Well, here we are. Ten weeks have passed already: don’t know what’s going on up here, but time is going by way too fast!
On Friday I had another date with our space worms, the C. Elegans, as I wrapped up the week with a session of the experiment Epigenetics: I separated again baby worms and adult worms, as I wrote about in a recent logbook, so now we have the third generation growing in the incubator, half of the samples in weightlessness and the other half in the 1G centrifuge.
I also took care of the Columbus internal cooling system last Friday. As you know, we use water to remove heat from equipment (via cold plates) and from the cabin (via the air conditioning system) and periodically we need to add the antimicrobial agent OPA to the water to make sure we don’t have any microbial growth in the lines. Actually, Terry did most of the work last week: I was only tasked on Friday to get a water sample after the OPA had been added. That water will return to Earth and be analyzed on the ground to check that we have indeed the desired OPA concentration.
On Saturday morning I usually sleep in – I’m a night owl, not an early riser – but this time I was up at 8 for a very special appointment. I got to talk on the HAM radio with students in Italy for a pass of about 10 minutes: the pupils of the institute “G. Bearzi” in Udine (hello!) and a very special group of young men and women from all over the world who are just starting their exchange semester in Italian schools thanks to the non-profit Intercultura or, internationally, AFS. I was myself an Intercultura-AFS exchange student, spending a school year in the US, while my crewmate Terry spent a summer in Finland! And to all the exchange students on the planet who will read this: I am proud of you, I hope that you’ll enjoy your adventure, that you’ll smile through the difficult times (they will come) and that you’ll recognize that this is a great gift and it brings with it responsibility. And I’m extremely grateful to the families who make this all possible by hosting an exchange student: thank you for your generosity, you rock!
OK – back to more down to Earth topics, so to speak: urine. Not very glamorous, I know, but it was at the center of my thoughts and my deeds for most of Monday. With ATV 5 scheduled to leave soon, a number of brine transfers into the ATV fluid tanks, now empty of potable water, were planned. Brine, as you might remember, is what is left over after recycling urine and it’s final waste product. Transferring it to ATV takes care of our disposal need, at the same time is also helps with the mass and center of mass issues that I have talked about in a previous logbook.
In the picture, I’m swapping a recycle tank full of brine for an empty one. A big monster, isn’t it?
Futura mission website (Italian): Avamposto42
avamposto42.esa.int
#SamLogbook #Futura42
(Trad IT) Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui:
https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook
(Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://spacetux.org/cpamoa/category/traductions/logbook-samantha
(Trad ES) Tradducción en español por +Carlos Lallana Borobio aqui: https://laesteladegagarin.blogspot.com.es/search/label/SamLogBook
(Trad DE) Deutsch von https://www.logbuch-iss.de
04/02/2015