Expedition 22 Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi works in the Japanese Kibo laboratory aboard the International Space Station. Aboard their orbiting home, the Expedition 22 crew members kicked off the week Monday by inspecting breathing apparatus, conducting a variety of experiments and performing scheduled maintenance activities.
Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency inspected portable breathing apparatus as well as fire extinguishers aboard the International Space Station to make sure the devices would be ready in the unlikely event of a fire inside the station.
Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer collected blood and urine samples for use in the station’s Human Research Facilities, or HRFs, and stored them in the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS. The HRFs provide on-orbit laboratories that enable scientists conducting human life science research to evaluate the physiological, behavioral and chemical changes induced by spaceflight.
Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov worked with a Russian experiment known as BIMS, which evaluates the skin and mucous membranes to see if there are changes over long-duration space missions. The experiment uses video and digital photography to capture areas of skin, gums, nasal passages and the ear canal.
