18:46CEST -
#LiquidWaste transfer from#ISS to#ATV3 complete - via ESA's Mike Steinkopf at#ATVCC#brine bit.ly/RRLj0H— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) August 27, 2012
This afternoon, teams on ground and the crew in space will conduct a transfer of liquid waste from the ISS to ATV-3.
The activity is formally known as 'brine transfer', with the brine consisting of, uhmmm, concentrated urine. This is the liquid left over from recycled urine after water extraction (more info on ISS Environmental Control and Life Support System here).
Today's timings (CEST)
Target: transfer of 21 liters out of the Advanced Recycle Fluid Tank Assembly (ARFTA) into ATV-3 Water Tank No. 2 (using Russian compressor).
Update on the Friday, 24 August, O2 delivery into the ISS atmosphere from ESA's Jean-Michel Bois at ATV-CC:
View showing the gas & water delivery control panel mounted inside ATV and accessible to the crew.
This afternoon, the ATV tanks successfully transferred around 19 kg of Oxygen (O2) into the air cabin of the Station.
The tank valve was opened for 2 hours and 30 minutes by the crew to directly and slowly diffuse the Oxygen in the cabin; the ISS air ventilation system ensuring a good mixing and distribution of the oxygen inside the various ISS modules.
The valve was nominally closed by the crew at 19:15 CEST when the planned increase in cabin air pressure had been reached.
This transfer allowed, in particular, making up the oxygen lost during the last Extra Vehicular Activity on Monday, 20 August.
This is the second oxygen transferred performed by ATV-3. The ATV tank containing air was emptied at the very beginning of the current ATV mission. Two additional transfers of oxygen are foreseen before ATV-3 undocking on 25 September; these will empty the last ATV tank and successfully complete the transfer of the entire ATV-3 cargo load to the ISS!
Yesterday, in a dual-burn reboost, ATV Edoardo Amaldi boosted the ISS, for the first time, into an orbit entirely above 400 km altitude. The burns took place at 11:45 and 15:17 CEST; the former ran for under 7 minutes while the latter ran for almost 35 minutes.
A Needed Boost - By astronaut Don Pettit 3 Apr 2012: Here is my attempt to capture a Station re-boost last weekend using the ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle). Notice that as the burn progresses, a halo of exhaust accumulates that is visible when the thrusters fire for thrust corrections.
An engineering analysis of the European vessel's propulsion system performance showed the first burn achieved its planned propulsive push (that is, the planned increase in Station speed, measured in metres/second) within 1% of the target, while the second achieved an enviable 0.5%!
As a result, there will be no need to use the back-up boost slot available on 24 August.
Amaldi's propulsion is performing perfectly!
Update from Daniel Firre at ATV-CC:
Exciting day today with such a big and complex reboost, involving two separate burns and switching tanks!
ATV fires its rocket engines for reboosting ISS to higher orbit
The second boost was just completed, nominally, with a measured delta-V (change in velocity) of 4.9 m/s, which makes a total delta-V of 5.8 m/s for today's ATV propulsive support to ISS.
According to a preliminary update from the NASA navigation team, we have set a new ISS record here today, given that the entire ISS orbit is above 400 km altitude for the first time (perigee at 405km and apogee at 427 km)!
Of course, nothing comes for free; the fuel cost for today's double boost was close to 800kg, burned in 40 minutes of thruster firing!
Now it looks even further below...
A quick update on today's dual-burn reboost from ATV-CC; ESA's Daniel Firre is on console at the Mission Director's position:
Today's reboost is split into two separate thruster ignitions. The purpose of the reboost is to set up the ISS phasing conditions for the Soyuz 30 landing in mid-September and Progress 49 accelerated rendezvous on 31 October.
Hot! Video showing how a 220N ATV thruster appears when firing. More details
The details of each part of the reboost are:
The total delta-V will be 5.8 m/s, which corresponds roughly to an increase in ISS altitude of 10 km.
Daniel Firre (right) in ESOC Main Control Room during Cryosat launch 8 April 2010
The propellant consumption for this reboost will be in the order of 780 kg.
The boost had to be split in two parts because the remaining propellant in one of the two tank systems of ATV-3 is not enough for the planned delta-V; therefore, it is necessary to switch tanks in between the two burns.
So far today, the first burn took place exactly as planned and ATV-CC has just performed the tank switching. Waiting now for the thruster temperatures to lower to the nominal value before starting the second burn.
... update after the second boost!
Cheers from Toulouse,
-- Daniel
The ISS is scheduled to perform two successive reboosts today using the Orbit Correction System thrusters on board ATV-3.
The first, at 11:45 CEST, is set to run for 6 min 24 seconds and provide a speed boost of 0.90 m/sec and 1.56 km orbital height increase. The second is set for 15:17 CEST (34 min 49 sec; 4.90 m/sec; 8.56 km, respectively).
The purpose of the reboosts is to set up the phasing conditions for the Soyuz 30S landing in mid-September and Progress 49P accelerated (4-orbit) rendezvous on 31 October.
ATV Hatch - seen in the ATV mockup at ESA's EAC, Cologne
Brief update from ESA's Mike Steinkopf at ATV-CC a few moments ago:
Today, the ATV hatch was opened again. Crew had to preform the ATV-to-Service Module (SM) interface leak check and repressurization.
Then, they first opened the SM hatch (on the ISS side) followed by opening of the ATV Hatch. This activity finished the 'mid-mission isolation', which began on Sunday by hatch closing as standard procedure for Monday's EVA (see our earlier posts below for details).
ATV is again open for further crew utilisation!
Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko completed the first spacewalk of the Expedition 32 mission at 23:28 CEST, Monday, 20 August. Credit: NASA
Via @star_max76: One of the two cosmonauts during the Expedition 32-EVA; we could see a view of ATV-3!
Cosmonaut (and ATV-3!) seen during EVA-31, 20 August 2012 Credit: NASA/Quentin Dehais/@star_max76
Watch today's EVA coverage starting at 16:00 CEST via NASA TV below. EVA is set to start at 16:40 and run about 6.5 hours. Gennady Padalka will have the red suit stripe; Yuri Malenchenko will have the blue.
