Updates ISS UPDATES

[SiberianTiger]

Launching on November 10, at 14 : 22 : 05 UTC. Will make a thread about it soon.

---------- Post added at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 ----------

Flight controllers are monitoring an unknown piece of orbital debris that could pass within 500 meters of the International Space Station at 10:48 p.m. EST tonight. The station crew might be asked to board the docked Soyuz capsules later as a precaution depending on the outcome of tracking data analysis. We'll post a full story shortly.

It can possibly be a RED conjunction requiring the crew to take shelter in the two Soyuz.

---------- Post added at 19:40 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

Conjunction time:

November 7, 6 : 48 Moscow
November 7, 3 : 48 a.m. UTC
November 6, 10 : 48 p.m. EST

 

[Star Voyager]

Spaceflightnow article:

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp21/091106debris/

---------- Post added at 07:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------

This just in! No threat to ISS tonight!

http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp21/091106allclear/

 

[SiberianTiger]

Maksim Suraev is keeping a blog (in Russian), posted at the Roskosmos site.

It is now supplemented with a videoblog which Roscosmos hopes to translate weekly over a Russian TV channel. The program is called "News from zero g".
The internet location for it is:
http://tvroscosmos.ru/frm/kinoarhiv/suraev.php

No English version, sorry.

The 1st video contents:
- Greetings from flight engineer Surayev;
- Showing Russian crew quarters from inside (the Americans envy us having a porthole in the quarter);
- Presenting personal belongings and the binoculars for Earth observations;
- The nadir UV-transparent porthole (in the Lab?). One may occasionally got a sunburn if stays in front of it, unprotected;
- A picture of sunset as seen from orbit;
- Harvesting mizuna salad crops;
- preparing the sample for putting into MELFI freezer;
- good bye!

All in all, very good for starter! :thumbup:

---------- Post added 20-11-09 at 13:02 ---------- Previous post was 19-11-09 at 13:03 ----------

English translation of Cosmonaut Maksim Suraev's blog at RT

You forgot to mention that it now includes a commenting feature. So anyone can post a comment to Maxim's entries (comments are pre-moderated).

The latest entries:

• 20 November, 2009, 10:41 - “Time is relative”
• 19 November, 2009, 10:30 - Happy Birthday, Nicole!
• 17 November, 2009, 10:31 - My reply to readers: holy symbols on the ISS

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

I just realised that today (Fri 20th Nov) is the 11th anniversary of the ISS (the first module, Zarya, launched on 20th Nov 1998)!

Happy 11th anniversary, ISS!
We hope for many more years to come!

 

[ddom2006]

I just realised that today (Fri 20th Nov) is the 11th anniversary of the ISS (the first module, Zarya, launched on 20th Nov 1998)!

Happy 11th anniversary, ISS!
We hope for many more years to come!

I'll drink to that .

Nothing else looks quite so glorious in the night sky ^^

 

[Xyon]

Happy belated birthday, ISS. I made a cake and everything, but I can't get it into orbit, so I'll just eat it here.

*contemplates "Cake" payload for soyuz...*

 

[ddom2006]

Anyone any idea if NASA has released a statement on what intends to be done about the new Russian module that has caused Decompression and fire alarms to sound twice in the last 2 days? I can't imagine thats one of the nicer ways to be woken up :lol:

 

[Al81]

Anyone any idea if NASA has released a statement on what intends to be done about the new Russian module that has caused Decompression and fire alarms to sound twice in the last 2 days? I can't imagine thats one of the nicer ways to be woken up :lol:

I am sure they are "investigating the issue". Problem should be resolved soon.
My question is: Has this happened before? on Mir? and why is it always the Russian modules that have issues? No offense to my Russian buddies.

Hopefully it is something simple to take care of but you never know.

 

[SiberianTiger]

and why is it always the Russian modules that have issues?

