The Expedition 30 crew members living and working aboard the orbiting International Space Station worked on computer upgrades and a variety of scientific research Thursday.
Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineer Don Pettit worked on the installation of an Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC) card into the Guidance, Navigation and Control-1 and Command and Control-3 Multiplexer/De-Multiplexers.
For over a week, the crew has focused on the EPIC upgrade of the station’s onboard computer architecture, which will provide the station’s computers with faster processors, more memory and an Ethernet interface for data outputs.
Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Kononenko and Anatoly Ivanishin worked on the long-running Russian BAR experiment, which seeks to determine the causes of pressure leaks and how best to detect and prevent them to improve space flight safety.
Kononenko and Ivanishin also worked with the Plasma Crystal-3 experiment, which studies crystallization dynamics in low-frequency electrical fields at different pressure levels.
Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers gathered trash and unneeded items to discard on the ISS Progress 45 cargo ship and performed maintenance on the station’s Water Recovery System.
Kuipers also had some time set aside to speak with reporters in the Netherlands during an in-flight interview in the European Columbus module.
Kononenko, Kuipers and Pettit, who arrived aboard the station Dec. 23, participated in a series of orientation activities to help familiarize themselves with their new home aboard the orbiting laboratory.
They are scheduled to live and work aboard the station until May.
Does your body need an upgrade? Then the robot suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb), will do the job in a single, step-motored reboot.
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