Updates ISS UPDATES

Installation of the sanitaion facility in the Harmony

As it turns out, today is the World Toilet day.

Sounds like an appropriate day for the planned activity of the STS-126 crew who will install the second jack on the ISS in the Harmony module today. The toilet is designed and manufactured by the RKK Energia company and is a copy of the good ol' one in the Zveda module. The cost of contract was paid for by NASA and was about $19 M. The distiction of the new sanitation device from the existing one is that is fitted with urina to water regeneration system, which is going to save some water and provide more comfort for the planned increase of the crew from 3 to 6 next spring.


-----Post Added-----


astrosammy said:
It's today already? But Zarya was launched on November 20th...
Click to expand...

Yes, it is really today. Need to check facts carefully before reposting. :blush:
 
sts097-376-029.jpg


I finally found the photo, I was talking about a while back, thanks to the new nasaimages website. The topping out of the ISS.
 
Today (Dec 5) is the 10th anniversary of STS-88, the first Shuttle mission to the ISS. 10 years ago today, STS-88 attached Unity to the Zarya module and opened the hatches to the ISS for the first time.
 
official from nasa

Crew Works on Spacesuits, Observes 10th Anniversary of First Shuttle Visit

160328main_exp18_fincke2.jpg
Image above: Commander Mike Fincke talks with Mission Control in front of the station’s new second toilet. Credit: NASA TV

The station’s newest crew member, Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, and Commander Mike Fincke worked on the U.S. spacesuits Thursday. They scrubbed the cooling loops and recharged the metal oxide, or METOX, canisters that remove carbon dioxide from the spacesuits when an astronaut conducts a spacewalk.

Thursday also was the 10th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission to the space station. On Dec. 4, 1998, space shuttle Endeavour launched on the STS-88 mission to deliver the station’s first U.S. segment, the Unity Node. On Dec. 5, the shuttle’s robotic arm captured the two-week old Zarya module and mated it to the Unity Node still inside Endeavour’s payload bay. The shuttle undocked from the orbiting platform for the first time on Dec. 13.
 
NASA Inks Agreement To Test VASIMR Engine On ISS

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gene...ine=NASA Inks Agreement To Test Engine On ISS

... signed a Space Act agreement Dec. 8 that will allow the Houston-based company to place a 200-kilowatt version of its Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) on the ISS to test its performance in space.

The engine, which uses RF energy to heat a plasma to extreme temperatures for high fuel efficiency, shielding the engine structure from the superhot gas with magnetic fields, will draw power from the station solar arrays to charge batteries that in turn will drive the engine.
Click to expand...

If the engine tests out, Chang Diaz said, his company hopes to negotiate a reboost-services deal with NASA to help defray some of the $100 million - $150 million cost of developing the engine and testing it in space. For that purpose the company would install an advanced solar array on the station as a power source for the engine.
Click to expand...

The testbed itself will weigh 3 to 4 metric tons, and be mounted on an unpressurized pallet that probably will be crafted at Ad Astra's facility in Costa Rica.
Click to expand...
:hotcool:
 
That is good news. The VASIMR is a very interesting technology. From the article:
...the VF200 (VASIMR Flight 200 kw) should generate on the order of 4 Newtons of thrust (0.9 pounds), with a specific impulse of about 6,000 seconds...
Click to expand...
Using an efficiency of 72% (according to Wikipedia), I get a thrust of:
Code: 
Force = Power / Velocity
      = Input_Power * Efficiency / Exhaust_Velocity
      = Input_Power * Efficiency / (Isp * g0)
      = 200e3 * 0.72 / (6000 * 9.81)
      = 2.45N
What did I do wrong?
 
18-12-2008 ISS Crew Prepares for EVA International Space Station crew continues active pre-EVA operations. The Extra-Vehicular Activity is to be carrid out by Yury Lonchakov and Michael Fincke on Dec. 23.
The main objectives of the EVA are the following:

installation of the Langmuir probe on the surface of the Pirs docking compartment;

297775main_korth_evabriefing04_121808.jpg


297774main_korth_evabriefing03_121808.jpg


removal of the Biorisk-MSN second container;

7854ad90a8f3.jpg


297779main_korth_evabriefing08_121808.jpg


mounting of the EXPOSE-R and Impuls experimental hardware on the big diameter of the Zvezda- Service Module working compartment.

exposerEXRmounted_large,0.jpg


297776main_korth_evabriefing05_121808.jpg


If the time permits, it is intended also to do some maintenance operations with the equipment installed on the outer surface of the ISS RS.

Also, according to an information outside Roscosmos, the astronauts would take some time to advertise Seiko Spring Drive watch during the spacewalk;

product0.jpg


However, in today's message release Roscosmos disproves this information.

According to the plan, Pirs hatch will be opened for EVA on Dec. 23 at 03:15 Moscow time (00:15 GMT).
Estimated duration of the EVA is 6 h 10 m.
Today the crew will install the lamps, US video-camera, Frenel lenses in the Orlan space suits, prepare NASA auxiliary equipment, fill potable water containers and install them in the space suits, as well as review airlocking procedure in the EVA from DC1 ODF file.
In addition to these operations with the space suits, the crew will also prepare ground-commanded emergency Progress departure. The crew will reactivate the Progress, dismount the air ducts, and check leak-tightness of the closed Progress hatches.
 
tblaxland said:
That is good news. The VASIMR is a very interesting technology. From the article:
Using an efficiency of 72% (according to Wikipedia), I get a thrust of:
Code: 
Force = Power / Velocity
      = Input_Power * Efficiency / Exhaust_Velocity
      = Input_Power * Efficiency / (Isp * g0)
      = 200e3 * 0.72 / (6000 * 9.81)
      = 2.45N
What did I do wrong?
Click to expand...
Maybe the 200kW is the output power rating for the thruster which actually requires 278kW to operate?
 
Almost forgot to mention that the EVA has been carried out fine:

23-12-2008 ISS EVA
On Dec. 23 Yury Lonchakov and Michael Fincke completed the extra-vehicular activity.
The hatch of the Pirs docking compartment was opened at 03:52 Moscow time (00:52 GMT).
The crew have installed the Langmuir probe, the IPI-SM pulse plasma injector on the surface of the Pirs docking compartment; removed the second Biorisk-MSN container (installed on the Pirs surface in June, 2007) and brought it back into the ISS.
Yury Lonchakov and Michael Fincke spent 5h37m in outer space.

MCC Press Office
Click to expand...

This short report however fails to note that EXPOSE-R unit had to be brought back into the station after it failed to work upon installation. And that the Seiko watch was there on Lonchakov's wrist indeed: ;)

06ae756100a6.jpg
 
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