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1.10.2014
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Expedition 41 flight engineer, works with tools and equipment on a spacesuit in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station in preparation for two spacewalks scheduled in October 2014.
Image Credit: NASA
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With the first planned excursion of Expedition 41 just a week away, the International Space Station’s six-person crew spent Tuesday preparing spacewalking tools and equipment, while managing a packed agenda of scientific research and maintenance.
Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency and the team of five flight engineers began the day at 2 a.m. EDT, and after some time for morning hygiene, breakfast and an inspection of the station, they conducted a daily planning conference with the flight control teams around the world.
Afterward, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst went to work in the equipment lock section of the Quest airlock to stage the equipment they’ll need in order to prepare for spacewalks set for Oct. 7 and 15.
During the first six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, slated to begin on Oct. 7 around 8:10 a.m., Wiseman and Gerst will transfer a previously uninstalled pump module from its temporary stowage location to the External Stowage Platform-2. The two spacewalkers also will install the Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly that adds the capability to provide “keep-alive” power to the system that moves the station’s robotic arm between worksites.
NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore, who arrived aboard the station late last week along with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, will join Wiseman for the second Expedition 41 spacewalk on Oct. 15. The two astronauts will venture out on the station’s starboard truss to replace a voltage regulator that failed in mid-May. Although the station has since operated normally on seven of its eight power channels, replacement of the regulator, known as a sequential shunt unit, is considered a high priority.
After the trio of astronauts prepared the airlock, Wiseman performed a conductivity test of water samples from the spacesuits. Wilmore, who will be at the controls of Canadarm2 during the Oct. 7 spacewalk, reviewed the procedures for operating the 57.7-foot robotic arm.
Wiseman, Gerst and Wilmore finished up their spacewalk preparations for the day by collecting body measurements that they will use during a fit check Wednesday to verify that their spacesuits are sized properly. These measurements are needed because astronauts grow up to 3 percent taller while living aboard the space station.
Gerst also transferred test samples for the Micro-8 experiment, which is investigating the Candida albicans yeast in order to help scientists better understand and control the infectious nature of this opportunistic pathogen.
Wilmore spent much of his afternoon setting up equipment inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox associated with the Rodent Research hardware system, which provides a platform aboard the station for long-duration rodent experiments in space. Such experiments will examine how microgravity affects the animals, providing information relevant to human spaceflight, discoveries in basic biology and knowledge that will have direct impact on human health on Earth.
On the Russian side of the complex, Suraev focused on maintenance activities. The commander checked out a spare cable for a control panel, updated procedure documents and performed routine maintenance on the life-support system in the Zvezda service module.
Samokutyaev continued work with the Aseptik experiment, which is testing methods and equipment for maintaining the sterility of hardware used for biotechnology studies aboard the station. Serova meanwhile mixed some new test sample for the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment.
As the newest crew members, Samokutyaev, Serova and Wilmore also had time set aside to familiarize themselves with their orbital home. The trio has been aboard the complex since early Friday following a six-hour, four-orbit flight to the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft. They are slated to spend 5 ½ months aboard the station. Suraev, Wiseman and Gerst, who arrived on May 28, will return to Earth in November.
Overnight, the robotics officers at Houston’s Mission Control Center remotely commanded Canadarm2 to remove the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, from the trunk of the recently arrived SpaceX Dragon cargo craft and attach it to its adapter on the station’s Columbus laboratory.
Designed to monitor ocean winds from the station’s vantage point, RapidScat is a space-based scatterometer that uses radar pulses reflected from the ocean's surface from different angles to calculate surface wind speed and direction. This information will be useful for weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring.
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Flight Engineers Barry Wilmore (foreground) and Reid Wiseman check out the International Space Station's Microgravity Science Glovebox while Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst works in the background.
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NASA TV Previews, Broadcasts U.S. Space Station Spacewalks
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NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman (left) and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, both Expedition 41 flight engineers, take a moment to pose for a photo with two Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station while preparing for two spacewalks scheduled in October 2014.
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Three astronauts of the International Space Station Expedition 41 crew will conduct two spacewalks outside the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, Oct. 7 and Wednesday, Oct. 15 to replace a failed power regulator and relocate a failed cooling pump. NASA Television will provide comprehensive coverage, beginning with a preview briefing Friday, Oct. 3.
The preview briefing will be broadcast at 2 p.m. EDT from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Reporters may take part in the briefing at participating NASA centers. Media who wish to ask questions by phone must call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 1:45 p.m. Friday.
