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Crew to repair station toilet and enter Kibo module today BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 4, 2008
Located in the Zvezda command module, the toilet began acting up about a week-and-a-half before Discovery's launch. Troubleshooting indicated the problem involved a liquid-gas separation system pump, but two spares on the station failed to work longer than about a day. All three pumps came from the same manufacturing lot and the Russians rushed a new pump with a different pedigree to the Kennedy Space Center for launch aboard Discovery. The shuttle docked with the space station Monday after a flawless rendezvous. Opening a final hatch between the shuttle and the lab complex, Discovery commander Mark Kelly called out, "Hey, are you looking for a plumber?" Kononenko will install the new pump starting around 9:30 a.m. and flight controllers hope to know the results of the repair a few hours later. "Oleg is going to do a remove and replace of the water separator unit that's been giving us trouble," station Flight Director Emily Nelson said early today. "He's got several hours set aside in the morning to take out the balky part, put in the new part and then we'll see in the afternoon if that does the trick or whether we need to figure out another solution." The toilet can be used in its current condition, but it requires additional flushing every two or three uses, a procedure that takes two crew members about 10 minutes to complete. With three full-time crew members, that translates into a major inconvenience. If the toilet cannot be repaired, the station is equipped with collection bags and containers that could be used until a Russian Progress supply ship arrives in September. Last week, there was some concern that a broken toilet ultimately could force the crew to leave the station and come home. But Kirk Shireman, deputy manager of the station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said Tuesday the crew has enough supplies on board to make it to September in a worst-case scenario. "If for some reason the ISS toilet becomes unusable, we actually do now, with some additional assets we put on (Discovery) at the last minute, have the capability to make it to the next Progress," he said. "So it's a combination of urine collection devices we actually have in the U.S. (section), we use these primarily for research purposes, that's their intended purpose, but we can use those for everyday use, if you will. The Russians also have something called a ring collector, which is again a backup method for collecting liquid wastes. "And so with all the assets we have on board, we believe even if we're unsuccessful (with the pump replacement) we'll make it to the next Progress when additional spare parts for the toilet and/or additional consumables could be launched. So at this point in time, even in a worst-case scenario, we don't believe that the ISS would be forced into a de-crewing situation. "By the way, right now we're not having issue with solid wastes, but we do have, we call them Apollo bags, backup methods for collecting of solid wastes," Shireman said. "Neither one of these are particularly pleasant, but certainly are tried and true devices for their intended purposes and can be used in this situation." While Kononenko is working on the toilet, Karen Nyberg and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will be outfitting the vestibule between the Harmony module and the newly installed Kibo laboratory. "That vestibule will have two power lines, four jumper cables for the thermal control system ... two data lines, two audio-video lines, one wireless audio line, one high-rate data line, one ethernet cable, two intra-modular valve jumpers, one nitrogen jumper and one water line for condensate water," said mission control commentator Rob Navias. "The first part of the vestibule outfitting ... will involve the removal of thermal covers and the installation of jumpers for the first of two power channel activation procedures, channel B as it is known, which governs the control of the moderate temperature loop. ... At the moment, (power and) heating is being provided to Kibo through the power and data grapple fixture, the station's robotic arm. Once the channel B activation is complete, Kibo will be on its own internal power and commanding of that new module will fall into the hands of the Japanese flight control team. If all goes well, the astronauts will open the hatch into Kibo around 4:52 p.m. and begin its initial activation. Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision E of the NASA television schedule): EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT 06/04/08 06:32 AM...03...13...30...Crew wakeup 08:32 AM...03...15...30...ISS daily planning conference 09:07 AM...03...16...05...CO2 removal system maintenance 09:17 AM...03...16...15...Vestibule outfitting 09:32 AM...03...16...30...ISS toilet repair 09:37 AM...03...16...35...Equipment lock preps 09:47 AM...03...16...45...OBSS sensor checkout 10:22 AM...03...17...20...EVA tools prepped 11:17 AM...03...18...15...Airlock check valve installation 12:17 PM...03...19...15...Middeck transfers 12:32 PM...03...19...30...Node 2 aft IMV installation 12:32 PM...03...19...30...Jumper channel B initial activation 01:02 PM...03...20...00...Crew meals begin 02:00 PM...03...20...58...Mars Phoenix briefing on media channel 02:02 PM...03...21...00...Vestibule outfitting continues 02:47 PM...03...21...45...Middeck transfers resume 04:47 PM...03...23...45...JPM hatch opening 04:52 PM...03...23...50...JPM ingress 05:27 PM...04...00...25...JPM PCS installation 05:47 PM...04...00...45...FSE ACM removal 06:17 PM...04...01...15...JPM setup 06:27 PM...04...01...25...EVA-2: Procedures review 07:17 PM...04...02...15...JPM RMS rack transfer 07:30 PM...04...02...28...Mission status briefing on NTV 08:57 PM...04...03...55...EVA-2: Mask pre-breathe and tool config 09:42 PM...04...04...40...EVA-2: Airlock depress to 10.2 psi 10:02 PM...04...05...00...ISS crew sleep begins 10:32 PM...04...05...30...STS crew sleep begins 11:00 PM...04...05...58...Daily video highlights reel on NTV
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VIDEO:
KIBO SCIENCE LAB ATTACHED TO THE SPACE STATION 