There was some talk in the recent poll to expand the forum about creating a dedicated science section for ISS. I don't think we have too many inside sources working in ISS science to justify a new forum (although there are some science guys here who I feel honoured to share posts with), but I'd like to start a dedicated thread to be updated by whoever finds something and wants to share it. Maybe I'm wrong and there are tons of scientists looming here just waiting to talk about their experiments If so, please write as much as you can!
Anyway, here's the news that made me create this: an article about IMMUNO's role to monitor the crew's general health before, during, and after flight.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/integrated_immune.html
[...] While previous studies conducted immediately after landing show dramatic changes in crew members' immune systems, the Integrated Immune experiment, or by its long name: the Validation of Procedures for Monitoring Crew Member Immune Function experiment is the only study to comprehensively monitor the human immune system before, during and after spaceflight. Dr. Clarence Sams at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is the principal investigator for the study that will determine the clinical risks due to the adverse effects of spaceflight on immunity and confirm an immune-monitoring strategy. [...]
I will also post some general links, as a general one-stop section for ISS science (there are many more outside-NASA links, of course, I'm only linking the most obvious ones)
General ISS Science: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/index.htmlWeekly (with some delay) Science update: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Summary.htmlPublications: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Publications.htmlList of all experiments performed by all expeditions (you can also search alphabetically and chronologically): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Expedition.html
Any comments and additions greatly appreciated, as I won't be always able to contribute periodically! And, of course, any insider comment will be invaluable!
Another weekly science update in the today's Status Report. This week has been specially active with the InSPACE-2 experiment (to study the behaviour of magnetic fluids in microgravity), the Matrioshka experiment (with models of human torsos to study radiation levels) and the start of WAICO. The first experiment in the Fluid Science Laboratory in Columbus (GEOFLOW) is scheduled to start this coming weed. Also note SOLAR appears to be having its share of problems...
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Weekly Science Update (Expedition Sixteen -- Week 19)
ALTCRISS (Alteino Long Term monitoring of Cosmic Rays on the ISS): Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. The latest memory card exchange occurred yesterday (2/29).
ANITA: Completed.
BCAT-3 (Binary Colloidal Alloy Test 3): Reserve.
CARDIOCOG-2: Completed.
CCISS (Cardiovascular & Cerebrovascular Control on Return from ISS): Reserve.
CFE (Capillary Flow Experiment): Reserve.
CSI-2/CGBA (CGBA Science Insert #2/Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus): In progress.
CGBA-2 (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus 2): Complete.
CSLM-2 (Coarsening in Solid-Liquid Mixtures 2): In progress.
EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students): Complete.
ELITE-S2 (Elaboratore Immagini Televisive - Space 2): Planned.
EPO (Educational Payload Operations): Reserve.
ETD (Eye Tracking Device): In progress.
EuTEF (European Technology Exposure Facility): On 02/26, the EuTEF MMU (Mass Memory Unit) troubleshooting procedure has been successfully performed and DHPU (Data Handling & Power Unit) full functionality has been recovered. To date, 8 out of 9 instruments have been checked out from ground, mostly successfully but with some anomalies under assessment. On 2/27, EuTEF platform had to be powered down (“graceful shutdown”) after some erroneous TM (telemetry) was encountered. After power cycling, situation is back to nominal. The EuTEF science program via scripts will begin soon.
Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL): The FSL Facility commissioning continues this week and next week, with the following look-ahead activities for Week 20: - Last mechanical configuration;- First Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) Rack activation and software upgrade;- Optical check-out activities;- GEOFLOW Experiment Container (EC) insertion into FSL; - GEOFLOW check-out activities; - First GEOFLOW science runs.
IMMUNO (Neuroendocrine & Immune Responses in Humans During & After Long Term Stay at ISS): In progress.
InSPACE-2 (Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions 2): In progress.
Integrated Immune: In progress.
KUBIK-FM1/ KUBIK-FM2 Centrifuge/Incubators: Following troubleshooting activities performed during Week 17, telemetry has been downlinked and analysed by KUBIK PD (Payload Developer). All is nominal.
