Astronaut Health, Lunar and Earth Photography Fill Crew’s Research Schedule

Exploring astronaut health and photographing the Moon and Earth topped the research schedule for the Expedition 75 crew aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The orbital residents also kept up life support maintenance following the departure of cargo spacecraft the day before.

Station commander Jessica Meir of NASA assisted flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) in the Columbus laboratory module during the PhysioTool experiment that monitors an astronaut's blood flow, mental condition, and sleep quality. Adenot first measured her blood pressure then completed cognitive tasks on a computer to understand how living in microgravity affects her mental capabilities and behavioral style. Afterward, NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway measured Adenot's muscles and tendons for firmness and elasticity as part of the Myotones investigation that is contributing to inflight health monitoring.

Meir started her day wearing a smartwatch to track her rest and activity cycles for the RelaxPro study that seeks to reduce stress and improve sleep quality in space. Next, she ended her shift looking into a visual field device to measure her peripheral vision and help doctors identify potential space-caused vision issues. Hathaway worked throughout Tuesday in the Destiny and Harmony modules replacing filters that remove particles, gases, and odors from the station's environment to keep it safe and comfortable.

NASA flight engineer Anil Menon spent most of his shift on maintenance tasks stowing spacewalking gear and spacesuit batteries in the Quest airlock, configuring an autonomous free-flying camera in the Kibo laboratory module, and inspecting the advanced resistive exercise device in the Tranquility module. Menon completed his day in the cupola photographing the Moon and the light reflecting off the lunar surface from both the sun and Earth.

Roscosmos flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev started his shift wearing virtual reality goggles and responding to computerized visual stimuli testing how his sense of balance and direction is adapting to microgravity. At the end of his day, Fedyaev collected his blood sample, spun it in a centrifuge, then measured his red blood cell count.

Roscosmos flight engineer Anna Kikina checked the operation of biomedical gear that uses a tiny digital camera and a bright light to image a crew member's ear drum and ear canal. Roscosmos flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov installed hyperspectral Earth imagery to automatically photograph coastal landmarks in Australia and South America during the crew's sleep shift.

The trash-packed Progress 94 cargo spacecraft undocked from the Poisk module at 11:18 a.m. EDT on Monday and reentered Earth's atmosphere less than four hours later for a fiery, but safe demise above the South Pacific Ocean. Four spaceships are now attached to the orbital outpost including the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL resupply spacecraft , the Progress 95 cargo spacecraft , and the Soyuz MS-29 crew spacecraft .

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog , @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia