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27 Mar 2003

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

ISS On-Orbit Status 3/26/03

Part 1 of 2

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

The crew awoke to compliments for yesterday's good work, especially
the downlinked video discussing the use of Soyuz for crew return and
landing (to be used on NASA-TV on 5S landing day).

Before breakfast (1:40am EST), CDR Kenneth Bowersox started on the
FOOT (foot/ground reaction forces during space flight) experiment,
performing basic calibration exercises with video (VTR initiated by
ground command), before starting the day-long experiment. [Wearing
black Lycra biking tights with 20 electrodes and shoes fitted with
insoles that measure impact forces on the bottom of the foot for the
12-hr session, Bowersox first performed electromyography calibration
(EMG, electric muscle currents recording), then completed a typical
on-orbit day while reaction forces against the ISS structure were
recorded passively on 14 channels to determine how much stress his
legs and feet endure. This provides better understanding of the bone
loss and muscle mass loss experienced by astronauts in zero-G (on
Mir, for example, cosmonauts lost as much bone mass in a month as
post-menopausal women do in a year). The experiment is led by the
biomedical engineering department at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation
in Cleveland, Ohio.] 

FE-1 Nikolai Budarin had more servicing work in the Russian segment
(RS), starting with preventive maintenance in the FGB
(funktsionalnyi-grusovoi blok) module for a thorough cleanup of the
removable screens of its three GZhT gas-liquid heat exchangers (done
last by Bowersox on 2/25). 

Budarin then worked in the transfer tunnel (PrK) of the Service
Module (SM) and the Progress cargo module (GrO) to prepare for
tomorrow's task of making hard-wire connections between the Progress'
Kurs-A antenna (AKR-VKA) and the SM's Kurs-P system. [This internal
test set-up is used for checking out the Kurs-P radio system via
hard-wire instead radio frequency linkage. Kurs-P (passive) will be
needed for the upcoming docking of Soyuz 6S, and Kurs-A (active) in
Progress 11P will be removed prior to the cargo ship's undocking and
deorbit.]

Afterwards, Budarin performed IFM (in-flight maintenance) in the SM,
locating suitable cabling and connecting the U.S. food warmer (FW) as
per nominal config layout.

As another inventory audit, in support of future onboard LAN (local
area network) troubleshooting, Budarin was asked to make a list of
all equipment plugged in to RS onboard power outlets (PBS), i.e., in
SM, FGB and DC-1, with an identification of each item and its
particular outlet. The list was to be downlinked via Regul packet.

Nikolai also conducted his regular daily checkup of the BIO-5
Rasteniya-2/Lada-2 ("Plants-2") plant growth experiment.

After yesterday's R&R (removal & replacement) of the local
temperature sensor commutator LKT4B2 TA251 in the SM, MCC-M/TsUP
today ran a test of the LKT4B2 and its BITS2-12 onboard telemetry
connection during Daily Orbit 14 (7:40-9:15am EST), with
data-output-to-control-system mode (VD-SU) turned off. [VD-SU
exchanges data between BITS and the onboard computer system and is
always turned off when BITS parts are replaced. The testing also
required the temporary power-down of the Elektron and the SKV air
conditioner.] 

TsUP, on Daily Orbit 2, also uplinked a software patch to the SM
computer, correcting the new vers. 7.01 code to trigger the alarm
signal for smoke if it is reported by two smoke detectors (SDs),
rather than just by one. 

FE-2/SO Don Pettit undertook the scheduled Week 17 water sampling for
in-flight chemistry/microbiology analysis, using approved Russian
sampling procedures with the U.S. WS&A (water sampler & archiver) for
collection and the WMK (water microbiology kit) for processing within
6 hrs. of the collection. [Samples were taken in the SM at the SRV-K
cold port and from the EDV container of the SVO-ZV water supply
system.]

At 6:00am, MCC-H commanded a calibration run of the onboard VOA
(volatile organics analyzer) which usually lasts about 3.5 hours. Air
sample data were then taken by the VOA at about 9:30am.

Bowersox and Pettit started preparatory work for the Stage EVA2,
scheduled for 4/8, starting with a checkout of EVA tools,
particularly the all-important powered PGT (pistol grip tool), and
proper tool configurations.

Joy among the EVA battery folks: The EMU (extravehicular mobility
unit) battery recharge on 3/24-25 went so well that the second set
ofEMU batteries will not be subjected to the previously considered
discharge/recharge cycle. [A maintenance charging cycle on the first
two EMU batteries,728J & 575J, is still required, later in the day.]

A planned tag-up by Bowersox with ground specialists to discuss
safety and other inventory details of the yellow-tagged items was
deferred. [Yellow caution tags designate onboard equipment for which
the safety certification process for USOS (U.S. segment) or RS has
not been completed.] 

Nikolai conducted the daily routine maintenance of the SM's SOZh life
support system (including ASU toilet facilities), while Don prepared
the daily IMS inventory delta file and Sox completed the regular
payload status checkup in the Lab.

All crewmembers performed their daily physical exercise program on
RED (resistive exercise device), TVIS (treadmill with vibration
isolation and stabilization), CEVIS (cycle ergometer with vibration
isolation), and VELO bike with load trainer.

At 4:45am EST, amateur radio operator Don Pettit chatted with
students of Higashi Kaneko Junior High School in Japan's Iruma
District. A list of questions collected from the students had been
uplinked beforehand. Later, at 2:04pm, Pettit fielded a second ham
radio session, this time with students at the primary school of
Selnica-ob-Dravi (Selnica on the Drava) in the Republic of Slovenia.
[The school is over two hundred years old and today has 474 students.
The parish of Selnica lies 12 km west of Maribor, the second largest
town in Slovenia (after its capital Ljubljana).] 

Early preparations are underway for developing the carefully
documented handover procedures for both segments between the current
Expedition 6 crew and the two-man crew of Expedition 7, Edward Lu and
Yuri Malenchenko. [To be launched on Soyuz 6S on or about 4/26, Lu
und Malenchenko were crewmates on STS-106/ISS-2A.2b in September
2000, the third ISS logistics/outfitting mission, during which they
performed a successful 6-hr. EVA. Malenchenko is a veteran Mir
cosmonaut and "emergency-tested". As Mir Commander, in early
September 1994 he accomplished manual TORU docking of the cargo ship
Progress M-24 to the station, after several failed automatic docking
attempts in August.. Malenchenko and Kazakhstan-cosmonaut Talgat
Musabayev then performed two EVAs to inspect the (undamaged) space
station where it had been struck by M-24 and by Soyuz TM-17 (after
its undocking in January), as well as Mir's "Safora" control mast. In
October '94, Malenchenko had to cope with a serious power and
attitude control failure of the station's core module due to electric
capacity overload. They returned in November '94, after 125 days,
with visiting guest cosmonaut Ulf Merbold, whose launch on Soyuz T-20
would not have occurred without Malenchenko's Progress/TORU docking.]

 - Continued -

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