LOCAD-PTS (Lab-on-a-Chip Application Development-Portable Test System): Complete.
MISSE (Materials ISS Experiment): Ongoing.
MTR-2 (Russian radiation measurements): Passive dosimeters measurements in DC1 “Pirs”.
MULTIGEN-1: Completed.
MSG-SAME (Microgravity Science Glovebox): Complete.
NOA-2 (Nitric Oxide Analyzer): Planned.
NUTRITION/REPOSITORY: “Leo, thank you for your attention to detail in completing the FD15 Nutr/Rep session. The information conveyed via crew notes was very helpful.”
PMDIS (Perceptual Motor Deficits in Space): Complete.
SAMS/MAMS (Space & Microgravity Acceleration Measurement Systems): Ongoing.
SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy & Light Exposure during Spaceflight): In progress.
SOLAR (Solar Monitoring Observatory): Some software glitches have been repeatedly encountered with the Sun Pointing Device platform, and are currently under investigation. Temperature and power monitoring is ongoing and reported as nominal. Some anomalies have also been encountered with a sub-system (DIARAD) of the SOVIM instrument, which had to be powered off until further assessment. The SOLAR instruments are currently outgassing, and some calibrations of the SOLSPEC instrument lamps and some Command Schedules for SOL-ACES are performed before the science program is started.
SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellite): In progress.
Swab (Characterization of Microorganisms & Allergens in Spacecraft): In progress.
TRAC (Test of Reaction & Adaptation Capabilities): Planned.
ULTRASOUND: In progress.
WAICO #1 (Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different g-levels): “Thanks Leo for your great work in setting up this first BIOLAB experiment! WAICO is now running autonomously in the Incubator. We encountered a silent Caution yesterday late night during the activation of the experiment, triggered by slightly too high O2 concentration in the LSM (Life Support Module). We have now recovered the temperature, centrifuge, illumination and humidity controls; we expect no major science impacts so far. The nominal growth period is 14 days, and we will continue to monitor the plants on a daily basis.”
CEO (Crew Earth Observation): Through 2/26 the ground has received a total of 15,305 frames of ISS/CEO imagery for review and cataloging. “After the break for STS-122 support, we are currently working through requested sessions for: South Tibesti Megafans; East Venezuela Land Use; Lake Nasser, Toshka Lakes, Egypt; Pilcomayo River Dynamics, Argentina; and the Ganges River Delta. We hope to provide feedback in the coming weeks. We have received only 137 new images since the recent crew change and look forward to more. Your recent, incredibly detailed view of Perth-Amboy, New Jersey will be published on NASA/GSFC’s Earth Observatory Website this weekend.”
CEO photo targets uplinked for today were Lahore, Pakistan (weather was predicted to be clear for this nadir pass over the city of Lahore. Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan, and is located on the banks of the River Ravi. Overlapping nadir mapping frames, taken along-track, were requested to capture a rural-urban-rural transect as ISS crossed the city from NW to SE), Florida Coastal Everglades, FL (this LTER [Long Term Ecological Research] site monitors the Everglades, Florida's "river of grass". Extensive human alteration of the surface hydrology of the region has produced numerous impacts on the Everglades' flora and fauna. ISS had a nadir pass along the southwestern coast of Florida; overlapping mapping frames of the coastal wetlands were requested), Central-Arizona Phoenix, AZ (ISS orbit track passed over the southwestern portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area - currently the focus of development in this important southwestern urban center. Study of the ecological changes that accompany urbanization in an arid climate is the focus of the Central Arizona-Phoenix LTER site. High resolution nadir frames acquired along track are useful for monitoring land use/land cover change resulting from urban development), and Madrean Sky Islands, N. America (the Madrean sky islands are enclaves of Madrean pine-oak woodlands, found at higher elevations in a complex of small mountain ranges in southern Arizona and New Mexico and northern Mexico. The sky islands are surrounded at lower elevations by the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. Overlapping nadir mapping frames of the mountain summits and ridgelines, taken along track, were requested).
