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22 May 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 21 May 2003

Part 1 of 2

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

Science Officer Ed Lu set up and then took the periodic O-OHA
(on-orbit hearing assessment) test, a NASA EHS (environmental health
systems) examination to assess the efficacy of acoustic
countermeasures.  CDR Yuri Malenchenko followed suit.  [The O-OHA
test involves minimum audibility measurements for each ear over a
wide range of frequencies and sound pressure levels, with the
crewmembers using individual-specific Prophonics earphones, Bose ANC
headsets and the SLM (sound level meter).  To conduct the testing,
the experimenter is supported by special "EarQ" software on the MEC
(medical equipment computer).  The baseline test is required for
about Flight Day 14 for each new Expedition and is then performed
once per month.] 

In line with today's focus on acoustics, Ed Lu unstowed the joint
US/Russian sound level meter (SLM) hardware and during the day took
readings at 41 different locations in the Lab, Node, Airlock, FGB,
Service Module (SM) and Docking Compartment (DC-1), following
instructions uplinked from TsUP/MCC-M for the current Week 3.

Yuri Malenchenko continued the latest round of periodic preventive
maintenance of Russian segment (RS) ventilation systems, starting out
with cleaning the Group A fans and grilles in the SM (last time done:
3/18), then working in the "Pirs" DC-1 to change out its two dust
filters (PF1 & PF2) and clean the mesh screens of the V1 & V2
ventilator fans (last time done: 4/21).

Later, Malenchenko performed the periodic functional closure test of
the Vozdukh CO2 removal system's emergency vacuum valves (AVK, last
time done: 4/24).  [The AVKs are critical because they close the
Vozdukh's vacuum access lines in the event of a malfunction in the
regular vacuum valves (BVK) or a depressurization in the Vozdukh
valve panel (BOA).  Access to vacuum is required to vent carbon
dioxide during the regeneration of the absorbent cartridges (PP).
During nominal operation, the AVK valves remain open.]

Yuri also terminated the 24-hr. regeneration cycle for adsorbent bed
#2 of the BMP harmful impurities filtration unit.  Both filter
channels are now back in Purify mode.

FE/SO Lu activated the MSG (Microgravity Science Glovebox) for its
next session of the InSPACE (Investigating the Structure of
Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions) experiment, on
CA005 (coil assembly #5) with 0.4 micron particles in suspension.
The MSG was later powered down again.  [The test run was performed at
the highest field strength for this CA (1.2 amps), and the applied
magnetic field strength of 1.048A was reduced during the second
monitor activity, with frequency remaining at 10 Hz.  Ed monitored
the runs, switching modes, sweeping the camera through the field of
view and focusing on the image.] Malenchenko started another cycle
on the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 ("Plants-2") zero-G plant growth experiment,
planting new pea seeds in the root tray of the Lada-2 greenhouse and
configuring the payload for cultivation.  [Rasteniya-2, a project of
the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, is using peas
of two types, a flagellate variety with reds flowers (up to 27 cm
high), and an acacia-leaf variety with white flowers (up to 20 cm
high).  Both are dwarf peas from the plant collection of the Moscow
University Genetics Department, and both have meanwhile developed
pods with ripening seeds.  Malenchenko's task is to re-plant the
space seeds in the Lada to grow a second generation of space peas for
genetic research.] 

The crew conducted an inventory audit of Russian air sampling tools
available on board, checking the equipment off against an uplinked
list of 33 different items for the AK-1M and AK-1MF.kits, as well as
for the cartridge belts with IPD Draeger tube air samplers.

Ed Lu terminated the recharge process for the second EMU/spacesuit
battery, initiated yesterday for battery maintenance.

The CDR completed the regular periodic inspection of the BRPK-1
air/liquid condensate separator in the SM.

Yuri also unstowed and set up the equipment for tomorrow's periodic
Russian MO-10 "Hematokrit" (red blood cell count) testing.

Ed performed the daily routine maintenance of SOZh life support
systems, while Yuri prepared the daily IMS (inventory management
system) "delta" file for updating the IMS database.

At 10:15am EDT, the crew conducted two PAO events.  First, they
participated in a pair of media interviews, one with the BBC "World
Service" Radio, the other with WHEC-TV in Rochester, NY.  The second
event was a downlink message for Memorial Day, honoring the STS-107
Columbia crew. 

For Russian PAO, the crew was also scheduled to downlink two TV
messages for taping at MCC-Moscow and later replay.  The first was an
address to the residents of the ancient Russian city of Yaroslavl for
their day of celebration on 5/23 (Yaroslavl, one of the most
beautiful cities of Russia's "Golden Ring", is nearly one-thousand
years old).  The second message was addressed to Veteran Cosmonauts
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova and Valery Fedorovich Bykovsky on
the occasion of the upcoming 40th anniversary (on 6/19) of their
concurrent (twin) flights of two spaceships, Vostok 5 and Vostok 6.

For the on-board emergency book (EMER-1), the crew has now printed
out 40 change pages and updated the old version of EMER-1, thereby
recovering the third copy that was inadvertently sent down on Soyuz
5S.  They now have the full complement of three emergency books
required for ISS operations (one each in USOS, RS, and Soyuz TMA-2).

The PCU-2 (Plasma Contactor Unit-2) firmware controller health flag
which annunciated over the weekend, has now been reset via ground
command and the message cleared.  PCU-2 continued to operate in
Discharge mode with no other problems.

ISS continues in LVLH -YVV attitude, with U.S. CMGs in control, using
less than 5% of their total momentum capability.  The transition
maneuver from XPOP on 5/17 required approximately 3 kg of RS thruster
props. 

Today's CEO (crew earth observations) targets, now no longer
restricted by the Lab science window ruled off-limit due to flight
attitude, were Amazon Basin (Dynamic event.  Particularly clear
conditions.  Recommended: Oblique mapping swath looking toward the
sunglint disc [left of track] -- to document detail of changeable
river positions and river patterns in the major basins on the south
side of the Amazon), Cape Town, South Africa (looking a touch left of
track for regional views of this major port.  The city has grown from
its center on Table Bay [at the foot of 3000' Table Mountain]
eastwards onto the "Cape Flats" where most people now live in vast
sprawling shantytowns [around and east of the international airport
which may have been a visual cue for the crew].  The crew may have
been able to get the city in one or two images only), Patagonian
Glaciers (unusual clearing of cloud on the Pacific side of the
southern Andes.  Shooting glacier tongues on that side.  [The same
phenomenon of a local high pressure system setting up over the
southern Andes occurred in January, yielding excellent photos.]),
Salt Lake City, Utah (night target; nadir pass), Shanghai, China
(night target; nadir pass), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (night target; nadir
pass), Alexandria, Egypt (night target; nadir pass), and Lisbon,
Portugal (night target; nadir pass). CEO images can be viewed at the
websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
 
 - Continued -

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