Sun, Jan 08, 2006
2006 Report #1, 11 a.m. CST, Friday, Jan. 6, 2006
It was back to work
this week for the Expedition 12 crewmembers after a long New Year's
weekend that marked the halfway point in their six-month stay
aboard the space station.
Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev had a
relatively quiet New Year's Day, celebrating with a Russian meal.
They also took Monday off, talking with family and acquaintances.
McArthur conducted ham radio contacts with schools on the ground
during the week.
Dec. 31 was the first day of the second half of the crew’s
stay aboard the station. McArthur and Tokarev will spend their
100th day in space on Sunday.
Earlier this week the crew worked to unload the cargo of the ISS
Progress 20 cargo craft that docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment
Dec. 23. Progress 19 remains at the aft docking port of the Zvezda
Service Module as the crew continues to use its oxygen to replenish
the station's atmosphere. The Elektron system that provides the
primary source for oxygen generation on the ISS will be reactivated
next week after being deliberately shut off since mid-December.
McArthur engaged in computer training for the FOOT experiment
this week. FOOT measures activity and pressure on a
crewmembers’ legs and feet in microgravity to help scientists
determine how long duration missions contribute to bone and muscle
loss. He conducted a dry run to calibrate the experiment on
Wednesday. McArthur also reconfigured power supplies to the
station’s computers. Thursday, he worked with the Binary
Colloidal Alloy (BCAT) experiment, which looks at the behavior in
microgravity of fine particles suspended in a liquid. Paint, milk
and ink are common examples of colloids.
Tokarev worked much of the week setting up the
“Matryoshka” radiation detection experiment. It
measures radiation levels to which the crew is exposed. Tokarev set
up detectors around the station and spent time with a companion
“Phantom" torso experiment, placing about 370
radiation detectors around the horizontally-sliced replica of the
upper part of a human body. With that completed, Tokarev mounted
the dummy torso in the Pirs Docking Compartment for data
collection.
The week drew to a close with additional scientific experiments
and the installation of a batteries in the U.S. spacesuits on
board. Throughout the week, the crewmembers also exercised and
performed station maintenance.
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