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As is always the case with new Shuttle missions, STS-123 brings a whole lot of new science (and even more so considering it's bringing a new laboratory section) I'll write down some general information about the science parts of this upcoming mission. To know more details, check the Press Kit (in the Payload Overview and Experiments sections)
Lots of science coming up
Another weekly update on the experiments has been released today (http://spaceoperations.nasa.gov/iss_reports/archive_reports.htm select March
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Weekly Science Update (Expedition Sixteen -- Week 20)
ALTCRISS (Alteino Long Term monitoring of Cosmic Rays on the ISS): Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. The latest memory card exchange occurred on 2/29.
EuTEF (European Technology Exposure Facility): On 3/3 EuTEF was successfully rebooted and DHPU troubleshooting was successfully. Look-ahead plan for EUTEF science program week from 3/5 to 3/11: DOSTEL Mode 1 continuous, EXPOSE ON, DEBIE-2 ON, TRIBOLAB Stand-By mode, FIPEX activation of sensors, MEDET re-activation for continuous measurements, PLEGPAY experiment 2 run.
Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL): The FSL Facility commissioning is on hold pending restoration of a LAN (Local Area Network) cable connection.
GEOFLOW: GEOFLOW start is pending FSL LAN cable troubleshooting. “Thanks Leo for the help with the video images of FSL!”
KUBIK-FM1/ KUBIK-FM2 Centrifuge/Incubators: Completed.
NUTRITION/REPOSITORY: In progress.
SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy & Light Exposure during Spaceflight): “Peggy, we have added the next download activity to be on your task list next week. The Actiwatch will stop taking data on 3/19 if not re-initialized. Thanks for your extra sleep logging.”
SOLAR (Solar Monitoring Observatory): On 3/4, the facility lost TM/TC control for the instruments at around 8:30am EST. Following power cycling of Feeder 1, control of the instruments’ TM and TC was restored. On 3/5, during the transition to Pointing Mode, the SOLAR platform unexpectedly went into standby mode. Control of the platform was later restored, but SOVIM science acquisition activation was postponed. On 3/6, a second attempt to bring SOLAR platform back into pointing mode was also unsuccessful. Further troubleshooting is in work.
WAICO #1 (Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different g-levels): After the start of the WAICO run on 2/28, all ECs (Experiment Containers) have been centrifuged at 1-g for 3 days to force the orientation of the plants to a preferential growth direction. On 3/2 after WAICO run start, all 8 ECs were tilted to their 45° position, and Rotor A was stopped to provide 0-g conditions for 4 EC’s. Daily video dump is performed to assess the development pattern of the plant roots. Plant growth is nominal. The ECs show significant condensation. To achieve clearance of the EC windows by the end of the run, in order to allow for good high-resolution photos, relative humidity was decreased to 60% on 3/4 and daily BLB (BIOLAB) LSS Flushing is being performed. The end of the run is currently estimated for 3/10-11 based on plant growth. Since the BLB caution due to excessive O2 concentration at the start of WAICO run, gas composition and pressure controls are not available, but there is no immediate science impact. O2 sensors were switched back on 3/3 and show nominal values.
CEO (Crew Earth Observation): Through 3/6 the ground has received a total of 15,902 frames of ISS/CEO imagery for review and cataloging. “A cursory scan of imagery received this morning indicates you have acquired imagery of some of our impact sites in both North America and Africa, promising imagery of Khartoum, Sudan, and dramatic views of what appears to be Tropical Cyclone Jockwe near Mozambique. There are probably more that we could not immediately recognize. Thanks for responding to our requests; we will provide more feedback on your imagery next week. Your recent striking image of a gigantic cumulonimbus cloud (possibly a super cell) over western equatorial Africa will be published in NASA/GSFC’s Earth Observatory website this weekend. Your high oblique view with the long lens makes an excellent visual of the 3-dimensional aspect of weather systems and their structure in our atmosphere. Nice job!”
