Mon, Jan 13, 2003
Int'l Space Station Status Report, 1600 CST, Jan. 10, 2003,
Expedition 6 Crew
Preparations continue in orbit for the 50th
spacewalk dedicated to assembly and maintenance of the
International Space Station. Commander Ken Bowersox and NASA ISS
Science Officer Don Pettit are scheduled to step outside Wednesday
about 6:30 a.m. CST.
The crewmembers spent this week reviewing the timeline and
procedures, organizing tools, and preparing the spacesuits and the
Quest airlock for the 6½-hour spacewalk. During the outing,
Bowersox and Pettit will release launch restraints to permit
deployment of a cooling radiator on the Port 1 truss segment and
clean the attach point on the Unity Node for station cargo modules.
They also will install a work light and a foot restraint on an
astronaut handcar for future spacewalking construction workers to
use. Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin will provide support for
Bowersox and Pettit from inside the station. NASA television
spacewalk coverage starts at 5 a.m. CST Wednesday.
Bowersox provided data to scientists for the FOOT
(Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Spaceflight) experiment, which
looks at how the arms, hips, knees, legs and feet move in the
absence of gravity, and at what changes occur in bones and muscles
during spaceflight. Bowersox wore a special pair of cycling pants
with 20 sensors on his legs and additional sensors on his arms that
took electrical impulse measurements throughout his workday
Tuesday.
All three crewmembers participated in a monthly lung-function
test, to study the effects of weightlessness. The crewmembers
forcefully exhaled into a device which stored lung capacity
measurements in an onboard medical computer. The session served as
the pre-spacewalk reading for Bowersox and Pettit, while the
experiment also studies how wearing low-pressure spacesuits affects
lung performance. They will participate in another session after
the spacewalk.
Thursday, Bowersox and Pettit operated the space station
robotic arm, Canadarm2, to do camera surveys of exterior hardware
in the station's expanding thermal control system. They maneuvered
Canadarm2 into positions to inspect the location of thermal
blankets on cooling lines and the S1 and S0 trusses and also survey
the condition of the radiator on the P6 truss. Engineers on the
ground will review the footage for any irregularities.
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