ISS expedition 38

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Mission emblem
ISS Expedition 38 Patch.svg
Mission dates
Mission: ISS expedition 38
Crew: 6th
Rescue ships: Soyuz TMA-10M , Soyuz TMA-11M
Space station: International space station
Start: November 10, 2013, 23:26 UTC
Started by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-09M
The End: March 11, 2014, 00:02 UTC
Ended by: Decoupling from Soyuz TMA-10M
Duration: 120d 0h 36min
Number of EVAs : 4th
Total length of the EVAs: 27h, 13min
Team photo
v. l. To the right: Michail Tjurin, Kōichi Wakata, Richard Mastracchio, Sergei Rjasanski, Oleg Kotow and Michael Hopkins
v. l. To the right: Michail Tjurin, Kōichi Wakata, Richard Mastracchio, Sergei Rjasanski, Oleg Kotow and Michael Hopkins
navigation
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ISS Expedition 39

ISS Expedition 38 is the mission name for the 38th long-term crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began with the disengagement of the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft from the ISS on November 10, 2013. The end was marked by the disengagement of the Soyuz TMA-10M on March 11, 2014.

team

Additionally from November 7th 2013:

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-10M and TMA-11M (see there) are used as backup crews for Expedition 38. As a rule, these crews are deployed two missions later.

Mission description

During Expedition 38, around 200 experiments were supervised or completed, four spacecraft missions were carried out - two of them unscheduled - the ISS was celebrating its 15th birthday and three cargo spacecraft were received, two Progress and one Cygnus. In addition, a total of 37 small satellites, each weighing around 1 kg, were transported out of the ISS via a lock and then catapulted into space with a special launch device.

The experiments covered astronomy, atmospheric research, biology, materials science, medicine, physics and technology. Part of it is attached to the outside and runs largely automatically. Some of the experiments inside are also largely automated and only occasionally require the assistance of a spaceman, for example to change samples, for maintenance or to back up data.

On November 19, Koichi Wakata brought three small satellites, which had previously arrived with the HTV Kounotori 4, through the Kibo airlock after a brief check of their function and catapulted them away from the station with a special device. Another satellite followed on November 20.

On December 12, problems were reported with the cooling circuit A of the US-based segment of the International Space Station. It was found that the flow control valve used to control the flow of ammonia coolant in the external cooling circuit was not working properly. This made it necessary to replace the pump module, for which there were three replacement modules mounted on express logistics modules or external storage space platforms. The start of the second Cygnus freighter has meanwhile been postponed to January 2014.

A large number of biological, physical, medical and technical examinations were carried out in the station during the course of the mission. The latter included the commissioning of a multi-gas monitor, which simultaneously and in real time monitors the concentrations of oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide and ammonia as well as records temperature and air pressure. The measurement process is based on the excitation of the gases with laser light and the detection of the resulting substance-typical radiation by means of two photo sensors.

For years, small satellites have been tested on board the ISS that move inside the station by means of 12 pressurized gas nozzles and can synchronize themselves autonomously with one another (SPHERES = Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). For example, they can dock or move in formation flight. Several extension experiments are planned for the near future. SPHERES-Inspire II is about additional computing capacity and sensors. This began back in 2011 with the connection of a satellite to a smartphone. Now sensors should allow precise position determination in the station and 2 cameras with the corresponding pattern recognition raise the orientation in space to a new level.

For SPHERES-Rings the satellites were equipped with rings full of additional equipment. On the outside there are large coils with which it should be possible for two satellites to fly in formation, although one remains completely passive. One satellite is powered by compressed gas, while the forces are transmitted to the second by means of magnetic fields. In addition, they want to use the same apparatus to transfer energy without contact using alternating electromagnetic fields. Several series of tests were carried out in February.

Finally, SPHERES-Slosh aims to find out which control commands are the cheapest when transporting a liquid-filled tank. The resulting vibrations and inertial movements should be minimized as much as possible.

In the course of February, 28 Flock-1 satellites supplied by the Cygnus freighter were released into space using a special launch device (SSOD = Small Satellite Orbital Deployer). Each of the satellites has dimensions of 10 × 10 × 30 centimeters and is equipped with solar cells on the outside. In addition, each satellite has a camera and transmission equipment with which images of the earth's surface can be made and transmitted to earth. Flock, in German as much as crowd or swarm, is supposed to be a whole constellation of small satellites, which, launched at different times, are distributed over a wide area of ​​the orbit at an altitude of about 400 kilometers with an orbit inclination of almost 52 degrees. This allows you to repeatedly photograph every point on earth between 52 degrees north and south latitude at regular intervals.

The flock constellation was initiated and built by the US company Planet Labs and is intended to provide information about changes on our planet worldwide. Each satellite produces images, saves them and sends the data to Earth as soon as it flies over a ground station in the system. Here the images are prepared and made available on a server. On February 28th, 4 more small satellites for Lithuania, the USA and Peru were launched in the same way.

In addition to the research program mentioned, pictures of certain regions of the earth's surface were repeatedly taken. With the decoupling of the Soyuz-TMA 10M spacecraft, the ISS expedition 38 ended on March 11, 2014. The return had been brought forward one day in order to avoid the original landing area due to difficult weather conditions.

Freight traffic

After several tests of new technologies, the supply ship Progress-M 21M ultimately had to be docked manually by Commander Oleg Kotow, as the automatic docking failed at a distance of about 60 meters.