Briefing participants are:
-- Kenny Todd, space station integration operations manager
-- Scott Stover, NASA space station flight director
-- Jaclyn Kagey, U.S. spacewalk 27 officer
-- Kieth Johnson, U.S. spacewalk 28 officer
NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will exit the station's Quest airlock for the Oct. 7 spacewalk at about 8:10 a.m., both wearing U.S. spacesuits. NASA TV coverage of the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will begin at 7 a.m. Wiseman will be extravehicular crew member one (EV1) and will wear a suit bearing red stripes. Gerst will be EV2 and wear a suit with no stripes. The astronauts will move a failed cooling pump from temporary to long-term storage on the station's truss. They also will install a new relay system that will provide backup power options to the mobile transporter, which moves the large robotic arm around the out outside of the space station.
Wiseman will venture outside Quest again Oct. 15, with NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore, a new arrival to the space station, for another six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The two-man team will replace a sequential shunt unit electronics box, a voltage regulator, on the starboard truss that failed in mid-May. Although the station has since operated normally on seven of its eight power channels, the voltage regulator replacement is considered a high priority.
Wiseman, again designated EV1, and Wilmore, who will serve as EV2, also will relocate external cameras and equipment to begin configuring the station for international docking adapters for future commercial crew vehicles. Coverage of this second spacewalk begins at 7 a.m. with the spacewalk expected to begin around 8:10 a.m.
The spacewalks will be the 182nd and the 183rd in support of station assembly and maintenance. All three astronauts will be conducting the first spacewalks of their careers.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 2.10.2014
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Station Crew Checks Out Spacesuits, Conducts Research
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Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst (center) assists Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman (right) and Barry Wilmore with a fit check of their spacesuits inside the Quest airlock of the International Space Station.
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The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station was hard at work Wednesday supporting research with down-to-Earth benefits and gearing up for a series of spacewalks to maintain the orbiting laboratory.
Commander Max Suraev and his team of five flight engineers began the day at 2 a.m. EDT, with some time for morning hygiene, breakfast and an inspection of the station. Afterward the entire crew participated in a daily planning conference with the flight control teams around the world to review the day’s activities.
For NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, the bulk of the day was spent inside the Quest airlock as they resized their U.S. spacesuits for a pair of spacewalks beginning next week. Having collected measurements of their bodies on Tuesday to compare with baseline measurements taken before launch, the astronauts donned their spacesuits to make sure everything fit properly. These on-orbit fit checks are necessary because astronauts may grow up to 3 percent taller while living aboard the space station.
During the first six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk slated to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 7 around 8:10 a.m. EDT, Wiseman and Gerst will transfer a previously uninstalled pump module from its temporary stowage location to its long-term home on the External Stowage Platform-2. The two spacewalkers also will install the Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly that adds the capability to provide “keep-alive” power to the Mobile Servicing System when the Mobile Transporter is moving between worksites. Wilmore will be inside the cupola at the controls of the Canadarm2 robotic arm to provide robotic support for the first spacewalk.
Wilmore, who arrived aboard the station late last week along with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, will join Wiseman for the second Expedition 41 spacewalk scheduled to begin on Oct. 15 around 8:20 a.m. The two NASA astronauts will venture out on the station’s starboard truss to replace a voltage regulator that failed in mid-May. Although the station has since operated normally on seven of its eight power channels, replacement of the regulator, known as a sequential shunt unit, is considered a high priority.
Wiseman and Gerst also reviewed operating procedures for the U.S. spacesuits’ “life jackets,” known as the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue, or SAFER. In the unlikely event that a spacewalker becomes untethered during a spacewalk and begins floating away from the station, the small nitrogen-jet thrusters of SAFER would propel the astronaut back to safety. Wilmore will review SAFER on Thursday.
In addition to their spacewalk preparations, the astronauts also supported the science research taking place aboard the station.
Inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory, Wilmore prepared seed samples and a culture dish for the Plant Gravity Sensing experiment, which examines the cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable plants to sense gravity. The researchers behind this study hypothesize that the gravity sensitivity of plants here on Earth can be modified to make crops more resistant to the destructive forces of nature.
Wiseman meanwhile checked in on the Rodent Research experiment, which looks at how living in space affects rodents and how that knowledge might be applied to humans. Wiseman examined the water bag for signs of leakage and made sure the Rodent Research facility’s lights were working.
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A section of the Russian segment of the International Space Station is photographed by an Expedition 41 crew member aboard the space station.
