ISS Report #26, 1 p.m. CDT, Friday, May 26, 2006
The residents of the International
Space Station turned their attention to spacewalk preparations this
week as they gear up for a six-hour excursion outside the complex
June 1. During the spacewalk, the crew will repair and retrieve
U.S. and Russian hardware.
Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Flight
Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams gathered equipment for
the spacewalk, charged batteries for the Russian Orlan suits they
will wear and checked out systems in the Pirs Docking Compartment
airlock. The spacewalk will be staged from Pirs.
This will be the 65th spacewalk in support of station assembly
and maintenance and the 18th conducted from this airlock. This will
be the sixth spacewalk in Vinogradov's career and the second for
Williams.
The crew members will climb into their spacesuits next Tuesday
to test their mobility and to handle tools they will use while
conducting their work outside. Vinogradov and Williams shifted
their wake and sleep cycles this week to match the hours they will
work on June 1. They will enjoy some off-duty time this weekend
before resuming spacewalk preparations on Monday, with final
communications and systems checks on their suits.
During the spacewalk the crew will install a new hydrogen vent
valve on the hull of the Zvezda Service Module to bypass a similar
valve that is clogged. The vent valve is part of the Russian
Elektron oxygen-generation system that separates oxygen and
hydrogen from water in the device's plumbing unit. The oxygen is
then circulated into the cabin atmosphere while hydrogen is
released overboard.
The spacewalkers will also recover a thruster residue collection
device from Zvezda, retrieve a contamination monitoring device and
a package of biology experiments and reposition a cable for a
navigation antenna on the aft end of Zvezda (shown below) to be
used next year for the unpiloted rendezvous and docking of the new
European Automated Transfer Vehicle.
Williams will also replace a camera on the station's Mobile Base
System railcar that moves up and down the truss of the complex.
A Mission Status Briefing to preview the spacewalk will be
broadcast on NASA Television at 1 p.m. CDT May 30 with
question-and-answer capability for reporters at NASA centers.
Coverage of the spacewalk on NASA TV begins at 4:30 p.m. CDT June
1.
On the maintenance front, Vinogradov this week finished
replacing a gas analyzer device for the Russian carbon dioxide
removal system, known as Vozdukh. It had been operating at a
slightly decreased rate in cleansing carbon dioxide from the cabin
atmosphere. Russian specialists reactivated the system following
the installation of the new gas analyzer. Vozdukh is now operating
normally.
As part of the Crew Earth Observations experiment, Williams
snapped the first shots of the Cleveland volcano erupting on the
Aleutian Islands in Alaska. From their perspective in orbit,
astronauts have been the first to spot and confirm the volcanic
eruptions on several occasions. This is the first early sighting of
a new eruption in recent years.
On Tuesday, Williams discussed the progress of his mission with
the Associated Press Television Network and conducted an amateur
radio discussion with students at a school in Venice, Italy.
Williams began runs of an experiment, designated the
Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from
Colloidal Emulsions, or InSPACE. The fluid physics experiment, last
operated during Expedition 7, studies the behavior of fluids that
change their properties when in a magnetic field. InSPACE obtains
basic data on a new class of smart materials that can be used to
improve or develop new brake systems, seat suspensions robotics,
clutches, airplane landing gear and vibration damper systems.
Williams also continued checking the camera for the
ground-commanded Binary Colloidal Alloy Test, or BCAT-3 activity.
The EarthKAM camera and equipment is taking time-lapse photography
once every hour of BCAT sample 3. BCAT-3 uses small particles
called colloids to study fundamental physics. It gathers data that
may provide insight into a wide range of applications, from the
development of new pharmaceuticals to new rocket engines. NASA's
payload operations team at the agency's Marshall Space Flight
Center, Huntsville, Ala., coordinates U.S. science activities on
the station.