|
International
Space Station Status Report #03-13 Expedition 6 crewmembers are
finishing their 18th week on the International Space Station, preparing
for a second spacewalk and for their return to Earth in a Russian
spacecraft in May. Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin
and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit spent the week advancing their
science agenda and getting a major experiment apparatus, the Microgravity
Sciences Glovebox (MSG), working again after weeks of troubleshooting an
electrical problem.
The MSG, which provides a sealed environment for delicate microgravity
experiments that involve fluids or flames, completed a long-duration test
run this week and has been cleared for normal operation beginning Monday.
First up: the experiment known as InSpace (Investigating the Structure of
Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions), studying how particles
and clumps of particles respond to an external magnetic field. This
experiment is a step to the future production of improved fluids used in
braking and vibration damping systems, and for new applications like
seismic dampers to make high-rise buildings more resistant to earthquakes.
The MSG was built in collaboration by the European Space Agency and NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the site of the ISS
Payload Operations Center. On-board preparations continued this week for this crew’s second
spacewalk with a checkout of tools to be used by Bowersox and Pettit on a
6½-hour spacewalk on the morning of April 8. Completing the tasks planned
on this EVA—including reconfiguring power connections, providing a second
power source for one of the station’s control moment gyroscopes, securing
thermal covers on quick disconnect fittings for the station’s thermal
control system, and releasing a light stanchion on one of the Crew and
Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) carts—will reduce the likelihood of
calling upon the two-man Expedition 7 crew to make a spacewalk. The early
April excursion will be the 51st spacewalk in support of station assembly,
the 26th to originate from the station itself. Crewmembers are devoting more time to planning for their return to
Earth in the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft now docked to the Russian Docking
Compartment. They reviewed procedures this week and will consult on
deorbit procedures with ground specialists next week. The crewmembers
downlinked video of the interior of the Soyuz craft while describing their
preparations for a landing in Kazakhstan in early May, made necessary by
the grounding of the space shuttle fleet after the loss of Columbia on
Feb. 1. On Wednesday Pettit used the station’s amateur radio to talk to
students about the ISS science mission. He answered questions from
students at the Higashi Kaneko Junior High School in Japan's Iruma
District, and from students at the primary school of Selnica-ob-Dravi
(Selnica on the Drava) in the Republic of Slovenia. On Thursday Pettit was
joined by Bowersox and Budarin in responding to questions from middle
school students at the Region 12 Education Service Center in Waco, Texas.
Information on the crew's activities aboard the space station, future
launch dates, as well as station sighting opportunities from anywhere on
the Earth, is available on the Internet at: Details on station science operations can be found on an Internet site
administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at: The next ISS status report will be issued on Friday, April 4, or sooner
if events warrant. ### NASA Johnson Space Center Shuttle Mission/Space Station Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to majordomo@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes). This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list. The system will reply with a con firmation via e-mail of each subscription. Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail. |
