Good afternoon and welcome to Mission Control Houston.
We're inside the International Space Station flight control room.
This team of flight controllers is watching over the systems aboard the station
and all is working well at this time.
They're also following along with the activities of the Expedition 30.
The crew this week has been focusing on science experiments and preparing for the departure
and arrival of cargo vehicles and maintenance activities.
To speak of the science experiments astronaut Don Pettit set up
and ran a capillary flow experiment on Monday.
That is a suite of fluid physics experiments that are investigating capillary flows and flows
of fluids in containers with complex geometries.
In particular the experiment he ran called Vane Gap studies capillary flow when there's a gap
between interior corners such as in the gap formed by an interior vane and tank wall
in a large propellant storage tank.
Without gravity it's more difficult to control the flow of fluid and this is a challenge
for designing spacecraft systems No response required.
We're just gonna let you know that you have a go to power off Ultrasound.
Pettit and station commander Dan Burbank worked with another experiment
for students called the SPHERES Zero Robotics.
They did a dry run of using the small bowling ball sized satellites on Tuesday.
It's call the Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites
and this investigation helps provides an opportunity for high school students
to design research for the space station.
As part of a competition the students write algorithms for the SPHERES satellites
to accomplish tasks that are relevant to future space missions, and algorithms are tested
by the SPHERES team and the best designs are selected for competition
to operate satellites onboard station.
And the crew will help with the actual challenge Monday, January 23
and high school students teams from the US and abroad arrived will gather
for the third annual challenge at the MIT or Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus
in Massachusetts, and that will be broadcast live on NASA television
from 8 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern time.
Burbank and Pettit also did some maintenance on the Microgravity Science Glovebox this week.
That to prepare for its use in research.
It's one of the major dedicated science facilities inside the Destiny laboratory
of station.
It has a large front window and built-in gloves to provide a sealed environment
for conducting science and technology experiments.
The glovebox is particularly suited for handling hazardous materials when the crew is present.
On Friday today, Pettit has been working
on installing the SLICE experiment inside the glovebox.
It's called the Structure and Liftoff And Combustion Experiment
which investigates the nature of flames in microgravity.
The results from these experiments could lead to improvements in technologies which aim
to reduce pollution emissions and improve burning efficiency
for a wide variety of industries.
Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers participated
in an Integrated Cardiovascular experiment this week.
Both participating in ultrasounds that help determine the time course and pattern
of progression of cardiac atrophy in-flight or the decrease in size of the heart muscle.
Kuipers also wore a halter to monitor his...
and measure his physical activity and cardiac work in flight.
Pettit also participated in a second ultrasound
of his leg specifically for the Sprint experiment.
the integrated resistance and aerobic training study which evaluates the use
of high-intensity low-volume exercise training to minimize the loss in muscle, bone, muscle,
bone and cardiovascular function that's seen in station crew members Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov
and Oleg Kononenko worked on packing up the 45 Progress vehicle for its departure
from the space station on Monday.
They were closing the hatch on the station side of the attachment for its departure.
The progress will actually departs with its hatch open in order to deploy a small satellite.
The 88 pound satellite called Chibis-M will be deployed after the Progress undocks.
Undocking is set for Monday at 4:10 PM central time, and the Progress vehicle will be deorbited
on Tuesday at about 8:25 PM central time to burn
up in the Earth's atmosphere with all the trash inside.
Before that the satellite deployment will occur earlier on Tuesday at about 5:19 PM central.
The vehicle will be a distance of about 7,300 statute miles behind and 62 miles
above the station, and that satellites will remain in orbit
for at least four years studying the interaction of plasma waves within the ionosphere.
In some of the maintenance work done on board the station this week Burbank did some repairs
of the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, which...
In particular working with the crank handle that is used to set the load or the weight
that the crew members use to exercise.
There has been a problem with the spring-loaded set pin inside of that
and has been allowing the hardware to shift the load or the weight automatically.
The repairs will help with a temporary fix
until a replacement crank handle assembly can be launched on the next Progress vehicle
which 46 Progress is set to launch Wednesday and dock to the station on Friday.
The team here in mission control is also working with things remotely onboard the station.
The team updated the software of several computers including those
that operate the station and its systems and also laptop computers that the crew uses
to interface with those station systems.
The robotics team remotely commanded the mobile transporter,
its space station robotic arm Canadarm2 and Dextre to survey science experiments
on the outside of the station using the robotic systems cameras.
It looked at the Space Test Program Houston 3 payload which is on the port three truss exposed
to space, testing concepts in low Earth orbit for long-duration missions.
This is a view looking at the Vader or Variable emissivity radiator Aerogel insulation blanket
Dual zone thermal control Experiment suite for Responsive space test.
Looking at a new form of multilayer insulation that uses aerogel as the thermal isolator
to protect spacecraft from harsh extremes of the space environment