Archivo de la etiqueta: iss

Crew Studies Space Agriculture and Spacecraft Technology

The Expedition 63 crew kicked off the work week exploring space agriculture and spacecraft technologies. The trio also split the day on upcoming mission preparations and International Space Station maintenance.

Ongoing botany studies on the station have been teaching scientists, engineers and astronauts how to grow crops in space, so crews can feed themselves farther away from Earth. Future astronauts on long-term missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond will need to be self-sufficient with less support from mission controllers and resupply missions.

Commander Chris Cassidy set up the Advanced Plant Habitat during the afternoon for upcoming grow operations in the research facility. The controlled plant growth chamber automates the delivery of nutrients and light to support a variety edible plants for harvesting, analysis and tasting.

Cassidy is also gearing up for a U.S. resupply mission due to replenish the orbiting lab in early October. The NASA astronaut is sharpening his robotics skills on a computer to get ready to capture Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

A Russian technology experiment is using acoustics to locate micrometeoroid impacts on the space station. The two flight engineers, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, partnered during the morning checking hardware and downloading data that may pinpoint the location of high-speed particle hits on the outside of the space lab.

The cosmonaut duo then spent the rest of Monday servicing life support gear and updating computer systems.

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Mark Garcia

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Station Controllers Resume Normal Ops as Crew Keeps Up Research

Mission controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center are returning to normal operations today after setting backup control centers at remote locations. The International Space Station support team returned to Houston after setting up remote operations earlier this week when Hurricane Laura neared the Texas-Louisiana border.

The three Expedition 63 crew members continued their standard science and maintenance tasks this week after orbiting above Laura and sending down video and imagery of the storm. This comes after a four-night stay in the station’s Russian segment during a test to locate the source of a minor cabin air pressure leak.

Today, Commander Chris Cassidy worked on swapping components on a U.S. oxygen generator. He replaced a hydrogen sensor then cleaned the critical life support device. Afterward, the NASA astronaut checked samples in the Materials Science Laboratory which processes experiments to discover new uses for a variety of materials such as metals, alloys, polymers, and more.

Veteran cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin worked Friday morning servicing communications gear inside the Soyuz MS-16 crew ship. During the afternoon, the three-time station resident handed Russian radiation detection gear to Cassidy for deployment in the orbiting lab’s U.S. segment.

First-time space flyer Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos spent his day focusing on a variety of space technology studies using advanced photography gear. He explored ways to improve orbital navigation and improve the detection of landmarks on Earth.

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Mark Garcia

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Station Crew Re-Enters U.S On-Orbit Segments, Mission Control Preps for Storm

The Expedition 63 crew ended its stay isolated in the Russian segment of the International Space Station this morning after an extended leak test. Mission Control also deployed remote teams to maintain 24/7 support for the station and its crew as Hurricane Laura approaches the Texas Gulf Coast.

Commander Chris Cassidy started the day reopening the hatches to the U.S. segment to begin resuming normal station operations. He reactivated U.S. life support equipment and restowed U.S. gear used during the crew’s weekend stay in the Zvezda service module.

Mission control will study the test data this week in an effort to determine the source of a cabin air leak detected in September of 2019. The rate is still well within segment specifications and presents no danger to the crew or the space station. The station’s atmosphere is maintained at a pressure comfortable for the crew members, and a tiny bit of that air leaks over time, requiring routine repressurization from nitrogen tanks delivered on cargo resupply missions.

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin spent the morning reconfiguring the Russian segment of the orbiting lab. The veteran station cosmonaut checked pressure valves and communications gear while opening hatches to various Russian modules.

Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner, on his first station mission, started the day resetting Russian life support equipment and sampling the air in Zvezda for analysis. Vagner also had time for science during the afternoon studying the Earth’s nighttime atmosphere and exploring ways to improve locating landmarks on Earth for photography.

Meanwhile, personnel at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are monitoring Hurricane Laura and making general preparations at the center. A small team of flight controllers germane to monitoring and sending commands for the most important station systems were sent to a backup control center hub in central Texas in advance of the storm.

A full team of station flight controllers is getting set up at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to take over longer-term control of station systems should that become necessary. This backup activity is planned for each hurricane season or for some other extenuating circumstance and will be executed with no impact on critical station operations or the safety of the crew.

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Mark Garcia

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Crew Spending Another Day in Russian Segment

The three Expedition 63 crew members will spend another day inside the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Mission controllers are continuing their leak detection work today to collect more data.

All of the orbiting lab’s hatches will remain closed until Tuesday morning to give ground specialists additional time to collect data and monitor pressure readings in each module. The rate is still well within segment specifications and presents no danger to the crew or the space station.

The station’s atmosphere is maintained at pressure comfortable for the crew members, and a tiny bit of that air leaks over time, requiring routine repressurization from nitrogen tanks delivered on cargo resupply missions. In September 2019, NASA and its international partners first saw indications of a slight increase above the standard cabin air leak rate. Because of routine station operations like spacewalks and spacecraft arrivals and departures, it took time to gather enough data to characterize those measurements. That rate has slightly increased, so the teams are working a plan to isolate, identify and potentially repair the source.

Meanwhile, the station trio is staying comfortable in the Zvezda service module with access to the Poisk mini-research module,  the Progress 76 cargo craft and their Soyuz MS-16 crew ship. Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Roscosmos Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner mainly focused on Earth photography Monday. The station’s Russian segment has a variety of windows the crew can look out with advanced camera gear for their Earth observation activities.

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Mark Garcia

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Crew Spending Weekend in Station’s Russian Segment

The three Expedition 63 crew members living aboard the International Space Station will spend the weekend inside the orbiting lab’s Russian segment. Commander Chris Cassidy and his crewmates Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin will stay in the Zvezda service module from Friday night into Sunday morning.

The station’s atmosphere is maintained at pressure comfortable for the crew members, and a tiny bit of that air leaks over time, requiring routine repressurization from nitrogen tanks delivered on cargo resupply missions. In September 2019, NASA and its international partners first saw indications of a slight increase above the standard cabin air leak rate. Because of routine station operations like spacewalks and spacecraft arrivals and departures, it took time to gather enough data to characterize those measurements. That rate has slightly increased, so the teams are working a plan to isolate, identify, and potentially repair the source. The leak is still within segment specifications and presents no immediate danger to the crew or the space station.

All the space station hatches will be closed this weekend so mission controllers can carefully monitor the air pressure in each module. The test presents no safety concern for the crew. The test should determine which module is experiencing a higher-than-normal leak rate. The U.S. and Russian specialists expect preliminary results should be available for review by the end of next week.

The three station residents will have plenty of room in Zvezda this weekend. The module provides the living quarters that enabled permanent human habitation to begin nearly 20 years ago when the Expedition 1 crew arrived at the station Nov. 2, 2000. Cassidy, Vagner, and Ivanishin also will have access to the Poisk mini-research module and their Soyuz MS-16 crew ship for the duration of their stay.

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Mark Garcia

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