Veg-03 Initiation: FE-3 configured and installed the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) on the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) and then installed six Small Plant Pillows to hold the ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce plants. Ground teams plan to grow the lettuce plants for two months, with four harvests planned. The overall goal of Veg-03 is to further demonstrate proof-of concept for the Veggie plant growth chamber and the planting pillows. Future long-duration missions into the solar system, finally culminating on Mars, will require a fresh food supply to supplement crew diets, which means growing crops in space. Previous investigations focused on improving productivity in controlled environments, but the limited quarters of the space shuttle and International Space Station made it difficult to conduct large-scale crop production tests. Veg-03 expands on previous validation tests of the new Veggie hardware, which crew members will soon use to grow cabbage, lettuce and other fresh vegetables in space. Tests determine which types of microorganisms are present in space-grown cabbage, providing baseline data for future crop-growing efforts. Behavioral health surveys assess the impact of growing plants on crew morale and mood.

Airway Monitoring Ambient and Reduced Pressure Operations: Today FE-5 and FE-6 began the measurement day of the European Space Agency (ESA) Airway Monitoring experiment. The crew used the Portable Pulmonary Function System (PPFS) to perform a series of measurements for two different protocols: the Fractional Expired Nitric Oxide (FENO) Low Nitric Oxide (NO) Protocol which determines how much NO is exhaled during respiration, and the Diffuse Capacity in Lungs Nitric Oxide (DLNO) High NO Protocol which determines how much NO is diffused in the blood, while the crew was in the US Airlock. Airway Monitoring is the first experiment to use the US Airlock as a hypobaric facility for performing science. Utilizing the US Airlock allows for unique opportunities in the study of gravity, ambient pressure interactions, and their effect on the Human Body. This investigation studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crewmembers, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to analyze exhaled air. This helps to highlight any health impacts and to maintain crewmember well-being on future human spaceflight missions, especially longer-duration missions to the Moon and Mars for example, where crewmembers will have to be more self-sufficient in highlighting and avoiding such conditions.

ISS Emergency Hardware Familiarization: The 48S crewmembers participated in a training session intended to familiarize the crew with the locations of equipment and the positions of valves used in the event of an emergency. During the training, the crewmembers translated along the emergency egress path inspecting emergency hardware components. For any questions they will consult with specialists at Mission Control Center-Moscow (MCC-M), Mission Control Center-Houston (MCC-H), Columbus-Control Center (COL-CC), and Space Station Integration and Promotion Center for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (SSIPC).

Today’s Planned Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-2 biofilm.

NEUROIMMUNITET. Saliva Sample Psychological Test (morning)

KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Blood Collection.

NEUROIMMUNITET. Venous blood sample processing (smear).

KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Processing venous blood sample using Plasma-03 centrifuge.

Insertion of Russian experiments blood samples into MELFI

KORREKTSIYA. NEUROIMMUNITET. Handover to USOS for MELFI Insertion

KORREKTSIYA. Closeout Ops

AIRMON Power On

ВКС Laptops Antivirus software checkout

AIRMON preparation and First Low NO measurement

MICROVIR. Removal of Cassette-M No.1-1 and No.1-2 from ТБУ-В No.04. Photography

Combustion Integrated Rack Alignment Guide Installation

MELFI Ice Brick Insert

AIRMON Calibrations, Low NO and High NO measurements

NEUROIMMUNITET. Psychological Test

VEG-03 MWA Preparation

Soyuz 731 Transfer Ops

Central station atmosphere analysis using CSA-CP unit

VEG-03 Experiment Install

AIRMON High NO measurement

LIOH and PFA Setup

СОЖ maintenance

MICROVIR. Photography of Cassetta-M No.1-1, No.1-2 upper cells. Squeezing out and photography of bottom cells

Preparations for and depressurization

VEG-03 MELFI Insertion #1

AIRMON Low NO measurement at low pressure

COSMOCARD. Setup. Starting 24-hr ECG Recording Tagup with specialists

COSMOCARD. Photography of the Experiment Ops

MICROVIR. Photography of bottom cells

AIRMON Low & High measurements at reduced pressure

BIOPLENKA. Removal of Samples from the Thermostat, fixation of Constanta cassette No.4-2 biofilm.

NEUROIMMUNITET. Hair Samples Collection

ISS Crew Adaptation

AIRMON High NO measurement at reduced pressure

IMS Delta File Prep

MICROVIR. Photography of bottom cells

INTERACTION-2. Experiment Ops

Airlock repressurization

Emergency Mask OBT

Airway Monitoring Private Medical Conference (PMC)

OBT ISS Emergency Hardware Familiarization

ISS Crew Orientation

MICROVIR. Photography of lower cells Start of video recording

CONTENT. Experiment Ops

AIRMON Power Off

Space Headaches – Daily Questionnaire

Private Special Conference (PSC)

MICROVIR. Photography of cell condition. End of video recording

NEUROIMMUNITET. Saliva Sample Psychological test (evening)

NEUROIMMUNITET. End of ECG Recording. Close-out Ops, Data Downlink

Completed Task List Items

JAXA Video Taking Part 8

Biomolecule Sequencer Flow Cell Retrieval

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

Lab MCA Full Cal

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Wednesday, 10/26: Soyuz Drill, Neuromapping, Dosetrack, Meteor, JAXA EPO

Thursday, 10/27: Airway Monitoring, Handover

Friday, 10/28: Cygnus Cargo Transfer, 47S Prepack, Change of Command

QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group: