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Update: 01-105

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Expedition Two Science Operations

Weekly Science Status Report
Wednesday, April 4, 2001

While the Expedition Two crew continues to set up their laboratory and living quarters, they also have started work on their science experiments.

They began before they even transferred from the Space Shuttle to the Space Station, performing two runs with the Hoffman Reflex neurological experiment. Both of those were conducted on the middeck of Space Shuttle Discovery. The crew will perform one more test before they return at the end of the Expedition. H-Reflex measures how spinal cord reflexes are affected by space flight. Astronauts set up and activated the Bonner Ball Neutron Detector and the Dosimetric Mapping radiation-measuring experiments. Bonner Ball was activated March 23. DOSMAP was activated March 28. The crew also did the initial set-up for a third radiation experiment - Phantom Torso - which has additional components arriving on the STS 100/6A Shuttle mission to the Station.

The crew performs status checks daily to make sure the instruments are working correctly. Radiation is one of the most significant hazards for human beings 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.

On March 28, Susan Helms set up and activated the Human Research Facility laptop computer. It will be used to operate and store data from several experiments. The HRF is managed by the Johnson Space Center and is operated from the Telescience Support Center at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.

On Thursday, March 29, the crew successfully hooked up the Human Research Facility Rack. The umbilical mating provides the 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 planned soon. The Station's first science rack was carried to the orbiting laboratory by Space Shuttle Discovery in March. 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.

On April 2, Jim Voss conducted the first Expedition Two photo session of the Crew Earth Observation experiment. He photographed the Parana River Basin in Paraguay, Argentina, an area experiencing rapid land use changes. Voss also transferred radiation data collected by a pair of radiation sensors called Dosimetry Telescopes to the Human Research Facility personal computer for transmission to the ground later.

The crew has also been doing the Interactions experiment. This requires them to fill out a questionnaire once a week about how they feel and how they are getting along with their colleagues. 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 the experiment is to identify and characterize interpersonal and cultural factors that may impact crew performance in space. Ground controllers in Huntsville, Ala., Houston, and Moscow also are participating in the surveys.

While Expedition Two science got started, science experiments from Expedition One returned to Earth, including two experiments that gave hundreds of students an opportunity to participate in research aboard the Station.

The Expedition One crew over a period of days watered containers of corn and soybean seeds. Images of the seeds will be distributed via the Internet to students to demonstrate the germination capability and growth of seeds in space.

In addition to seeds, Discovery also landed with hundreds of biological crystals grown during Expedition One. Many of the solutions used to grow these crystals were prepared by more than 200 students and teachers from 89 schools in six states: Alabama, California, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas. The program helps students learn about biological substances that carry out many important functions in humans, animals and plants. Students use the Internet to follow scientists' analysis of the space-grown crystals and compare them with crystals grown in their classroom.

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.