August 5, 2014 Three weeks at sea is a long time for someone who has never been out of sight of shore. My greatest impression during my time out here is the one I first had when we first set out: the ocean is really, really big! I realize that probably sounds too obvious to […]
Body Measures: Commander (CDR) Swanson Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Wiseman conducted their Flight Day (FD)135 and FD 80 sessions, respectively, of Body Measures. They set up body marker instrumentation and took calibration and body pose pictures along with circumference measurements. They then recorded a neutral body posture video. The goal of this study is to gather …
North America has a pretty good seat for this cosmic event. 1. First, check the visibility map to make sure it’s visible from your location. 2. Then check the weather – if you are expecting clouds, then Mother Nature has just rained on your parade and you won’t be able to see any meteors from outside your …
Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-5 Docking: ATV-5 successfully docked to the ISS Service Module (SM) aft port at 8:30 am CDT. Hatch opening and air scrubbing are scheduled for tomorrow, with cargo operations beginning on Thursday. ATV will remain docked to the ISS until early next year. Robonaut Mobility Upgrades: Commander (CDR) Swanson completed Robonaut upgrades …
The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak in the skies over Earth on the night of Aug. 12-13. Despite a bright moon, there should still be a good show from this prolific shower. Projected peak rates are 30-40 meteors/hour. Much of the world can see Perseids any time after full dark, with peak viewing projected …
Resist Tubule: Over the weekend, Commander (CDR) Swanson removed the Resist Tubule samples from the +2 Celsius Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI), inserted the samples into Measurement Experiment Unit B and attached the unit inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) 1-gravity Incubator Unit (IU). Today, he removed the Resist Tubule …
Robonaut Mobility Upgrades: Commander (CDR) Swanson continued Robonaut mobility upgrades by installing a control board and reinstalled the waist superdriver. On Monday, the crew will continue with the mobility upgrades, which are in preparation for the leg installation activities at a later date. Resist Tubule: Swanson removed Resist Tubule samples from the +2 Celsius Minus …
Binary Colloidal Alloy Test (BCAT)-Canada 1 (C1) Image Transfer: Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Wiseman homogenized cuvette samples and took photos after mixing. He then set up the camera intervalometer. The BCAT-C1 sample contains a more viscous fluid, which requires more mixing on-orbit than previous samples. BCAT-KP provides a platform for material and industrial scientists to investigate …
Robonaut Setup: Commander (CDR) Swanson gathered tools and set up the Robonaut hardware in preparation for mobility upgrades tomorrow. Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot designed with the versatility and dexterity to manipulate hardware, exhibit greater endurance than humans and react safely when bumped or interacted with in a way that was not expected. Story …
Circadian Rhythms: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Gerst removed the Circadian Rhythms hardware to end a 36 hour data take and downloaded the data to the ground for analysis. The main objective of the experiment is to get a better basic understanding of alterations in circadian rhythms in humans during long-term space flights. This data will provide …
