Expedition 70 Crew Works on Station Airlocks and Exercise Research
The Expedition 70 crew focused mainly on operational maintenance activities throughout Tuesday. The International Space Station residents also continued their exercise research among a host of other ongoing science experiments.
Airlock activities filled the day for NASA Flight Engineers Loral O?Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli in the U.S. segment of the orbital lab. The duo started the day in the Tranquility module and finalized reconfiguring the NanoRacks Bishop airlock following a week of experimental robotic arm activities. Afterward, the NASA pair moved into the Quest airlock and serviced a pair of spacesuits then prepared Quest for upcoming advanced air conditioning work.
Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency) worked inside the Columbus laboratory module during the morning swapping out life support gear. Later, he set up the Lumina radiation detection experiment hardware in Columbus that measures in real time the fluctuating radiation environment aboard the space station.
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa had a busy schedule as he worked on biology and robotics research all day. Furukawa first swapped sensors and checked vents on the Cell Biology Experiment Facility located in the Kibo laboratory module. Next, Furukawa checked out the performance of a free-flying camera robot inside Kibo.
Finally, Furukawa spent the rest of Tuesday participating in the CIPHER experiment, a suite of 14 human research studies to understand the effects of weightlessness on the body. He began with deadlift exercises on the advanced resistive exercise device for one portion of the study. Next, he wore the Bio-Monitor vest and headband recording his physiological data then calibrated breathing gear. CIPHER is providing doctors vital insights that may help keep crews safe and healthy on longer term missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
All three astronauts and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov also spent an hour each throughout the day packing for their upcoming departure and return to Earth. The quartet will undock from the Harmony module?s space-facing port aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft a week after the SpaceX Crew-8 members arrive. Crew-8 is due to launch at 12:04 a.m. EST on Friday aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft and dock to Harmony?s forward port on Saturday at 7 a.m.
Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub spent most of the day installing cargo containers inside the Zarya module. Kononenko later jogged on a treadmill while attached to electrodes and sensors for a regularly scheduled fitness assessment at the end of the day. Daily exercise aboard the station is necessary for crews to maintain bone and muscle health due to the lack of gravity. Borisov also worked on computer and ventilation maintenance in the station?s Roscosmos segment.
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