Ongoing Operational Support

October 22, 2003 - Spanish Soyuz Mission Cervantes

Today, the Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque performs the fifth and last Belgian experiment of the scientific programme: Neurocog. With Neurocog scientists want to study the effect of space flight conditions on the perception and the process of astronauts memorizing the orientation and location when performing investigations in a virtual environment.

Two sessions on the Neurocog experiment are carried out today by Duque, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the first session Pedro first free-floats wearing the virtual reality headset, and then remains in a fixed position while performing the experiment. The same protocol is followed for the afternoon session. Pedro is assisted in both sessions by Alexander Kaleri.

Just like yesterday and the day before the studied protein crystal growth processes of the Promiss2 experiment can be followed on the ground by the responsible scientists. The B.USOC receives the experiment images from the International Space Station (ISS) and the Promiss team verifies their usability as they arrive (see picture alongside). This way, corrections in the set up are still possible if necessary. At 10h16 GMT a correction table is sent up to the ISS to ensure that the video images obtained of the protein growth will be as sharp and clear as they can be.

At 18:48 GMT astronaut Duque also ends Nanoslab2, which studies the influence of microgravity on the kynetics of zeolite formation. Zeolites are porous minerals on nanometer scale used for industrial processes. The experiment, which heats cells up to 95 degrees Celcius, was started 30 hours ago and performed its mission nominally, with an excellent behaviour of all parts. All ten specimen have been processed and followed their foreseen temperature cycling.

Despite a last moment trouble with the timing, the de-activation, which needs a rather fast cooling down, is performed within the allowable time and, according to the first reaction of the responsible scientist, the results look OK. All telemetry data are downloaded and provided to BUSOC.

In the B.USOC operation room everybody involved in the Nanoslab experiment took part in the evaluation just after activation yesterday.