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04 May 2003

ISS On-Orbit Status 3 May 2003

Part 2 of 3

Science Update (Expedition Six  22nd, last): Lead Increment Scientist
Vic Cooley to Expedition 6 crew: "Expedition 6 has been great.  We
have accomplished a significant amount of payloads activities and met
many of our milestones. You guys completed important imagery projects
for CEO, aided in the completion of  three EarthKAM cycles and
captured pictures of  MISSE during your EVA's.  You completed two
sessions of ZCG runs and continued to monitor the crystals.  You were
the subjects for many experiments and impressed us with your FOOT
action as well as your PuFFing abilities. You diligently completed
the EVARM badge reads and completion of the Renal Stone activities.
You also found time to tinker with the MSG Rack and get it operating
to perform InSPACE science.  You managed to find the time to bestow
attention on the PCG-STES, MAMS and SAMS payloads.  To cap off  this
marathon of payloads activities you managed to get the ARCTIC
operating long enough to make popsicles.  When we look back on all
you have accomplished this expedition it is truly amazing.  The
payloads community would like to thank the Expedition 6 crew for
their work and welcome the Expedition 7 crew to the wonderful world
of payloads on ISS. We are sure that Expedition 7 will prove to be
equally as exciting." 

Extra-Vehicular Activity Radiation Monitors (EVARM):   Complete.

GASMAP/Pulmonary Function in Flight (PuFF):   A post-landing PuFF
session is scheduled for R+1 at Star City.

Renal (Kidney) Stone Experiment:  Complete.

Human Research Facility/Workstation (HRF WS):   Continuing.

Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Space Flight (FOOT):  Complete.

Pore Formation and Mobility Investigation (PFMI):  Activities for
Increment 6 are complete.

Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Rack:  Thanks to Expedition 6,
the MSG in a good configuration for Science Officer Edward Lu to
continue operations.  POC (Payload Operations Center) hopes to have
successful runs with InSPACE, CSLM-2, PFMI, PromISS, and NANOSLAB.

Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS):  SAMS is nominal.
Currently analyzing data in support of InSPACE in addition to general
characterization efforts toward tracking down numerous unknown
disturbance sources. 

Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System (MAMS):  MAMS is
nominal. Currently analyzing data in support of InSPACE in addition
to general characterization efforts toward tracking down numerous
unknown disturbance sources.

Protein Crystal Growth-Single Locker Thermal Enclosure System
(PCG-STES): Complete.

Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal
Emulsions (InSPACE):   InSPACE is complete for the time being. Ground
team: "The Expedition 6 crew's execution of InSPACE is a testimonial
to the importance of the human presence in space to perform science."
Science Officers Don Pettit and Ed Lu and all crewmembers are "the
eyes and hands and intellect for all those scientists and engineers
on the ground".   The team is looking forward to future opportunities
to speak with Don and Ed about the experiment, the operations and the
results.  The planned testing with InSPACE will continue in Increment
7. 

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

Zeolite Crystal Growth (ZCG):  ZCG has finished science operations
for Increment 6.

Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA):  Complete for now.

ARCTIC Refrigerator/Freezer:  Ground to SO Don Pettit: "We truly
appreciate the many hours of hard work and ingenuity that went into
the ARCTIC repair. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to get it to
a state where science support for upcoming increments would be
possible, but the 36 hours of "good" ARCTIC performance, and just
under 48 hours of total uptime were EXTREMELY valuable, and you have
laid the groundwork for bigger and better things for the future, not
just for this one payload, but also for any potential repair work in
space." 

EarthKAM (EK):  Complete for now.  EK images can be viewed on the
Internet at
http://datasystem.earthkam.ucsd.edu/cgi-bin/datasys/ek_images_station

Crew Earth Observations (CEO):  For NASA's Earth Observatory website,
the ISS/CEO image of São Paolo has been submitted.  This regional
view shows the city with its neighboring port.  Unusual about this
image were the two regions of distinctly different color in the night
lights. Aurora shots are suitable for assembling as a time series.
First look at this week's downlink of many images shows a detailed
series of views of the Betsiboka River delta in northwest
Madagascar.  A new island seems to be emerging above sea level in the
estuary. Today's CEO targets, including cities during daylight and at
night (again available as targets in the current LVLH attitude) were
Congo-Zimbabwe Biomass Burning (crew was asked to shoot obliques of
fires, smoke or other haze.  There may have been different loadings
of aerosol above and below the escarpment between the plateau and
coastal lowlands), Dakar, Senegal (nadir pass; ESC {electronic still
camera]), Puerto Rico (shooting coastal cities and coral reefs),
Albuquerque, New Mexico (nadir pass; ESC), Yucatan fires, southern
Mexico (nadir pass over numerous fires making the news), Salt Lake
City, Utah (nadir pass; ESC), Lower Yangtze cities (pass paralleled
lower Yangtze River basin [mapped as China's largest population
cluster], over Nanjing and neighboring cities. Shanghai on the
Yangtze estuary was south of track), and Seoul, South Korea (looking
a touch right.  Great atmospheric clarity). CEO images can be viewed
at the websites http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

ISS Orbit  (as of this morning, 10:00am EDT [= epoch]):

Mean altitude -- 390.8 km
Apogee -- 394.9 km
Perigee -- 386.6 km
Period -- 92.37 min.
Inclination (to Equator) --  51.63 deg
Eccentricity -- 0.0006156
Orbits per 24-hr. day -- 15.59
Solar Beta Angle:  -6.5 deg (magnitude decreasing)
Mean altitude loss in last 24 hours -- 140 m
Revolutions since FGB/Zarya launch (Nov. '98)  -- 25404
For more on ISS orbit and worldwide naked-eye visibility dates/times,
see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/station/viewing/issvis.html

Appendix:   What will the Expedition 6 Crew encounter during Soyuz
reentry/descent?

According to a summary uplinked by TsUP to the ISS crew, main
features of their return on the 5S Descent Module are as follows:

On descent day:

 - Continued -

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