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25 Mar 2003

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

ISS On-Orbit Status 3/23/03

All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except as noted
previously or below. Space Day 120 for Expedition 6 (since launch on
STS-113 on 11/23/02). Ahead: Week 17.

A regular off-duty Sunday, except for a few regular tasks.

After breakfast at 1:40am EST, FE-1 Nikolai Budarin performed his
daily checkup of the BIO-5 "Rasteniya-2/Lada-2" zero-G plant growth
experiment. 

Budarin then completed the weekly routine tasks of collecting SP
toilet flush counter and SVO water supply readings in the Service
Module for calldown to TsUP, as well as the periodic inspection of
the Elektron oxygen generator's VM gas/liquid system for the air
bubble that usually lingers after an in-flight maintenance.

FE-2/SO Don Pettit later prepared the IMS (inventory management
system) auto import/export update files.

All crewmembers performed their regular daily physical exercise
regimen (2.5 hrs.) on RED resistive exerciser, TVIS treadmill, and
VELO ergometer with load trainer. Today's crew schedule was
rearranged for them to perform next Friday's PFE (periodic fitness
evaluation) on the CEVIS today. 

Yesterday's successful CEVIS work-around by the crew drew words of
appreciation from the ground. If the crew feels comfortable with the
work-around (which uses an external power supply and two scopemeters
for gauging cycle speed and workload), engineers on the ground have
high confidence in CEVIS functionality in this new configuration.
However, some more information is needed before the final Go can be
given for using the CEVIS for EVA pre-breathe. [Based on the data
received from today's PFE activity, the exercise prebreathe
procedures will be updated Also, a 45-minute block of time has been
reserved tomorrow (Monday) morning to perform a CEVIS prebreathe
test, in support of a final decision by tomorrow evening's DPC (daily
planning conference). The performance of the new plan is at the
crew's discretion; it is their option to use the in-suit prebreathe
instead, if desired.] 

The first two EMU (extravehicular mobility unit) batteries charged by
the crew (728J, 575J) did not accept the expected capacity. Although
the batteries are GO for EVA, they will be discharged and recharged
tomorrow (3/24) because ground engineers are concerned about long
range impacts to battery life. [Pending the outcome of the recharge,
the other two EMU batteries (729J, 730J) may require a discharge and
recharge cycle as well.] 

Science Officer Don Pettit's Saturday Morning Science continues to
generate a large following on the ground. Next Saturday (3/29), a
crew conference call will be arranged for 30 min. for Dr. Pettit to
talk to students at Utah State University and possibly some High
School students who also did some work on space experiments. [The
hope is to have a Q&A session concerning Don's Saturday morning
science, thin film water demonstration and related demonstrations on
ISS. Prof. Jan Sojka, Center for Atmosphere and Space Sciences, will
coordinate the discussion, and a list of 24 questions from various
science disciplines has already been culled and uplinked (e.g.,: "Can
you create rainbows with water droplets?", "Would penicillin grow in
space and still work as an antibiotic?", and "How easy it is to make
a Pina Colada using a conventional mixer?")]

The crew was also thanked for their outstanding task-listed work on
the inventory audit of Node "Unity". Next task will audit various
stowage locations in the Lab, to be broken up into multiple pieces
timelined over the next three weeks.

The ground is checking as to why the downlink of the data of the
recent PuFF and EVARM experiments did not come down on 3/21
(Friday). [It is planned to repeat the downlink next week during the
Foot activities. Ground engineers are sure the PuFF session data is
safe.] 

The fifth session of the Russian MBI-9 "Pulse" experiment has been
added to the Russian task list for FE-1 Nikolai Budarin, to be
performed before his physical exercise. [Execution of the medical
cardiological assessment is controlled from the Russian laptop 3,
using a set respiration rate (without forced or deep breaths) and
synchronizing respiration with computer-commanded "inhale" commands.
Before the experiment, arterial blood pressure is measured with the
"Tensoplus" sphygmomanometer. The first four "Pulse" sessions by
Nikolai was performed on 11/30/02, 12/30/02, 2/2/03, and 3/2/03.]

Today's targets for the CEO program (not using the Lab window due to
Flight Rule restriction of no exposure to direct sunlight) were
Angolan Biomass Burning (crew was to take advantage of this fair
weather pass over Angola to look for burn scars form previous fire
seasons. Looking obliquely either side of track), Australian Dust
Event (DYNAMIC EVENT SITE: Drought, fires, and now high winds have
resulted in large dust plumes of Australian topsoil forming over the
southeast and moving out over the Tasman Sea towards New Zealand.
Looking obliquely to the right of track to document this phenomenon),
and Pantanal Wetlands in Sun Glint (this large South American
wetlands area was visible in sun glint to the left of track. Weather
will be marginal, but the crew was to try to map the areal extent of
surface water bodies over this region).
CEO images can be viewed at the websites

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit (as of this afternoon, 1:34pm EST [= epoch]):
Mean altitude -- 390.2 km
Apogee -- 395.8 km
Perigee -- 384.7 km
Period -- 92.36 min.
Inclination (to Equator) -- 51.63 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0008218
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.59
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 150 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98) -- 24767

For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html

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