CEO photo targets uplinked for today were Hyderabad, India (the frequently turbid atmosphere over India often makes it difficult to spot city targets. ISS had a nadir pass near midday as it approached from the NW. Using the long lens settings to map the urban edges of this sprawling city of nearly 7 million people), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (as ISS approached this target from the NW at midday, the crew was to look for the Ethiopian capital city to be just left of track. Using the long lens settings for a detailed mapping of urban edges, especially near the forest and agricultural areas), and Tropical Cyclone Jokwe (DYNAMIC EVENT: The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast track has Jokwe making a glancing landfall on the northeastern coast of Mozambique in the early afternoon as a Category 2 storm. This course placed the storm just left of ISS track. As the station approached the system from the NW, the crew was to try for broad, short lens views of the extent of the storm, and when near nadir, try for long lens views of details of the cloud structure. Prompt downlink of DYNAMIC EVENT imagery increases its value to the media and disaster responders).
CEO photography can be studied at this “Gateway” website:http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov (as of 3/1/08, this database contained 757,605 views of the Earth from space, with 314,000 from the ISS alone).
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In a nutshell: the problems with EuTEF have been overcome and now it's in nominal start-up operations, FSL is waiting for network connectivity issues to be solved, and thus GEOFLOW is too; SOLAR is still giving problems with Sun-pointing and telemetry, and WAICO is proceeding well and its samples are getting ready to come back down to Earth. The rest of the experiments are proceeding nominally.
51D Mascot - 1/3/2008 9:50 AMThis is a great idea for a thread. I do want to offer a couple of reminders to folks, though, to try to maintain perspective, because I have heard all too many folks say things like "the space station has been up for seven years and we haven't seen much in the way of science."Sort of like living in a partly-finished house with no kitchen yet, and complaining that all you get is a bar-b-que and occasional picnics. The space station's full laboratory and scientific capabilities are still not THERE. The US lab is only partially filled with the level of research facilities it is capable of supporting, the Columbus lab just arrived, and is still getting checked out with only very preliminary experimentation available, and the Kibo won't get there until next month. Equally significant is the fact that there will not be a six-person crew until around this time next year, and over the past seven years the primary allocation of crew time has been for assembly and maintenance duties, with relatively little time for research in very limited research facilities. The station won't be fully assembled and "complete" for two more years, so judgments about its scientific utility should be kept in perspective. The other thing to remember is that NASA's research plans and use for the ISS are rather narrow in the VSE context, and focused on long-duration human spaceflight issues, apart from the 15% of their research that Congress requires them to conduct in "non-exploration" fields of science. But the capabilities of even the US Segment of ISS far exceed the need NASA now has, so the Congress has established a National Laboratory mechanism to enable that "surplus" capability to be used by non-NASA entities. NASA has already signed on Memorandum of Understanding with the National Institutes of Health regarding uses of the National Laboratory and similar MOUs are under negotiation with other US governmental agencies such as USDA, NSF, Department of Energy, NIST, etc., as well as a number of private sector research organizations. All that is targeted on utilization of station for research in the post-2010 period.In the meantime, research activity will be limited and somewhat narrow in scope, though there are already some pretty impressive and interesting scientific results generated so far, as this thread and links will hopefully illustrate. Just wanted to throw this in to help keep this kind of discussion in perspective.
Interesting update in today's status report concerning one not-too-talked-about JAXA experiment with photonic crystals, returning aboard the Shuttle:
"In the Service Module (SM), FE-1 Malenchenko deinstalled the JAXA-3DPC (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency-3D Photon Crystals) crystal growth experiment and transferred it to the Shuttle for return to Earth. [The experiment had been running since 1/22 and was turned off by Yuri on 1/31. Its purpose was to grow photonic crystals in microgravity using particles in electrolytic solutions that will be fixed using ultraviolet light in a process referred to as photocuring, after self-organization and ordering of colloid nanoparticles in an electrolyte solution with subsequent fixation in an elastic gel matrix.]"
