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Mike’s Space Mission And The ISS

finckemain.jpgIt was past midnight on October 12, 2008, in Houston. While most Houstonians were sleeping, the visitor’s gallery at the NASA Control Center was alive and packed with relatives, friends and well wishers of NASA’s Astronaut Edward Michael Fincke. There was good reason for this. Astronaut Michael Fincke, popularly known as “Mike”, was scheduled to set off in his second historic space mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The lift-off was scheduled only hour away, at 2.00 AM Houston time, (3.00 PM Kazakhstan time) to be exact. For the Assamese, Mike is the beloved Assamese son-in-law astronaut. So among the group were a good number of Houston Assamese families who gathered along with the Saikias, Mike’s in-laws, to witness the event and to see him off. The actual launching was taking place in the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in Soviet Russia, the same facility that Yuri Gagarin took off from, some 50 years ago that started the space age. Mike’s wife Renita and their children were already on site in Kazakhstan to witness the event and to see him off.

The ISS is a research facility that is being assembled, bit by bit, in its orbit in space since 1998. The ISS is orbiting rather on a low earth orbit of about 350 kms from the surface of the earth, and can, in fact, be seen from earth with the naked eye. It travels at an average speed of 27,700 km (17,210 statute miles) per hour, completing 15.77 orbits per day, making roughly one orbit every 90 minutes. It is an historic and exciting scientific space project for human civilization. The following are some essential data of its background.

The ISS is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and European Space Agency (ESA). Several others countries such as Brazil and Italy are also participating in the program while some other countries are showing interest in joining. The ISS is a continuation of several other previously planned space stations: Russia’s Mir 2, the U.S. Space Station Freedom, the European Columbus, and Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. India is yet to decide if it will join the project.

The first three-member Expedition 1 crew to the ISS was launched in 2000 atop a Soyuz rocket on Soyuz TM-31 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their four-month tour aboard the ISS officially ended on March 2001. Since then the ISS has been continuously staffed with revolving crew members thereby providing a permanent human presence in space
The ISS is serviced primarily by Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and by U.S. Space Shuttle orbiters. On March , 2008, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched an Ariane 5 with the first Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne, toward the ISS carrying over 8,000 kilograms of cargo.
For Mike and everybody else, this is a historic mission in many ways. Mike, 41, is making his second long-duration flight on the station. This time he has reason to be proud. He is going as the Commander in Chief of the mission. Along with him, the crew consists of Russian Flight Engineer Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov. With them is also participant Richard Garriott, a multimillionaire from Austin, Texas who is going as a private citizen paying his own 30 million dollar ticket.
At present the ISS has a capacity for a crew of three. In order to fulfill an active research program it will eventually increase the capacity to hold 6 crew members. Early crew members came from the Russian and U.S. space programs. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter joined the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006, becoming the first crew member from another space agency. The station has, however, been visited by astronauts from 16 countries. There is a proposal that an Indian astronaut will be included in near future. The ISS was also the destination of the first five space tourists.

The audience in Houston was observing the event in several giant screens in the NASA Mission Control center where the live events were projected from the other end of the globe. The eager audience in the Control Room was ready with many questions. NASA seems to be equally well equipped for the occasion and was very welcoming and cooperative for the occasion. The NASA coordinator welcomed the audience and tried to explain the ongoing events. The giant screen in the middle was showing the orbiting ISS so that one can see over which country the ISS was at any moment. Soon the audience was introduced to another NASA astronaut, the young Japanese Daniel M Tani. Daniel was a veteran astronaut of two space flights. He explained the technical issues from his own past experience, how the ISS was orbiting and how Mike and the crew would join the ISS soon. The orbit of the ISS is at about 50 degree angle to the equator and is orbiting from the southwest of the Americas to the Northeast of the USA over Europe and down on the opposite direction on the other side of the globe. The orbit is, however, flexible so that it flies over a wide range of countries

While we were eager to know as much as we would, we were equally praying that everything goes right. To our relief, very soon, the moment came and the audience witnessed the perfect lift-off in Kazakhstan. Soon, the Mission Control screen showed the successful jettison of the propulsion rockets leaving the Soyuz Space craft to accelerate into its orbit. The faces of Mike and the two crew member inside the Soyuz space craft appeared on the screen. And Mike showed his thumb up with his typical big smile. Daniel, the Japanese astronaut explained to us that within less than 10 minutes the spacecraft will reach its orbit, and its antennas and solar arrays will be deployed shortly afterward. He also explained that even after reaching the orbit, the space craft will make two or three orbits before final docking, orbiting along with the ISS, like a relay race, so that everything is synchronized for the final docking with the ISS. Two days later, the three crew members in Soyuz successfully docked with the ISS on Oct. 14. Mike Fincke and Lonchakov will spend six months on the station, while Garriott returned to earth on October 24, 2008, with two of the Expedition 17 crew currently aboard the ISS as a part of the revolving crew cycle.

There are several scientific experiments that are being carried out in the ISS. While many experiments continue over several expeditions, new ones are being set up and old ones are being deactivated with the results being studied on the ground. The experiments include many scientific investigations that includes studying how basic physics works in zero gravity, how the human body adapts in a microgravity environment, how the life cycle of a butterfly works, how gas molecules react including experiments to observe changes in an astronaut’s cardio-vascular system, immune system and sleep cycle and many more.
Daniel also explained the genius of Mike not only as a popular team leader in NASA but for his special linguistic skills. He casually mentioned that Mike has already learned Russian and Japanese, and he can speak both these languages fluently. He also mentioned that he is now learning Chinese in his spare times. We know his linguistic talent. He is already learning to speak Assamese through flash cards and by speaking with the Assamese families in Houston.
As an Assamese son-in-law, Mike fell in love with Assam in his first visit many years ago. While he was in the space last time, he took literally hundreds of pictures of the Northeast, its scenic beauty and the river Brahmaputra. He also performed a Bihu dance in the ISS for the Assamese community. To show his love for Assam, this time Mike is also going with some unofficial mission for the Assamese community. First he is carrying with him a special Assamese silk ‘Gamwsa’ which will be autographed in ISS by other astronauts and will be returned. The ‘Gamwsa’ was specially given to him for the occasion by the members of Friends of Assam and seven Sisters (FASS). FASS is also trying to schedule some Space Talks with three educational institutions of Northeast with Mike. The actual telephone talks will have to be channeled through an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). At present, we are coordinating with the institutions and trying to make sure that technicality everything goes right.

One may see more details in the following websites: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station www.space.gs/iss/08/fincke.html Also please note that the ISS can be seen with naked eye. It can be seen even better with a good pair of binoculars. However, one will have to know when it will appear over your area. Normally it is visible only for five minutes at the most. For sighting information, one may look at the following website when the ISS is visible from your place.  http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ .

Rajen Barua, Houston