At first everything looked like a smooth run through. The spaceship approached the space station purposefully, sometimes circling it at a distance of about 250 meters in order to get to the correct position for the final approach. It then started at the right time and approached the Zvezda stern up to about 53 meters. Then the software switched to the "Hold position" mode. When this was recognized, Oleg Kotow took control of the approaching spaceship from inside the station. There is also a TORU for Телеоператорный Режим Управления (German about as much as control panel for teleoperations), with which one can control the operations of the spaceship via two control levers similar to a computer game. The connection then took place with high precision around 11:30 p.m. CET, only about 3 minutes later than planned.

The freighter took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 25th. He brought a total of 2.4 t of cargo to the International Space Station, including 670 kg of propellants, 420 kg of water, 300 kg of materials for scientific research, 187 kg of food, 178 kg of materials for NASA, 134 kg of equipment for the Russian space travelers, 122 kg of medical Materials and other resources, equipment, spare parts, documentation and personal items, including Christmas and New Years mail for the spacemen.

On February 3, the Freighter Progress-M 20M cast off from the station. It was used to investigate gravitational-stabilized flight attitudes for several days before it burned up in dense layers of atmosphere on February 11th. Another freighter, Progress-M 22M, took off on February 5 and docked at the station around 6 hours later. Around 2.5 t of cargo came on board with it.

On February 18, the transport spacecraft Cygnus 2 (CRS-Orb-1), which was launched at the beginning of January and docked at the station, was loaded with garbage, separated from the ISS and set down about 10 meters away by Canadarm2. On February 19, the final braking maneuver and the destructive re-entry into the earth's atmosphere took place here.

Orbit maneuvers

On December 11th, in preparation for the planned arrival of a cargo ship of the Cygnus type, the runway was raised by about 1.7 kilometers with the engines of the Freighter Progress-M 21M coupled to the stern.

Another maneuver was carried out on January 18, 2014. With the on-board engines at the stern of the Russian supply ship Progress-M 21M, which has been docked since November 29, 2013, the maneuver known as reboost was carried out to raise the orbit of the ISS. Reboosts are necessary on a regular basis, as the ISS loses altitude between 80 and 150 meters per day due to the braking effect of the thin residual atmosphere. The drive phase, which lasted 520 seconds, increased the speed of the ISS by around 1.18 meters per second and lifted the station's track by around 2 kilometers.

The orbital elevation was originally planned for January 16, 2014, but had to be postponed due to the risk of a potential collision with space debris. The shift meant that the station was not at a dangerously close distance from an old part of a US Delta 2914 rocket, which had transported the Japanese weather satellite GMS 1 alias Himawari 1 into space in 1977.

Space operations

1. Exit

On December 21, 2013 Mastracchio and Hopkins started a spacewalk to prepare for the replacement of a failed pump for the cooling system of the ISS. The work was so successful that the pump could be completely removed and then safely stowed away. This was originally intended for another outboard operation, which could thus be saved.

2. Exit

When Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins left for the second time, a replacement pump was installed in a cooling circuit of the International Space Station on December 24th. In the course of the outboard stay, which lasted more than 7 hours, the new pump was transported from its storage location on the external storage platform 3 (ESP) to the place of use by means of a manipulator arm and brought into the intended position. After fastening the pump module with four bolts, the lines were detached from a bridging box and connected to the new pump. It took several attempts on one of the 4 hoses to loosen the lock.

In addition, a small amount of solidified ammonia leaked out of one of the hoses, so that before entering the lock you could still be exposed to the sun for a while from all sides, whereby the ammonia should evaporate.

In the meantime, electrical connections have been made and the device has been tested. Since the test was successful, the repair could already be completed on the second use. The defective module still has to be brought from its current position on the mobile transporter to the external storage space platform 3. This task has been postponed to a later date.

3. Exit

On December 27th, two cosmonauts were working outside the International Space Station. The work also included installing two cameras from the Canadian company UrtheCast. The disembarkation began around 3 p.m. CET with the exit from the Pirs lock module, which is installed on the underside of Zvezda. The main part of the time was devoured by the installation and testing of two cameras and transmission equipment from the Canadian company UrtheCast. According to information from the control center, the expected telemetry data was not received. According to other sources, the high-resolution camera worked, but the second medium-resolution camera failed.

Ultimately, Oleg Kotow and Sergei Ryazansky were instructed to dismantle the cameras and bring them back to the station. In addition, the electrical connections on the platform that was installed a few weeks ago and movable around two axes should be photographed so that the cause of the failure of the technology can be found out.

Some of the original tasks then remained unfinished. The Всплеск experiment (deflection [of a seismometer]), with which the effects of seismic activity on earth had been recorded on charged particles in their immediate vicinity, were dismantled, and the apparatus was pushed into space. Instead, a more sophisticated experiment called Сейсмопрогноз (seismic forecast) was installed, with which, among other things, one wants to obtain earthquake forecasts based on changes in the Earth's plasma field.

The exit took 8 hours and 7 minutes, making it the longest outboard stay for Russian cosmonauts to date.

4. Exit

On January 27, Oleg Kotow and Sergej Ryazansky installed two cameras on the outside of the station during an approximately six-hour exit (6:08 h) on behalf of the Canadian company UrtheCast. After an unsuccessful attempt at a previous exit, success could now be reported: both cameras are working.

See also

Web links

Commons : ISS Expedition 38  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Expedition 38th NASA, March 11, 2014, accessed March 11, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Russian cargo ship delivers holiday goodies to space station (with help). NBCNEWS, November 29, 2013, accessed November 1, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Astronauts complete pump removal ahead of schedule. Space Flight Now, December 21, 2013, accessed December 21, 2013 .