STS-107 Daily Science Report
January 29

The Mist experiment did not work properly at first because of a leakage problem, but astronauts – guided by the Mist science team – brilliantly sorted out the difficulty and Mist is now up and running. After the first successful dry test, during the priming of the pump, Mist had a slight problem introducing mist into the chamber. It took an unexpected (and nerve-racking) six successive pump priming commands to finally push water from the reservoir through the lines and into the flame tube. After the successful priming, Mist started to run test points aggressively and completed six tests (three more than scheduled originally in the timeline). Data looks good so far.

Mist has currently given up GC data, but it does not seem that this will seriously affect the science because there is no indication of an anomaly in the rest of the analyzed data and observations so far.

Mist is on an accelerated test schedule to make up for the time lost while the astronauts were troubleshooting the experiment.

The CVX-2 flight instrument continues to operate well. The instrument is in the fourth critical period, using a faster temperature ramp rate than the previous two critical periods. CVX-2 will extend operations to include one more ramp through the critical point before ending operations.

SAMS-FF is providing 2-shift, real-time support of MIST in the CM-2.

Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE) will remain powered in support of MIST in the CM-2. Quasi-steady acceleration data will be provided after the mission.

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Mission Status Reports

January 31, 2003
January 30, 2003
January 29, 2003
January 28, 2003
January 27, 2003
January 26, 2003
January 25, 2003
January 24, 2003
January 23, 2003
January 22, 2003
January 21, 2003
January 20, 2003

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