ISS Operations Update – October 13, 2015
Experiments:
Body Measures – Body Marker Instrumentation, Calibration & Body Pose Photo Collection, Circumference measurements [During long duration space flight, body measurements change over time due to fluid shift in microgravity. This study attempts to better understand the magnitude and variability of these changes. This is important for future long duration flights and flights to distant destinations with respect to suit sizing, work station design, seat measurements in order to minimize risk of injury and maximise crew effectivity.]
Pilot-T [This experiment puts crew members through complex tasks, such as piloting a space vehicle, at various stages of a long-duration mission to assess crew member performance reliability over long mission durations.]
Observation Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) Filling of inkjet droplet device for experiment sessions [“Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space” will study the unique behavior of liquid crystals in microgravity with special focus on their overall motion and merging of crystal layers which is known as the formation of smectic islands. Liquid crystals are widely used in technology, being employed in LCD TV screens, laptop screens, watches and other electronics with flat panel displays. The also find use in soaps and membranes. Studying liquid crystals in microgravity will provide new insights into two dimensional system physics of complex fluids. Findings may lead to understanding of well aligned, very high speed electro-optic devices that could find use in embedded ferroelectric liquid crystal micro-displays.]
Habitability, documentation of observations relevant to human factors and habitability. [Assessment of International Space Station Vehicle Habitability will see teams on the ground study video of the behavior of crew members within the habitable environment of ISS while the crew fills out questionnaires and collects video of areas of interest in order to provide an assessment of the habitability of ISS in its current state for a one-year mission. Results will be used to develop spacecraft with improved habitability properties to allow crew members to optimally utilize the onboard space.]
Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions-3 (InSPACE3) – Hardware Inspections
Fine Motor Skills [Fine Motor Skills uses a tablet touchscreen application to monitor degradation in fine motor abilities over the course of an extended exposure to microgravity. A drop in fine motor skills can lead to problems when crew members are tasked with medical treatment, repairing sensitive equipment and interacting with touch-based equipment. Tests utilized by this study include multidirectional pointing, dragging, shape tracing, and object manipulation to create a knowledgebase that will allow scientists to evaluate the risk of fine motor performance decrements due to long-duration exposure to microgravity.]
Journals [Electronic journals will be kept by the crew members to allow psychologists to study behavioral issues that are associated with the isolation and confinement over long-duration space missions. Journals from 6-month ISS mission have amounted to a total of 1,100 written pages, but no data beyond those six months is available making this an interesting opportunity to study the impact of isolation in the confinements of ISS over a longer period.]
KPT-10 – Kulonovskiy Kristall Hardware Setup & Experiment Ops [The KPT-10 telescience study examines “dynamic and structural characteristics of the Coulomb systems formed by charged dispersed diamagnetic macroparticles in a magnetic field (trap), investigating the following processes onboard the ISS RS (Russian Segment): condensed dust media, Coulomb crystals, and formation of Coulomb liquids due to charged macroparticles,” the NASA experiment overview notes.]
Maintenance/Systems:
Nominal Inspections/Servicing Tasks (Morning Inspection, Caution & Warning Panel Check, Sozh System Maintenance) (Russian Crew)
Water Sampling and Analysis
Tightening of QD screw clamps between DC1 and Progress M-28M
Replacement of EXPRESS Rack 8 laptop hard drive
ARED quarterly maintenance
Other Activities:
IMAX: Downlink of acquired Earth Observations
ISS Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Umbilical (IEU) Removal and Replacement after discovery of broken seal on September 23.
PAO: Video recording of greetings
