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Learned how to draw blood today… doesn’t it suit Halloween somehow? As you know, the International Space Station is a laboratory where we do research in microgravity conditions. Crewmembers are important test subjects for human physiology investigators who attempt to better understand how the human body works by observing the way it adapts to the space environment. Blood of course contains important biochemical markers of that adaptation. That’s why periodically we are all scheduled for blood draws: how often and how many tubes we draw depends on the actual experimental program for which we are subjects. Blood-filled tubes are then stored in the Melfi freezer and returned to Earth at the first suitable download opportunity. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Today I had my first encounter with the POGO – the Partial Gravity Simulator here at Johnson Space Center. Simulating weightlessness in training is not easy and all the different ways we use have their pros and cons. Of course, we can not just switch off gravity. And we don’t know of any way of shielding the gravitational field, like we can do with the electromagnetic field. So, we’re stuck with it. In parabolic flights we can have about 22 seconds of free fall inside the airplane cabin and we typically repeat that for about 30 parabolas per flight. As far as a human being is concerned, that’s true weightlessness, since we can not perceive the residual acceleration that does exist. However, those 22 seconds are very limiting when you’re trying to train complex tasks. As you know, we train for spacewalks under water by establishing neutral buoyancy of the pressure suit. In many ways, training under water can be harder than working on orbit, because the suit can not be neutral with respect to rotation on all axes and because every time we move we have to displace the water. However, water can also make some things easier because of its stabilization effect. Let’s say that you’re driving a bolt. When you reach the hard stop you need to be able to react the torque you’re applying by having a solid attachment point to structure, otherwise you’ll go spinning the other way. But it’s hard to feel that full effect in the pool because of the stabilization effect of the water. So here’s where the POGO (Partial Gravity Simulator) comes in. The suspension system compensates the body weight so that we can move up and down, rotate and, to a degree, move in the horizontal plane in conditions similar to actual weightlessness. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Really busy start of the week! Lots of classes today, from the Spheres payload (ZeroRobotics anyone?) to a refresher class on robotic support to EVA – that’s when we use the Canadarm2 to “fly” spacewalkers or large components from one place to another around Station. I also had a class on EVA suit malfunctions, practicing what you do when you get an alarm message on your computer display, accompanied by an alarm sound in your headset. As you can see in the picture, we carry a small booklet attached to the left arm, which we call cuff checklist. This checklist contains the response actions to be taken in case we receive one of those alarms. For example, it helps us clarify whether the signature we get corresponds to a real problem with the suit or a sensor malfunction. And in case of a real problem, the checklist contains guidance on whether to terminate or abort an EVA, the second case being more serious and requiring an immediate return to the airlock for both crewmembers. The picture is from yesterday, by the way, when I had a training session in the pool with my Expedition 43 crewmate and 1-year crewmember Scott Kelly. Photo Credit: NASA/Stafford #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

This past Thursday Anton, Terry and I had a five-hour Routing Ops Sim in the ISS mockups (see Logbook L-403). Anything that is not science and is not a contingency situation is a good candidate for these simulations, including of course maintenance activities. As you can imagine, the Station is a complex machine that requires some care. The ground keeps track of preventive maintenance requirements on every piece of equipment and schedules the necessary tasks when they’re are due. Of course, once in a while something does break and in that case a corrective maintenance activity will be scheduled. To save crew time, the ground will try to take care as much as possible of all the steps that can be performed remotely. For example, the first steps of a procedures will often contain actions like opening an electric switch or commanding a valve in a particular position to put the equipment in a safe configuration for hands-on work. Since the specialists sitting on console at Mission Control can also send those commands, it’s not unusual for the crew to receive a call that they are “Go”  to start with a later step in the procedure. Of course, only the crew can put hands on the equipment. And for all those hands-on activities, as you can see in the picture, we have a tool-box that would make any DIY enthusiast envious! You can see some more pictures of our May routine ops sim here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/astrosamantha/sets/72157633526267514/ Photo credit: NASA #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

