At the CPC at the post-flight press conference of the Russian members of the ISS-72k crew, the cosmonauts of the 72nd space expedition shared interesting details about their work on the ISS. Alexey Ovchinin spoke about new experiments, including the "Plasma" experiment. And Ivan Wagner shared how he combined two types of activities.
Experiments are carried out in several stages and are not limited to the period of the space mission. The emergence of new experiments reinforces interest in activities, Ovchinin notes.
Otherwise, if you perform the same experiments during the flight, it becomes not very interesting.
On board the "Soyuz MS-26", the crew of the 72nd expedition, consisting of Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Wagner and Donald Pettit, carried out 42 scientific experiments.
One of the experiments is the "Plasma" experiment. We conducted it before the flight, during the flight, and we are conducting it now. For some experiments, you may not find out the results; often, you either don’t receive such information at all, or you receive it too late.
Each crew member is responsible for specific tasks, which contributes to the effective performance of work and maintaining team spirit. The commander monitors how the duties of all crew members are performed. During the 72nd expedition, Ivan Wagner was the leader.
In the event of emergency situations in the American and Russian segments, each of the crew members understands what he should do, where to run in the event of an emergency. All this is being analyzed. Joint trainings are conducted to consolidate all this. As a rule, there are no questions.
In conditions of prolonged isolation, such an organization of work becomes especially important, because it helps to maintain morale and focus on the mission.
During his work at the station, Ivan Wagner combined the roles of flight engineer and special correspondent for TASS. The cosmonaut noted that he spent 2–3 hours daily taking photographs, comparing this process to fishing.
I caught a fish, but it needs to be cleaned. The same with photographs: they need to be sorted, selected and processed. Otherwise, in 3 days you simply won’t remember what was photographed. I managed to capture the planets of our Solar System, I’m glad that I “caught” Saturn, constellations, various nebulae. I photographed many objects on the Earth’s surface. Before the start, I prepared about 450 points and about 90 percent (of these points – ed.) I shot.
Wagner also noted that fires and deforestation are photographed from the ISS. They are especially noticeable in the forests of the Amazon basin.
Ivan Wagner also noted that NASA astronaut Donald Pettit had something to learn during the space mission. Note that astronaut Donald Pettit is the oldest active NASA astronaut; on April 20, the day the MS-26 spacecraft with members of the 72nd expedition landed, he turned 70 years old.
Donald is a unique astronaut. You could and should have learned from him. He lent me one mechanism that he made himself in the garage: a clock mechanism that works out the reverse rotation of the station, thanks to which it was possible to shoot nebulae and galaxies.
Earlier www1 reported that the crew of the 73rd expedition also conducted a number of studies, including the "Lazma", "Fagen", "Cascade", "Pegas-SP", "Quartz-M", "Econ-M" experiments.
Read more materials on the topic:
The crew of Soyuz MS-26 with cosmonauts Wagner and Ovchinin returned to Earth
From space to the museum: what happens to Soyuz MS-26 after returning to Earth