EMCS Facility Status Thomas Niedermaier

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 2 EMCS Facility  EMCS was launched with ULF1.1 in July 2006 under terms of a Barter Agreement between NASA and ESA  It was operational for 171 days on orbit  Relocation from Destiny to Columbus was performed during 1J/A joint ops

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 3 EMCS Experiments  TROPI Successful execution in EMCS. Science presented last month at the “Life in Space for Life on Earth” conference at Angers, France.  GRAVI-1: Adaptation of science protocol needed to be implemented due to SSPCM trip on ER3. Science presented at Angers.  MULTIGEN-1: Unexpected dry out due to operational issues, temporary loss of picture acquisition, partial recovery of science. Science presented at Angers.  CW/RW: The experiment containers could not be hydrated properly. Some science could be recovered.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 4 Technical Issues The major technical issues/problems are:  Experiment Containers not hydrating properly  Video Processing Unit (VPU) locking up  Unexpected shutdown of EMCS subsystems  Temporary loss of TM packets

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 5 Experiment Containers Not Hydrating Properly During the CW/RW experiment it was not possible to hydrate JAXA’s Experiment Containers (ECs) as planned. Only 3 of 8 could be watered finally after several trouble shooting measures on orbit, from which only 1 EC produced enough plant material for the planned fixation, the other plants were recovered dried out. A fault tree analysis was prepared and used as baseline for trouble shooting on orbit and for development of a test plan for EMCS items to be returned. With the 1J flight 1 RBLSS Module (|), 2 Water Reservoirs (|), and 2 ECs (|) were returned. Tests are currently ongoing. The first findings indicate that the problem is at the interface between the Water Reservoir and the RBLSS Module.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 6 Video Processing Unit (VPU) Locking Up During the MULTIGEN-1 experiment the movements of the stem and the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana were recorded. Approx. 32,000 images were taken and analysed for frequency and types of movement. At several occasions the VPU failed to communicate with the EMCS SPLC leading to a loss of images and to the need to perform ground commanding to restart the VPU and/or the SPLC, i.e., a proven workaround is in place if the loss of individual pictures is acceptable. An analysis of the software involved revealed that the VPU driver running on the SPLC is causing the problem. An updated interim version of this driver showed significant improvement of its robustness against loss of communication. It is proposed to update the VPU driver and - if necessary - of the EMCS application/basic software before the 2J/A flight.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 7 Unexpected Shutdown of EMCS Subsystems During MULTIGEN-1 EMCS H/W safety circuit switched off the EMCS subsystems due to spikes on the signal of the ACS O 2 safety sensor. After a workaround (i.e., decrease the O 2 level to 21 % if above) no more triggering occurred during MULTIGEN-1. After the move to Columbus no more spikes on the O 2 signal could be found but one more switch off with identical sequence occurred. During the 55 days of the CW/RW experiment two additional shutdowns due to loss of communication between the TCS and the SPLC occurred. All incidents are under investigation. No similar events happened with the ground model. The impact on science is the loss of lights and artificial gravity until restart of the EMCS subsystems.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 8 Temporary Loss of TM Packets A temporary loss of EMCS TM packets occurred during the EMCS operation in EXPRESS Rack 3. The TM is “going in and out” and transmission stabilizes by itself after minutes up to hours. In this state all commands were successfully received and executed by EMCS and it is proven that EMCS is producing TM because the outgoing TM queues are being filled up. However, it is not clear where between EMCS and the EXPRESS Rack Interface Computer the packets are being lost. Further analysis can be performed by connecting a SPLC ground model to the EXPRESS Suitcase Simulator. An impact on science may be caused by the temporary loss of TM including image transmission. In critical experiment phases realtime video could be used as an option.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 9 Next Steps  Analysis of hydration problem, fix and reverification of EMCS items on ground shall be completed until end of September  Performance of the postponed “EMCS clean-up after CW/RW” by the crew after the necessary EMCS resupply items have been launched.  On-orbit verification of the hydration feature.  Resume performance of experiments.

This document is the property of Astrium. It shall not be communicated to third parties without prior written agreement. Its content shall not be disclosed. Astrium Space Transportation 19/12/2006Page 10 Acronyms and Abbreviations ACSAtmosphere Control System CW/RWCell Wall/Resist Wall ECExperiment Container EMCSEuropean Modular Cultivation System EREXPRESS Rack RBLSSRotor Based Life Support System SPLCStandard Payload Computer SSPCMSolid State Power Controller Module TCSTemperature Control System TMTelemetry VPUVideo Processing Unit