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1990-10-08
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Mission Control Status Report #4
Sunday, October 7, 1990, 7:35 a.m. CDT
STS-41 crew members this morning unstowed and are working with
the Voice Command System (VCS) experiment which uses technology
developed at the Johnson Space Center to control the onboard
shuttle television cameras using verbal commands. Mission
specialists Bill Shepherd and Bruce Melnick are demonstrating the
VCS which allows them to control the cameras without using their
hands but rather using simple verbal commands such as "stop, up,
down, zoom in, zoom out, left, right." The VCS unit is installed
in Discovery's aft flight deck. Shepherd and Melnick will operate
the VCS at least three times each during the mission.
Commander Dick Richards and Mission Specialist 2 Bill Shepherd
also are working with Detailed Test Objective (DTO) 1206, the
Space Station Cursor Control Device Evaluation. A Space Station
cursor control device will be part of a general support computer
that Space Station crewmembers will use to command, control and
monitor Space Station systems. The purpose of this test is to
evaluate humans' use of cursor control devices in spaceflight.
The test cursor devices are similar to the devices under
consideration for Space Station. The test devices - a built-in
Macintosh trackball and a Felix cursor pointing device - are
Apple Macintosh Portable computer compatible.
An orbital maneuvering system (OMS) burn at a MET of 00/22:44 or
about 5:32 a.m. CDT changed Discovery's orbit from 178 x 160
nautical miles to 160 x 155 nautical miles. The 44 second burn
will enable the orbiter to land at Edwards Air Force Base at five
minutes after sunrise in optimum lighting conditions. Landing is
scheduled for a MET of 4/02:08 or about 8:50 a.m. CDT Wednesday
on orbit 66.
Later today the crew will power up the Remote Manipulator System
(RMS) and checkout the system. Crew members then will use the RMS
with the Intelsat Solar Array Coupon (ISAC) experiment. The ISAC
will measure the effects of atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit on
the Intelsat's solar arrays, to judge if the stranded satellite's
arrays will be seriously damaged by those effects. Intelsat,
launched aboard a commercial expendable launch vehicle earlier
this year, is stranded in low orbit and is, at the request of the
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, being
evaluated for a possible Shuttle rescue mission in 1992. ISAC
consists of two solar array material samples mounted on
Discovery's RMS arm. The arm will be extended to hold the samples
perpendicular to the Shuttle payload bay, facing the direction of
travel, for at least 23 consecutive hours.