The six-member Expedition 38 crew continues an array of
international, student and commercial research inside the orbital
laboratory. The crew is also preparing for its fourth spacewalk and
upcoming Progress and Soyuz vehicle activities.
Commander Oleg Kotov and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio partnered up
during the afternoon for a version of the long running SPHERES
(Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites)
experiment. The experiment uses student written algorithms that operate
small bowling ball-sized satellites to demonstrate critical mission
tasks such as formation flying and vehicle dockings.
Mastracchio started his morning loading software and swapping out a
hard drive on a laptop computer that helps operate the Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer. At the end of the day, he conducted more research for the
Vaccine-21 experiment that observes the interaction between microbes and
antibiotics in microgravity.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata continued more work with the
NanoRacks commercial research facilities. He operated a microscope to
analyze microbes on a petri dish for a student designed experiment.
NanoRacks is a private company that offers its commercial research
facilities on the space station to businesses and universities.
Flight Engineer Mike Hopkins joined Wakata after lunch time to stow
U.S. spacewalk tools. The two astronauts gathered items such as safety
tethers, pliers and wrenches. They stowed them in the Quest airlock and
updated the station’s inventory management system.
Hopkins worked throughout his morning on the Binary Colloidal Alloy
Test fluid physics experiment. He photographed samples for the study
which observes microscopic particles suspended in a liquid. Benefits
include better manufacturing processes for commercial products such as
paint or food products.
Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy are counting down to
their mission’s fourth spacewalk. The duo checked their Russian Orlan
spacesuits and set up the suits’ replaceable parts. The cosmonauts will
exit the Pirs docking compartment Jan. 27 at 9:10 a.m. to complete the
installation of Earth observation cameras that was delayed during a Dec.
27 spacewalk.
Mission controllers postponed Wednesday’s orbital reboost due to the
possibility of the International Space Station being placed in the
vicinity of an old Delta-1 rocket fragment. The reboost is now planned
for Friday at 7:17 p.m. EST. This places the station at the correct
altitude to welcome the arrival of a Progress resupply craft Feb. 5 and
ready the Soyuz TMA-10M for its undocking March 12.
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