The previous major issue happened to the US UPA facility in October (10 lbs of unprocessed urine leaked, the entire facility shut down). AFAIK, it has never been resolved, the the entire UPA rack will be heading back to Earth for repairs.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Cool pictures of Roman Romanenko in his Tchibis load suit (http://www.russiatoday.com/About_Us/Blogs/orbital-log/romka-and-chibis.html)

 

[tl8]

All I can think off is Nanosuit out of Crysis

 

[tblaxland]

Cool pictures of Roman Romanenko in his Tchibis load suit

That is one cool cat. This part piqued my interest: "It is a pair of special pants that stimulates blood flow to lower body by electric discharges." How does that work? Discharges from the suit to the body? I wonder what magnitude these discharges are, ie, how would they compare to a static discharge from walking across the new carpet?

 

[SiberianTiger]

That is one cool cat. This part piqued my interest: "It is a pair of special pants that stimulates blood flow to lower body by electric discharges." How does that work? Discharges from the suit to the body? I wonder what magnitude these discharges are, ie, how would they compare to a static discharge from walking across the new carpet?

I'm afraid you are confusing "Stimul" ("Stimulis") suit with "Tchibis" ("Lapwing") suit. The former is an electric stimulation hardware to provide for some inner muscular tonus. The latter is what you see on the picture, the pants that create a low air pressure around the lower part of the subject's body, allowing his blood to spring in. Both are essential in preparations for returning to the Earth's gravity.

BTW, some people say this Tchibis has an interesting effect in restoring human sexuality otherwise depressed in zero g because of that darn blood drain...

 

[tblaxland]

BTW, some people say this Tchibis has an interesting effect in restoring human sexuality otherwise depressed in zero g because of that darn blood drain...

I quite expect that it would. Thanks for clarifying, I got mislead by the English translation of Suraev's blog.

 

[Suzy]

All I can think off is Nanosuit out of Crysis

Or The Wrong Trousers

 

[tl8]

Or The Wrong Trousers

Your right, that is what I am thinking off. Thanks for pointing that out

 

[Suzy]

Good news for orbiting Internet addicts - the ISS has access at last (though experimental at the moment) - 3/12/2009 On-Orbit Report:

At ~11:05am EST, Jeff Williams conducted a one-hour video-based training session on the exciting new CSL (Crew Support Local Area Network) capabilities and hardware. [Crew Support LAN Phase 1 will provide live Internet access to the ISS crew (initially only USOS crewmembers) as safely, securely and reliably as possible whenever Ku-band is available. The access will be accomplished by connecting to a remote desktop session on a remote server (Citrix server) located on the ground, which hosts the virtual desktops, and the crew sees only an image of the remote desktop which does the Internet surfing. Video and audio can be received (but may be choppy or sometimes out of sync). The CSL, a virtual network completely separate from the station-wide Ops LAN, will use existing IBM A31p laptops and existing network hardware. Initially, there will be only one CSL laptop (Client 1) and one CSL server (CREWLAN SERVER) both set up in Node-2. After the initial testing, the CSL will be expanded to include up to four clients.]

 

[tblaxland]

[Crew Support LAN Phase 1 will provide live Internet access to the ISS crew (initially only USOS crewmembers) as safely, securely and reliably as possible whenever Ku-band is available.

That could cause a mutiny. It was not that long ago there was upset because the Russians couldn't use the "luxury" USOS toilets...

 

[Star Voyager]

Jeff Williams and T.J. Creamer answered some questions for troops in Iraq:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/station_iraq.html

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasa...=undefined&_title=undefined&_tnimage=test.gif

God bless our troops!

 

[tblaxland]

The robotic relocation of External Stowage Platform 3 is scheduled for 11 Jan 2010. I found this Powerpoint presentation about STS-134 that contains a graphic (attached) that shows the new location of ESP-3 on the Starboard 3 truss nadir. ESP-3 is currently on P3 zenith, where ELC3 will go.