ISS - Expedition 68 Mission patch.
Feb 17, 2023
The uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 17.
Following undocking, Expedition 68 cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will send commands from the station’s Roscosmos segment to rotate the Progress for additional visual inspections and documentation of the general area where a coolant leak was discovered on Feb. 11. Loaded with trash, Progress will be deorbited by Roscosmos flight controllers over the Pacific Ocean after spending four months at the space station.
International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA
Meanwhile, the crew members continued a space adaptation study today while conducting a multitude of maintenance tasks aboard the orbital outpost today. The station residents also worked on more human research, watered plants, and cargo transfers.
Due to the lack of an up-and-down reference in weightlessness researchers are investigating how an astronaut’s eye-hand coordination reacts to audible and visual stimuli. Flight Engineers Josh Cassada of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) once again subjected themselves to the human research investigation taking place inside the Columbus laboratory module. The pair took turns strapping themselves in a specialized chair, wearing a virtual reality headset, and performing computerized tasks to test their reach and grasp functions. Observations may help doctors understand how the brain adjusts to microgravity and treat balance disorders on Earth.
Image above: Astronaut Josh Cassada is seated in a specialized chair for an experiment that investigates how astronauts grip and move their arms when manipulating objects in microgravity. Image Credit: NASA.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Frank Rubio focused their day mainly on lab maintenance and exercise activities. Mann began her day with orbital plumbing duties in Tranquility module, before watering tomato plants in Veggie space botany facility, and finally reorganizing cargo space in the Harmony module. Rubio cleaned windows in the cupola, the station’s “window to the world,” then checked out portable breathing gear that measures an astronaut’s aerobic capacity when pedaling on the station’s exercise cycle.
Cosmonauts Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Anna Kikina trained to use the lower body negative pressure suit and tested its ability to offset the effects of microgravity on the human body. The Roscosmos duo also worked on water transfers and cargo operations inside the ISS Progress 83 resupply ship. Petelin replaced life support components inside the Zvezda service module then studied on a computer how future pilots might control a spacecraft or a robot on planetary missions.
Related article (NASA):
NASA Sets Coverage for Agency’s SpaceX Crew-6 Events, Launch
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-agency-s-spacex-crew-6-events-launch
Related links:
Expedition 68: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition68/index.html
Columbus laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/europe-columbus-laboratory
Grasp functions: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2038
Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/
Veggie: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=374
Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony
Cupola: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/cupola.html
Exercise cycle: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=821
Lower body negative pressure suit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/ISS_Science_Blog/2015/06/02/rubber-vacuum-pants-that-suck/
Zvezda service module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/zvezda-service-module.html
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.
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