ISS expedition 34

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission emblem
ISS Expedition 34 Patch.svg
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 34
Crew: 6th
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-06M , Soyuz TMA-07M
Space station: International space station
Start: November 18, 2012, 10:26 PM UTC
Started by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-05M
The End: March 15, 2013, 23:43 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-06M
Duration: 117d 1h 17min
Team photo
v. l. To right: Oleg Nowizki, Kevin Ford, Evgeni Tarelkin, Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield and Thomas Marshburn
v. l. To right: Oleg Nowizki, Kevin Ford, Evgeni Tarelkin, Roman Romanenko, Chris Hadfield and Thomas Marshburn
navigation
Previous
mission:
ISS Expedition 33 		Next
mission:
ISS Expedition 35

ISS Expedition 34 is the mission name for the 34th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began on November 18, 2012 with the decoupling of the Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft from the ISS. The end was marked by the decoupling of Soyuz TMA-06M on March 15, 2013.

team

additionally from December 21, 2012

Substitute team

Since Expedition 20, no official replacement team has been announced due to the permanent training for the six-person crew. Unofficially, the backup crews of the two Soyuz feeder spaceships TMA-06M and TMA-07M (see there) are used as backup crews for Expedition 34. As a rule, these crews are deployed two missions later.

Mission description

First, Ford, Nowizki and Tarelkin had to keep the station in good working order for around four weeks. In addition to the maintenance work, various experiments were supervised and long-term medical examinations were carried out.

With the launch of Soyuz TMA-07M on December 19, 2012, the second phase of Expedition 34 began, within which two days later, with the coupling to the Rassvet ISS module, the crew size increased to six. In addition to maintaining the space station, the main task was to carry out various scientific and technical experiments in the fields of astronomy, biology, earth exploration, medicine, physics and technology.

New experiments concerned changes in surface tension in weightlessness through the addition of various surfactants to water (ESA experiment FASTER) and the testing of a microflow flow cytometer from the Canadian space agency CSA, with which cells and complex molecules in the blood flow are identified, counted and identified using multicolored laser light can be categorized. This is also to check the suitability of the device as a medical instrument in space.

Outboard activities

Video of the Robotic Refueling Mission

In mid-January 2013, a largely autonomous automatic refueling maneuver initiated from Earth took place overboard. The equipment required for the Robotic Refueling Mission had already reached the ISS in summer 2011. During the multi-day and multi-stage test, safety wires and caps were removed, a filler neck extended and a symbolic amount of liquid transferred. The extension of the Canadian DEXTRE manipulator arm was used for this.

New possibilities in communication

At the end of January, direct communication between the space station and a receiving and transmitting unit on the ground was carried out for the first time using a laser to transmit current scientific data. While hardware was used in 2011 in the course of a spacewalk on the outer skin of the module Zvezda was installed and previously tested in October last year. A total of around 400 Mbytes were transferred at data rates of up to 125 Mbit / s.

On February 19, in the course of a software update and a switch to a reserve system, all communication options between ground stations and the US-based segment of the ISS were interrupted for around three hours. A few days earlier, a cable technician in Russia had carelessly cut an important line on earth through which a wide range of information was transmitted from Russian satellites to ground stations. Both defects were repaired after a few hours. On February 22nd, however, anyone could theoretically communicate with the crew members of the International Space Station as part of a Google hangout under the motto “What you always wanted to know about life on the ISS”, but in practice only a few were allowed to do so. In general, NASA and CSA in particular have intensified their public relations work with this and similar contacts specifically to educational institutions.

Freight traffic

The Dragon spaceship is moved to the coupling point by means of a manipulator arm.

On February 9th, the Freighter Progress M-16M was decoupled and then burned up in the atmosphere. On February 11th, the Progress M-18M took off and after only about four hours of flight it automatically docked with the Pirs exit module . This was the last unmanned test of the new approach procedure before it was used on manned Soyuz spaceships. There was a little sky spectacle on February 14th in the night sky over Germany, when the third stage of the launcher left a clear trail of light as it burned up.

On March 1, the second regular Dragon freighter took off on a Falcon 9 launcher for the ISS. Despite a problem activating three groups of control thrusters, the mission was successful. More than a ton of material was transported back to earth on March 26th.

Landing and follow-up

On March 16, the crew of the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft landed , consisting of Oleg Novitsky, Kevin Ford and Yevgeny Tarelkin. The day before, Ford had handed over command of the station to a Canadian for the first time. Chris Hadfield did a good job and also excelled as an entertainer from space. With the assumption of command, ISS expedition 35 began at the same time.

After landing, Nowizki and Tarelkin completed a special program for the first time. First, a hand-controlled descent to the planet Mars was simulated in a centrifuge . The next day, the two cosmonauts completed a simulated exit on Mars, whereby an apparatus ensured that the gravity corresponded to that on the red planet.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 34  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther Glatzel: Crew of Soyuz-TMA 06M landed. raumfahrer.net, March 16, 2013, accessed on March 16, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Soyuz-TMA 07M on the way to the space station. Raumfahrer.net, December 19, 2012, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Soyuz-TMA 07M couples to International Space Station. Raumfahrer.net, December 21, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Refueling experiment outside the ISS. Raumfahrer.net, January 30, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Two-way laser communication with space station. Raumfahrer.net, January 31, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Roland Rischer: ISS: After radio silence now communication for everyone. Raumfahrer.net, February 21, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Roland Rischer: Everything you always wanted to know about life in the ISS. Raumfahrer.net, February 27, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Progress-M 18M started and immediately coupled. Raumfahrer.net, February 11, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  9. ^ Soyuz third stage burns up over Germany. Raumfahrer.net, February 14, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  10. ^ Daniel Maurat, Günther Glatzel: Falcon 9 started, Dragon in orbit, problem found. Raumfahrer.net, March 1, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Dragon has achieved its goal. Raumfahrer.net, March 3, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Soyuz TMA 06M crew landed. Raumfahrer.net, March 16, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Simulated Mars mission after real space flight. Raumfahrer.net, March 22, 2013, accessed June 7, 2013 .