Contact
Steve Roy
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

Update: 01-097

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Expedition Two Science Operations

Status Report for Friday, March 30, 2001

On board the orbiting laboratory, the Expedition Two crew has successfully hooked up the first Space Station science rack.

The umbilical mating Thursday provides the Human Research Facility rack and its experiments with cooling air and water, electricity, pressurized gases and vacuum, and data and communications links.  Final activation, power-up and check-out activities are tentatively planned for next week.

The HRF rack was carried to the station two weeks ago by Space Shuttle Discovery and installed in the Destiny laboratory module until it could be connected and brought to life.  During the Station program, it will house a variety of experiments for studying the physiological, behavioral and chemical changes in human beings caused by space flight.

Aboard the rack are the Gas Analyzer System for Metabolic Analysis Physiology – GASMAP – and the Ultrasound Imaging System.  GASMAP will be used on future expeditions to periodically assess crew aerobic capacity by checking heart output, lung diffusing capacity, lung volume, pulmonary function and nitrogen washout.  Ultrasound will provide three-dimensional images of the heart and other organs, muscles and blood vessels.

The Bonner Ball Neutron Detector and the Dosimetric Mapping radiation-measuring experiments continue to collect data.  Flight Engineer One Jim Voss today performed a status check on Bonner Ball to make sure it is functioning correctly.

Radiation is one of the most significant hazards for humans during long-term space missions.  These experiments will measure the different types of radiation that penetrate the station and help scientists more accurately predict the crew’s radiation exposure and develop countermeasures to safely prolong human exposure to radiation during space travel.

Flight Engineer Two Susan Helms today used the personal computer in the Human Research Facility rack to fill out a questionnaire as part of the Interactions experiment. After the mission, this experiment will provide scientists on the ground with “snapshots” of crew interactions during various phases of the mission.

The goal of this experiment is to identify and characterize interpersonal and cultural factors that may impact the performance of the crew in space.  Ground controllers in Huntsville, Ala., also are participating in the study.

Coming up next week, the crew plans to perform Crew Earth Observations, transfer radiation data from a pair of dosimeters to the HRF personal computer for transmission to the ground later, and do some on-board training on operating the MACE II experiment. The hardware for the EarthKAM experiment will also be checked out.

Editor’s Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiments aboard the International Space Station.  The center is also home for coordination of the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all science payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.