The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station was hard at work today supporting research with down-to-Earth benefits and gearing up for a series of spacewalks to maintain the orbiting laboratory. For NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, the bulk of the day was spent inside the Quest airlock as they resized their U.S. spacesuits for a pair of spacewalks beginning next week. Having collected measurements of their bodies on Tuesday to compare with baseline measurements taken before launch, the astronauts donned their spacesuits to make sure everything fit properly. These on-orbit fit checks are necessary because astronauts may grow up to 3 percent taller while living aboard the space station. In addition to their spacewalk preparations, the astronauts also supported the science research taking place aboard the station. Inside the Japanese Kibo laboratory, Wilmore prepared seed samples and a culture dish for the Plant Gravity Sensing experiment, which examines the cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable plants to sense gravity. The researchers behind this study hypothesize that the gravity sensitivity of plants here on Earth can be modified to make crops more resistant to the destructive forces of nature. Wiseman meanwhile checked in on the Rodent Research experiment, which looks at how living in space affects rodents and how that knowledge might be applied to humans. On the Russian side of the complex, Commander Max Suraev performed an equipment check for the Otklik experiment, which tracks the impacts of particles on the station’s exterior. Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev wrapped up work with the Aseptik study, while Flight Engineer Elena Serova prepared samples for the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment. While the crew worked inside the station, payload controllers at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Payload Operations Integration Center in Huntsville, Alabama, were uplinking files to the newly installed ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, to prepare the Earth-monitoring hardware for its initial data collection. Read more: go.nasa.gov/1E1d5x2
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:30:59 +0000