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This is Mission Control Houston. The Expedition 30 crew onboard the International Space Station
splitting its time today between a variety of normal daily maintenance work as well as
supporting the scientific research that is the main mission for the International Space
Station. After the daily planning conference, Commander Dan Burbank installed a spare communications
unit that will be used as a backup for communications for commercial cargo vehicles when they begin
flying to the space station. The first demonstration flight of the Dragon spacecraft from Space
Expiration Technologies Corporation does remain targeted for a flight to the station next
month. Burbank also set up ultrasound hardware for a series of routine eye exams that were
conducted by several crew members and then moved on to an annual maintenance task, changing
out hydraulic components at the Waste Hygiene Compartment, the toilet in the US section
the space station.
Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin captured more video for the Russian
science… Russian educational program “Science 2.0” and then worked together on a Russian
investigation of the cardiovascular system while the crew members is working, in this
case exercising on the stationary bicycle.
They also spent time packing items in the Progress vehicle that's due to be undocked
from the International Space Station in two weeks time.
A big part of the day on Wednesday for Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko was monitoring refilling
the cooling loops in the environmental control system in the Russian segment of the space
station.
He also did maintenance work and gathered some microbial air samples for later analysis.
European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers spent the day, a good portion of the early
part of his day, on the VO2max experiment, setting up the hardware and then exercising
while his respiration was very closely monitored. This is part of a, of a research into gauging
the levels of oxygen uptake in a crew member after they spend a lot of time on orbit.
Kuipers also took part in the ultrasound eye exams and then worked on ESA’s FOAM experiment
which introduces the concept of foams to schoolchildren while they do the experiment on the ground
that the astronaut’s doing in space so they can see how things are different when there's
no gravity.
Flight Engineer Don Pettit also did some maintenance work at the Waste Hygiene Compartment, replacing
some of piping, and then worked activating the Nanoracks experiment, which processes
material science samples in microgravity.
On Thursday the crew members, more of the crew members will take part in the VO2max
data takes while Burbank, Kuipers and Pettit will talk about their mission and what they
see out the window in an interview with the Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams and Mike
Bettes.