Astronaut Energy Requirements for Long-Term Space Flight (Energy): Over the weekend a 51S crewmember completed day 5 and 6 activities of the 11-day Energy experiment run. Today the subject performed day 7 activities by logging their food and drink consumptions throughout the day. The Energy investigation is conducted over an 11 day period (day 0 …
The Expedition 53 crew capped off last week’s investigations with fresh pickings of lettuce, cabbage and mizuna harvested from the Veg-03 investigation. There’s still some left, though, for the remainder of the vegetation will be allowed to grow and sprout new leaves. Since future long-duration explorers will expected to grow their own food to survive …
Satlet Initial Mission Proofs and Lessons (SIMPL) Deployment: Following the depressurization of the Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEMAL) yesterday, today ground controllers opened the outer hatch of the JEMAL and extended the slide table holding SIMPL. Then the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) with the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) grappled and removed the Kaber …
Japanese Experiment Module Airlock (JEM A/L) Depress: The crew has depressurized the JEM A/L and vented the remaining air in preparation for the deployment of Satlet Initial Mission Proofs and Lessons (SIMPL) early Friday morning. Personal Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Monitor Installations: After reviewing reference material, the crew completed software and hardware installation activities by configuring …
In the middle of a workday where the Expedition 53 crew performed a routine emergency drill and additional ocular ultrasounds to map any eye changes, there was, most certainly, a higher (phone) call that actually came from more than 200 miles below the International Space Station at the Vatican: Pope Francis phoned in. It was …
Node 3 Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Photos: This morning, the crew removed the WHC Kabin, took photographs of surrounding areas, and then replaced the WHC Kabin. These high-resolution, high-quality photos of seat track locations in the vicinity of the WHC and Node 3 Mid-Bay will be analyzed by teams on the ground. These analyses …
Mid-week, the crew of Expedition 53 completed tasks to investigate the various ways microgravity affects the human body and shared the benefits of the International Space Station with students in Kiev, Ukraine, during a Public Affairs in-flight event. At 11 a.m. EDT, Commander Randy Bresnik of NASA spoke with U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch live on …
Extravehicular Mobility Unit Loop Scrub: Today, the crew configured Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) suits 3003 and 3008 for loop scrubbing. Once the scrubbing activity was complete, they reconfigured hardware and performed iodination of Ion Filters for both suits. A sample of the water was obtained after the loop scrub activity to determine the effectiveness of …
Lighting Effects: A 51S crewmember conducted a Visual Performance Test by stowing the hardware in their crew quarters, setting the light to the correct mode, turning all other light sources in the crew quarters off, and performing a Numerical Verification Test and a Color Discrimination Test. The completed tests were photographed and downlinked. The Lighting …
After a trio of spacewalks this month, including the final one conducted last Friday by Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Joe Acaba of NASA, the Expedition 53 crew returned to a schedule of full-time science this week. Today, the crew explored how lighting aboard the International Space Station affects their performance and health. One …
