ID :
12703
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 16:49
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https://oananews.org//node/12703
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Russian cosmonauts complete EVA, return to ISS
KOROLYOV, Moscow Region, July 16 (Itar-Tass) - Russian cosmonauts
Sergei Volkov, mission commander, and Oleg Kononenko, flight engineer -- crewmembers of the International Space Station (ISS)-17 space expedition -- have completed their second routine spacewalk under the Russian programme.
Valery Lyndin, spokesman of the Flight Control Center outside Moscow, has told Itar-Tass, "They returned to the station at 03:00 Moscow time (on Wednesday) and closed the hatches behind them." Before re-entering the ISS, the cosmonauts inspected their spacesuits and wiped them clean with towels.
The cosmonauts have installed instrumentation on the outer surface of the service module Zvezda (star) for the conduct of a new geophysical experiment Vsplesk (eruption) the aim of which is to work out methods for a prompt prediction of earthquakes.
Professor Arkady Galper, science director of the experiment, has told Itar-Tass, "We have devised an instrument that can register the fluxes of medium-energy electrons and protons in the near-Earth space".
The main task of the research is "to register changes of the fluxes that can be connected with geophysical processes evolving down here on Earth -- such as thunderstorm phenomena, seismic processes, etc". The fluxes of charged particles will be recorded by two identical devices -- the Vsplesk and ARINA (the instrument which was installed on the spacecraft Resource-DK1, launched in June 2006 -- note by Itar-Tass) -- but from different points of the near-Earth orbit. This will enhance the reliability of the experiment, during which scientists are to determine the effectiveness of registration of particle eruptions -- the precursors of earthquakes-- to work out a procedure to separate useful information from the eruptions of particles that are of a different physical nature, and learn how to determine, on the strength of the measurement results, the coordinates of the epicenter of a forthcoming earth jolt. An error in
the determination of the location of a future earthquake is supposed to be 100-200 km.
After fixing the new instrumentation, the cosmonauts removed one of three Biorisk containers in which spores of bacteria and mushrooms, seeds of plants, as well as the crustaceans in the quiescent state, mosquitto larvae -- African Chironomides capable of existing in adverse conditions for decades in the state of cryptobiosis (drydown) -- have been kept outside the station since June last year.
"As a matter of fact, we wanted to keep the container exposed to the open space for 18 months. However, due to the EVA schedule of the ISS-17 crew, we have to remove it earlier than that," said Natalya Novikova, science director of the experiment.
The first stage of the Biorisk experiment, which was completed in
2006, revealed that microbes of various kinds, when placed in a container all together, endure such conditions. "This time we have placed microbes separately in different containers," Novikova specified.
Sergei Volkov, mission commander, and Oleg Kononenko, flight engineer -- crewmembers of the International Space Station (ISS)-17 space expedition -- have completed their second routine spacewalk under the Russian programme.
Valery Lyndin, spokesman of the Flight Control Center outside Moscow, has told Itar-Tass, "They returned to the station at 03:00 Moscow time (on Wednesday) and closed the hatches behind them." Before re-entering the ISS, the cosmonauts inspected their spacesuits and wiped them clean with towels.
The cosmonauts have installed instrumentation on the outer surface of the service module Zvezda (star) for the conduct of a new geophysical experiment Vsplesk (eruption) the aim of which is to work out methods for a prompt prediction of earthquakes.
Professor Arkady Galper, science director of the experiment, has told Itar-Tass, "We have devised an instrument that can register the fluxes of medium-energy electrons and protons in the near-Earth space".
The main task of the research is "to register changes of the fluxes that can be connected with geophysical processes evolving down here on Earth -- such as thunderstorm phenomena, seismic processes, etc". The fluxes of charged particles will be recorded by two identical devices -- the Vsplesk and ARINA (the instrument which was installed on the spacecraft Resource-DK1, launched in June 2006 -- note by Itar-Tass) -- but from different points of the near-Earth orbit. This will enhance the reliability of the experiment, during which scientists are to determine the effectiveness of registration of particle eruptions -- the precursors of earthquakes-- to work out a procedure to separate useful information from the eruptions of particles that are of a different physical nature, and learn how to determine, on the strength of the measurement results, the coordinates of the epicenter of a forthcoming earth jolt. An error in
the determination of the location of a future earthquake is supposed to be 100-200 km.
After fixing the new instrumentation, the cosmonauts removed one of three Biorisk containers in which spores of bacteria and mushrooms, seeds of plants, as well as the crustaceans in the quiescent state, mosquitto larvae -- African Chironomides capable of existing in adverse conditions for decades in the state of cryptobiosis (drydown) -- have been kept outside the station since June last year.
"As a matter of fact, we wanted to keep the container exposed to the open space for 18 months. However, due to the EVA schedule of the ISS-17 crew, we have to remove it earlier than that," said Natalya Novikova, science director of the experiment.
The first stage of the Biorisk experiment, which was completed in
2006, revealed that microbes of various kinds, when placed in a container all together, endure such conditions. "This time we have placed microbes separately in different containers," Novikova specified.