And another weekly science update:
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Weekly Science Update (Expedition Sixteen -- Week 21)
ALTCRISS (Alteino Long Term monitoring of Cosmic Rays on the ISS): Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. Radiation measurements continue to be performed in the PIRS module. Next memory card exchange took place at 3/14.
ELITE-S2 (Elaboratore Immagini Televisive - Space 2): Data collected during the first in-flight session have been down-linked and are under analysis. Engineering assessment provided good results: the system was calibrated within the expected 1 mm accuracy. Scientific analysis is going on. Data collected during second in-flight session are still to be downlinked. The scientific protocols were fully executed in both sessions
EuTEF (European Technology Exposure Facility): DEBIE-2 showed regular link errors and was switched off on 3/9. DOSTEL: On-going science acquisition. EuTEMP: Currently inactive as planned. EVC: first EVC pictures were received on 3/6. Further commissioning was performed on 3/14 with a first successful picture acquisition run. During a second sequence with different parameters, however, again no HRD (high rate data) could be received. Under further investigation. EXPOSE: On-going science acquisition. FIPEX: Sensor units RAM3, RAM4 and ZENITH8 were switched on. However, FIPEX showed link errors and was switched off again. MEDET: Successful MEDET commanding from User Home Base on 3/10. On-going science acquisition. PLEGPAY: Further commissioning to be planned. TRIBOLAB: In Stand-by mode.
GEOFLOW: Troubleshooting on FSL LAN cable repair was successfully performed. However, damage on the MIL-STANDARD bus connector was observed (two pins are missing). Start of GEOFLOW is pending further FSL troubleshooting. FSL FCE (Facility Core Element) locking was performed for 1J/A docking.
NUTRITION/REPOSITORY: “Leo, thanks for your attention to detail in completing the FD30 Nutr/Rep session! The barcode information conveyed via crew notes was very helpful.”
SLEEP (Sleep-Wake Actigraphy & Light Exposure during Spaceflight): “Peggy, thanks for completing your Actiwatch download. We have downlinked your data and sent it to the PI. We have placed on your task list your last scheduled sleep logging session for next week. Thanks for the extra sleep logging.”
SOLAR (Solar Monitoring Observatory): Anomaly on platform pointing mode under further investigation. No science acquisition possible so far.
Swab (Characterization of Microorganisms & Allergens in Spacecraft): Thank you, Peggy, for completing the additional SWAB session off the Voluntary Science list. The extra data collected will assist the PI in a comparison between the previous samples in the USL and those you recently collected from the new modules that they would not have originally been able to obtain. “
WAICO #1 (Waving and Coiling of Arabidopsis Roots at Different g-levels): Further attempts made to reduce condensation in ECs (Experiment Containers) by continuous flushing and by flushing only 2 EC’s at a time (to increase the flow / pressure) did not reduce the condensation significantly. The condensation presented a major challenge on high-resolution picture quality for the crew activity on 3/10. To recover, an additional video session was proposed during the fixation because the fixation fluid clears the EC windows. During the ground commanding after the photo activity, two BIOLAB (BLB) anomalies occurred which lead to a loss of centrifugation and temperature control for ~4:20 versus the 2 hours that was originally foreseen. Fixation & washing was planned during the night from 3/11 to 3/12. Multiple BLB anomalies occurred on both rotors. Troubleshooting did not allow to perform any fixation on 3/12 or 3/13. Rotor B was blocked and could not provide a 1-g stimulus since 3/11. The 4 EC’s from Rotor A (0-g condition) were transferred to BLB TCU at +4degC to slow down the growth and will be downloaded on 1J/A. 4 EC’s of Rotor B have yet to be retrieved by the crew from the blocked Rotor B. Anomalies during WAICO-Run#1 imply major impact on science return.
CEO (Crew Earth Observation): Ongoing.
No CEO photo targets uplinked for today.
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No joy with Columbus' experiments WAICO's going to get really affected science (not very useful presumably, although you never know...) and SOLAR is still inoperable. EuTEF is also having glitches on some of its experiments, and FSL is waiting for the LAN cable routing.