Ongoing Operational Support

October 25, 2003 - Spanish Soyuz Mission Cervantes

Astronauts also work on saturdays. Today the Belgian experiments are: Cardiocog, Message and Promiss2.

Even after short duration space flights the incidence of post-flight orthostatic intolerance (difficulties in maintaining a standing position for over a few minutes), being one of the aspects of cardiovascular deconditioning, is about 20% and long-duration space flight markedly increases the incidence of orthostatic intolerance.

That is why, Pedro Duque does the Cardiocog experiment. The objectives of this study are: to evaluate changes in cardiovascular function induced by long-term periods in microgravity, to compare altered function to pre- and post-flight data, to compare continuous microgravity effects on the cardiovascular system to short periods of microgravity   André Aubert, of K.U.Leuven, during training at the B.USOC for his experiment Cardiocog Rythme (Odissea mission 2002) .

With the treatement of the last Message2 samples the responsible scientists want to study the effects of space conditions on bacteria.

And for the second last time during this mission, 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.