Samantha on her 200th day in space. Credits: ESA/NASA

Samantha on her 200th day in space. Credits: ESA/NASA

Flight day 6 is not over yet but Flight day 7 looks to be another long day for ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen. First objective of the day is to setup the Mares muscle-monitoring machine. This experiment is planned to be done over the course of three days. The machine is as large as a typical exercise bench found in the gym but comes with batteries and precision controllers. Soyuz commander Sergei Volkov will help Andreas with the setup.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will visit the Columbus Control Centre to be at hand to help as Andreas and Sergei unpack and installs the equipment in space. Samantha was the last person to install the research equipment during her Futura mission earlier this year. She did a first setup test or ‘commissioning’ but Andreas will be the first astronaut to take measurements with Mares.

When the equipment is setup and the batteries are charging Andreas will do his second “hedonistic taste-testing” session of the Spirulina muesli bars for the Demes experiment.

Eurobot used for Supvis-E. Credits: ESA

Eurobot used for Supvis-E. Credits: ESA

Andreas will start setting up his second rover-driving test called Supvis-E. This experiment that is part of Meteron will be looking at the network and interface for controlling robots on a planet while in space. Andreas will use two laptops in the ESA’s Columbus space laboratory to perform this task.

Without fail Andreas will be asked to spend five minutes on his Space Headache questionnaire.