One of the training events I had last week was a familiarization class with high-fidelity EVA hardware (see Logbook L-405). Among many other things, we had a chance to practice applying lubricant to the snares of the robotic end effector. You can check out this older Logbook for some pictures of the actual end effector and target pins in space: When we squeeze the trigger to capture the target pin, it’s important that the snares rotate freely  at their attachment points when they close. And so periodically spacewalkers need to take a grease gun out and apply some lubricant to the snare bearings themselves. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Started the day with a sim with Butch and Terry on rendez-vous operations for vehicles like Dragon, HTV or Cygnus. Now off to a class on ARED maintenance: that’s the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device with which we simulate weight-lifting on orbit. In between I had an overview class of the Material Science Laboratory payload. The core of this facility is a high-temperature furnace, which is placed inside a vacuum chamber. In the picture you can see me practicing the changeout of a sample cartridge. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

If you’ve been following this logbook, you’ll know by now that in training we spend a lot of time preparing for emergencies and contingencies of all kinds. It’s vital to have the knowledge and skills necessary to resolve a contingency situation, but of course we have a reasonable expectation that most of our time on orbit we will be working nominal operations. To prepare us for that, the training community organizes periodically so called routine-ops simulations. In such sims we spend about five hours in the ISS mockups and we run through a typical timeline, starting with the morning Daily Planning Conference (DPC). That’s a tagup of the crew with all the control centers, starting with Houston, then on to Huntsville, Munich, Tsukuba and finally Moscow. At the end of the day there is a similar evening DPC to wrap up the day’s work. This afternoon Terry, Anton and I will have such a routine ops sim. My last one was back in May. As you can see in the picture, that time Butch and I got to practice some routine work on the toilet, namely replacing the solid waste container. That’s definitely something we’ll do for sure on orbit. Photo credit: NASA/Harnett #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Today Anton, Terry and I had our first training event together in Houston as the Soyuz 41S crew. The occasion was a simulation in which we had to deal with a Loss of Attitude Control on ISS. We call that LOAC for short. If you think about it, that’s pretty bad. We need to have the Space Station in a known, controllable attitude in order to make sure that we have good pointing for the antennas, the solar arrays, the radiators, etc. without attitude control the Station will continue spinning with whatever (little or big) rotation rate it had when attitude control was lost. Both the US Lab and the Russian segment Guidance and Navigation Computers can provide attitude control, with one big difference: the US segment has Control Moment Gyroscopes, the Russian segment has actual thrusters. In one of our scenarios today the Control Moment Gyroscopes saturated and that caused the LOAC. To recover from that, we had to transfer control of the Station to the Russian segment, so that attitude control could be reestablished with the help of the thrusters. However, thrusters impulses can be significant and they could potentially damage the huge solar arrays that provide power to the Station. That’s why we first need to bring the solar arrays to a safe angle and lock them there. Only then can we safely go to thrusters control. Thanks +Josh Matthew for the photo! #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Today Terry, Butch and I had a familiarization class with high-fidelity EVA hardware. When we practice spacewalks in the pool we have replicas of the components we need to repair or replace. These replicas have most of the elements that we work on: bolts, electrical connectors, fluid lines, etc..  but in the pool environment not all features can be replicated. Today, in a dry environment, we had a chance to put our eyes and hands on high-fidelity equipment! The piece of hardware you see in the picture, for example, provides rotation capability of a single solar array wing around its axis. This way we can always optimize the orientation of the array with respect to the Sun and maximize the energy generation. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha

Just had an interesting review class on the Command and Data Handling system of the Space Station. In particular, we focused on the consequences of C&C MDM transitions: those are the computers that control the ISS, meaning that the are at the top of the computer hierarchy. Pretty important, as you can imagine: that’s why we have three, just in case. Depending on how many we loose and how functionality is recovered, there might be a need to reconfigure the com system to recover space-to-ground audio capability and talk to mission control. So, that’s what I practiced today. The facility you see in the picture is a simulator of the US lab. Physically it’s not very high-fidelity – there are other higher-fidelity mockups – but brain-wise it functions just like the Station. #SamLogbook (Trad IT)  Traduzione in italiano a cura di +AstronautiNEWS qui: https://www.astronautinews.it/tag/logbook/ (Trad ES) Tradducción en español aquí: https://www.intervidia.com/category/bitacora/ (Trad FR) Traduction en français par +Anne Cpamoa ici: https://anne.cpamoa.free.fr/blog/index.php/category/logbook-samantha