements into partial
pressure values going to a monitoring laptop and, if they exceed
limit values, to the caution and warning panel (PSS).] 

After their regular daily physical exercise, the crew also had their
weekly teleconference with the ISS Flight Director at MCC-H.

Ed and Yuri received warm kudos for yesterday's successful
Educational Payload Operations (EPO) session, which demonstrated
zero-G flight of paper airplanes and a model of the Wright Flyer.
Next EPO will be the demo of a Hawaiian flute called a Pu'ili.

Conjunction update:  The Progress maneuver burn to remove the risk of
collision with an orbital object was successfully performed on
schedule at 12:50pm EDT over Russian ground sites.  [Collision
probability with the Italian Megsat 0, launched in April 1999 on a
Russian Kosmos-3M rocket, at a TCA (time of closest approach) of
4:55pm EDT, remained within the "Red" zone (greater than 1 in 10,000)
throughout the night and all morning.  The burn, planned to last 7
min 27sec, was performed on the four manifold-2 thrusters of Progress
10P, using props (N2O4, nitrogen tetroxide & UDMH, unsymmetrical
dimethyl hydrazine)  from the cargo ship's refueling tanks.  Required
delta-V was ~1 m/s, resulting in an altitude increase of 1.7 km.
This moved the object out of the Red and Yellow zones (Yellow =
greater than 1 in 100,000, but smaller than 1 in 10,000) and resulted
in safe separation (predicted: 2 km radial, 25 km along-track, 25 km
cross-track).  The maneuver took care of all three Megsat
conjunctions and also of another upcoming conjunction with a rocket
booster.  For the burn, the ISS maneuvered to the required minimum
propellant attitude (LVLH, yaw/pitch/roll 0/0/0) at 10:20am and
returned to XPOP at 1:03pm.  Orbital drag uncertainties involved in
the predictive calculations were increased by solar flare activity;
see following item.] 

Due to multiple violent solar flares (Class X) in the last two days,
a large coronal mass ejection (CME) passed the Earth late yesterday,
resulting in geomagnetic storm conditions.  Arrival of a second CME
is projected for today between 5:00pm and 2:00pm tomorrow (most
likely: 3:00am), generating another geomagnetic storm with an
estimated shock strength of 4 on a scale of 0 to 9 (strongest).  The
crew was notified to watch for auroras during their orbital night,
near New Zealand, the southern parts of Australia, and North
America.   [CMEs are violent discharges of material from the Sun's
outer atmosphere.  The ejected material can travel at speeds of up to
a million miles per hour.  When this flow of charged particles and
embedded magnetic field collides with Earth, it can dramatically
disrupt Earth's geomagnetic field and ionosphere. The ensuing
geomagnetic storms can result in disrupted communication networks,
errors in navigation systems, satellite failures, electricity
blackouts, radiation hazards to astronauts, disruption of flow meters
in oil pipelines, aggravation to geophysical exploration for natural
resources, etc.  The impact shock also heats the ionosphere, causing
increases in ionospheric density and drag force on orbiting vehicles.
The current storms are not seen to be of a magnitude that would cause
any significant elevation in intravehicular crew exposures, i.e.,
there is no crew health risk.]

Today's CEO targets, limited in the current XPOP attitude by flight
rule constraints on the use of the Lab nadir/science window, also
excluding any night target viewing, were Industrialized SE Africa
(good pass for seeing air quality at three topographic levels:
looking right for the coastal plain [0-3000 feet altitude]; looking
oblique left for the plateau [4-6000 feet], where haze accumulations
are generally greatest; looking left closer to track for the Lesotho
highlands [7-10,000 feet] for the clearest air [usually above the
inversion layer that holds aerosols near the plateau surface,
especially in this winter season]), Taiwan aerosols (ideal pass over
the strait between Taiwan and the mainland to photograph industrial
haze on the western, populated side of the island), Beijing, China
(good pass just to the north of the metropolis. Looking right for the
dense cityscape; looking oblique right for probable aerosol haze over
the North China plain. Some of the most detailed views of structure
in haze-bearing air masses comes from the stagnant air over the
plain), Western Mediterranean (opportunity to see Mt. Etna smoking,
just left of track), and Western Mediterranean (pass along the
Spanish and French coasts.  Looking south for panoramas of the
Mediterranean with possible aerosols). CEO images can be viewed at
the websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

 - Continued -

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