Veggie PONDS Validation: The crew removed the Germination Cap from each Veggie Ponds Module and added water to reservoirs of each module in both facilities. Photos were taken and plant thinning was performed as needed. Organisms grow differently in space, from single-celled bacteria to plants and humans. Future long-duration space missions will require crew members to grow their own food. Therefore, understanding how plants respond to microgravity and demonstrating the reliable vegetable production on orbit are important steps toward that goal. Veggie PONDS uses a newly developed passive nutrient delivery system and the Veggie plant growth facility aboard the ISS to cultivate lettuce and mizuna greens which are to be harvested on-orbit, and consumed, with samples returned to Earth for analysis.

Engineered Heart Tissues: The crew performed sample fixations on selected tissue chambers and performed cell culture media exchanges on the remaining tissue chambers. A Human iPSC-based 3D Micro-physiological System for Modeling Cardiac Dysfunction in Microgravity (Engineered Heart Tissues) assesses human cardiac function in microgravity. It uses 3D cultured cardiac muscle tissue that mimics the architecture and function of adult human cardiac muscle. A magnet-based sensor placed underneath the tissue culture chamber allows real-time, non-destructive analysis of the functional performance and maturation of the tissues in space, which is compared with those cultured on Earth.

Mobile SpaceLab: The crew de-installed and stowed the Mobile SpaceLab hardware. This completes the objectives for this experiment. The Mobile SpaceLab is a tissue and cell culturing facility that launches and returns on International Space Station (ISS) resupply vehicles to offer investigators a quick-turnaround, high-throughput platform to perform sophisticated microgravity biology interrogations. The Mobile SpaceLab operates with autonomous microfluidic delivery of multiple reagents as well as automated brightfield and fluorescence microscopy. The Mobile SpaceLab can perform a biology experiment autonomously for up to a month on the ISS without the need for crew operations.

Bartolomeo: The ground robotic teams successfully installed the new Bartolomeo platform on to the Columbus module. Check was completed and the Antenna boom and OSIRIS boom were successfully deployed. The European external platform Bartolomeo is an enhancement of the ISS European Columbus Module and its infrastructure. Designed to meet user requirements from the commercial and institutional sector, Bartolomeo is a new external payload hosting facility on the ram side of Columbus that is mechanically attached to the ram-facing primary and secondary trunnions, and uses the Columbus Parking Position Interface (PAPOS) for electrical and data interfacing.

Systems

SpX-20 Preparation for Unberth/Release: Several activities on the plan were in preparation for SpX-20 unberth and release. The crew installed a single stowage locker, transferred the Mobile Spacelab payload onto Dragon and completed Dragon release and departure proficiency training. Currently, SpX-20 is scheduled to unberth on April 6th.

Queso Service Pack: Crew performed configurations changes to the iPads onboard following the Queso Service Pack deploy. As part of the Queso SP, the ISS server was upgraded and split in two requiring the crew to update their connection settings and bookmarks on the iPads.

Completed Task List Activities:

SpX-20 Cargo Operations

Today’s Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.



ISS Soyuz Phasing Reboost via 74P Nadir Progress Mid-Ring Thrusters

Bartolomeo Platform Installation

Look Ahead Plan

Friday, 4/3 (GMT 094)

Payloads:



POLAR sample transfer to CS (NASA)

Systems:

Crew Off Duty Day

Saturday, 4/4 (GMT 095)

Payloads:



MHU-5 Transfer Familiarization (JAXA)

NanoRacks Module-09 Ops 5 (NASA)

PCG10 MELFI insert (NASA)

NR Science Box removal (NASA)

MVP2 Cell-03 removals (NASA)

Systems:

COTS UHF Communication Unit (CUCU) Crew Command Panel (CCP) Checkout

Dragon Vestibule Outfitting Kit (VOK) Gather

Robotics Work Station (RWS) Display and Control Panel (DCP) Checkout

Sunday, 4/5 (GMT 096)

Payloads:



No payload activities

Systems:

Dragon Center Stack Cargo Loading

Dragon Egress and Close Out

Today’s Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

