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

Status Report: 01-340

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 
Expedition Three Science Operations

Weekly Science Status Report
Wednesday, October 31, 2001

With a visiting Soyuz spacecraft the focus of activities onboard the International Space Station during the past week, payload duties for the crew have been relatively light while ground-commanded telescience work continued.

Some members of the Expedition Three crew participated in science experiments brought up by the visiting Soyuz crew and conducted a variety of housekeeping chores, such as replacing the smoke detectors in the Russian Zvezda module.

On Friday, October 26, the crew conducted Dreamtime documentary operations using a new high definition TV camera.

On Monday, October 29, the crew assisted the Active Rack Isolation System ISS Characterization Experiment (ARIS-ICE) science team on the ground in three “hammer” tests with the experimental device intended to damp out vibrations from crew activities, operating equipment, etc. that could disturb delicate microgravity experiments.  The science team is completing an analysis that indicates that new power cables between the Station structure and the vibration-protected EXPRESS experiment rack perform better than the original ARIS power cables.

The Experiment on Physics of Colloids in Space team conducted 12-hour tests on Monday and Tuesday, October 29-30, involving the crystallization in the binary crystals, and the colloid-polymer gel sample and was scheduled to begin a 24-hour run on Wednesday, October 31.

In other payload activity this week, the crew activated the Human Research Facility rack and did a 30-day health check of the Gas Analyzer for Metabolic

Analysis Physiology, a diagnostic device for life sciences experiments.  The Payload Operations Center downlinked 20 Pulmonary Function in Flight data files from the Human Research Facility laptop computer, as well as six Hoffman Reflex files also stored on the laptop.

Targets uplinked for the Crew Earth Observations photography program this week included smog in the Great Lakes basin in the United States, smog in the east and west basins of the Mediterranean, land use along the Nile River, tropical glaciers in New Guinea, fires in southern Africa, the Ganges River Delta in India and the Euphrates River valley in Turkey.

Astronaut Frank Culbertson and cosmonaut Mikhail Turin on Thursday and Friday, November 1-2, respectively, were scheduled to fill out their Crew Interactions questionnaires on the laptop computer.

The Station’s other automated experiments in the fields of biological materials, materials science, and characterizing the Station’s radiation and acceleration environment continued to function nominally this week.  The Space Acceleration Measurement System and the Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System were expected to record Tuesday’s Soyuz spacecraft undocking.

In addition to supporting Expedition Three payloads in the past week, Station crew and the Payload Operations Center conducted several activities to prepare for Expedition Four next month.  The Operations Center sent commands to EXPRESS Rack 4 in the Destiny lab to prepare it to accept payloads during Expedition Four.  The crew moved the Advanced Astroculture (ADVASC) experiment support system hardware from EXPRESS Rack 1 to EXPRESS Rack 4 in the Destiny lab module.  Active during Expedition Two, ADVASC will resume experiments during Expedition Four.  Looking ahead, the Operations Center is preparing to load its ground computers on November 15 to support Expedition Four experiments going to the Station on the UF-1 Space Shuttle mission.

Editor’s Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiment operations 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.