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On the Russian side of the complex, Commander Suraev performed an equipment check for the Otklik experiment, which tracks the impacts of particles on the station’s exterior. He then gathered data from the Matryoshka radiation-detection study before moving on to stow trash and unneeded items inside the Progress 56 cargo ship attached to the Pirs docking compartment. The Russian space freighter, which delivered nearly three tons of cargo when it arrived on July 23, will undock from the station in late October for a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean.
Samokutyaev meanwhile wrapped up his work with the Aseptik experiment, which is testing methods and equipment for maintaining the sterility of hardware used for biotechnology studies aboard the station. Samokutyaev later transferred cargo out of the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft that brought him, Serova and Wilmore to the station last week.
Serova worked with the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment throughout the day, manually mixing test samples within its bioreactor. She also removed the lights and cameras from inside the Soyuz TMA-14M for return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft when Suraev, Wiseman and Gerst depart in November.
Serova and Samokutyaev also joined Suraev for some routine maintenance work on the Elektron oxygen generator and the life-support system in the Zvezda service module.
While the crew worked inside the station, payload controllers at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Payload Operations Integration Center in Huntsville, Alabama, were uplinking files to the newly installed ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, to prepare the Earth-monitoring hardware for its initial data collection.
Designed to monitor ocean winds from the station’s vantage point, RapidScat is a space-based scatterometer that uses radar pulses reflected from the ocean's surface from different angles to calculate surface wind speed and direction. This information will be useful for weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring.
RapidScat was part of the nearly two-and-a-half tons of cargo delivered to the station by the SpaceX Dragon resupply craft on Sept. 23. Robotics officers at Houston’s Mission Control Center remotely commanded Canadarm2 to remove RapidScat from Dragon’s trunk and attach it to its adapter on the station’s Columbus laboratory on Tuesday.
A video camera on the International Space Station captured this view of the the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 6.10.2014
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Expedition 41 Preps for First of Three October Spacewalks
Astronauts Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will work outside the International Space Station for about 6-1/2 hours Tuesday. The spacewalkers will relocate a failed pump module and install gear that provides back up power to external robotics equipment.
The duo reviewed their timeline and prepared the Quest airlock where they will stage the spacewalk scheduled for 8:10 a.m. EDT. They also checked out their SAFER (Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue) jetpacks that would allow a spacewalker to propel back to the station in the unlikely event of a separation from the vehicle.
Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore of NASA assisted Wiseman and Gerst during the afternoon and trained for his role as the robotic arm operator. He will be the spacewalk coordinator and operate the Canadarm2 in support of maneuvering Gerst during the course of the spacewalk.
Wilmore will join Wiseman for an Oct. 15 spacewalk. Gerst will switch roles and be the coordinator and robotic arm operator. The spacewalkers will replace a failed voltage regulator and move external camera equipment.
Meanwhile, medical work, science and maintenance are always ongoing aboard the orbital laboratory as it operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Gerst started his day in the Japanese Kibo laboratory checking the water quality in the Aquatic Habitat that is currently housing Zebrafish. They are part of an experiment that observes muscle atrophy in microgravity and why it occurs. Results from the study could lead to new treatments for weakened muscles and countermeasures to maintain astronaut health during long duration space missions.
Gerst and Wiseman then partnered up for standard health checks before a spacewalk. The duo checked each other’s ears, blood pressure and temperature. Wilmore processed blood, urine and saliva samples then stored them in a science freezer during the morning.
The station’s newest cosmonauts, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, each had an hour for an orientation session. The pair familiarized themselves with various station systems and operations including safety procedures.
At the beginning of the day, Samokutyaev joined Commander Max Suraev for a review of an upcoming Russian spacewalk. They will exit the Pirs docking compartment Oct. 22 to jettison obsolete hardware and photograph the exterior of the station’s Russian segment.
During the afternoon, Samokutyaev and Suraev were inside the Zarya cargo module installing overlay sheets on interior panels. The commander wrapped up his workday updating the inventory management system and stowing items for disposal inside the ISS Progress 56 resupply vehicle.
Serova worked on science throughout her work day. She first mixed samples in a bioreactor for the Cascade cell cultivation experiment. Next she downloaded dosimeter readings then prepared the dosimeters for Tuesday’s spacewalk.
Finally, she charged batteries, mounted hardware and conducted observations for the Relaxation experiment. That study observes chemical reactions due to jet exhaust and body reentries in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 7.10.2014
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Astronauts Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency are working outside the International Space Station today for about 6-1/2 hours. The spacewalk officially began at 8:30 a.m. EDT. The spacewalkers will relocate a failed pump module and install gear that provides back up power to external robotics equipment. Follow #Exp41, #ISS and #spacewalk to join the conversation.
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Quelle: NASA
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