[sarex] Expedition 15 Crew Busy With Station Maintenance Tasks

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

Expedition 15 Crew Busy With Station Maintenance Tasks

Flight Engineer Sunita Williams began Tuesday with the second session of 
the new Elastic Memory Composite Hinge experiment, which studies the 
performance of an advanced type of composite hinge to determine its 
suitability for use in space. Building new spacecraft structures in 
space necessitates unfolding items that have been launched from Earth, 
and elastic memory technology may eliminate the need for highly complex 
deployment mechanisms by providing a simpler, lighter-weight alternative.

ISS015-E-05649 --- Sunita Williams works with the Lab-on-a-Chip 
Application Development-Portable Test System experiment Image to right: 
Sunita Williams works with the Lab-on-a-Chip Application 
Development-Portable Test System experiment. Image credit: NASA - TO 
VIEW IMAGE GO TO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Williams' main task Tuesday was the removal and replacement of the 
failed Remote Power Controller Module that governs electrical routing 
for several systems in the Destiny Laboratory.

Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin performed 
inflight maintenance to remove a defunct air conditioner and the crew 
also spent time working on the Elektron oxygen-generating system.

Yurchikhin and Kotov again had an hour each allocated for station 
familiarization and adaptation to help in adjusting to their new 
surroundings and activities. These unstructured and discretionary 
sessions have become a valuable standard requirement for new station 
occupants.

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+ Read more about Expedition 15
+ View Crew's Daily Timelines