Blogs

New Status: High-Rate Communications System (HRCS) Post Installation: Today’s post installation activities consisted of the Ground conducting onboard video checkouts including Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) external cameras, JEM Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS), POIC, Columbus Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) and Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU). Installation and checkout of the redundant …

New Status: KU Communications Unit 2 Payload Telemetry Recovered: ISS KU band payload telemetry was lost yesterday afternoon with the Payload Operations Integration Center (Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC)), but was restored at 5:26 pm Wednesday after additional troubleshooting by Ground teams. The issue was due to incorrect MAC addresses from Automated Payload Switch (APS) …

By Lora Koenig April 3, 2013 — Well, if there is one thing you can count on when doing fieldwork, it is that plans will change. Good thing we always have a plan A and plan B ready. But today we must have hit plan H, because we were not really ready for it. Originally […]

New Status: High-Rate Communications System (HRCS) KU Communications Unit 2 Installation/Checkout (Day 2): Commander (CDR) Chris Hadfield and Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Tom Marshburn rotated the Lab 1S6 rack and wrapped up connections in Video Switch Unit (VSU) 3 in the aft endcone. Following this activity the actual transition from legacy Ku-band to Ku-Comm Unit 2 occurred …

By Lora Koenig April 1, 2013 — I was tossing and turning this morning between 5 and 6:30 am, anticipating our 8:15 am scheduled take-off. Our gear was packed and we were ready to go. I rolled out of bed at 6:30, looked out the window and realized our luck had run out: I couldn’t […]

New Status: High-Rate Communications System (HRCS) Ku-band Communications Unit (Ku Comm Unit) Installation/Checkout: The Ku-band is a frequency used primarily for satellite communications, and specifically for ISS communications.  Some of the ISS original Ku-band system subcomponents are being replaced to increase data processing volume and speed.  Over the next two weeks the crew will replace the …

How much and how fast will sea level rise in the coming decades? What makes sea level rise hard to predict? Who will be affected? NASA scientists and guests discussed this and much more in a Google+ Hangout on April 2, 2013. You can watch an archived version of the hangout below. Hangout participants included: […]

New Status: Fluids Control and Pump Assembly (FCPA) Remove and Replace (R&R):  Friday night, the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) experienced a failure and was shut down. An error message was generated because the FCPA pump speed sensor did not match the FCPA pump motor speed sensor. Ground teams reviewed the data and recommended removing and replacing …

By Lora Koenig March 31, 2013 — We just finished our last dinner, Easter dinner, in Kulusuk. We spoke with the helicopter pilots today and expect to have an 8:15 am flight to our location on the ice sheet about 100 km to the Northwest of Kulusuk, where the aquifer was drilled into last year […]

By Lora Koenig (as told to María José Viñas) All the members of our team are now in Kulusuk, Greenland. We’re quite isolated in this tiny village but we have a whole team behind us, making sure we get our stuff on time. The people in town are helping us a lot, too (hence the […]