And Tuesday was back to the books and back to Russian class. My teacher says I am getting better, but still feel like I am struggling. After my Russian lesson, my class and I were supposed to have a lecture on life science investigations, but the instructor had to cancel. The class will be rescheduled sometime later. In the afternoon we had a briefing on what to expect on our National Outdoor Leadership trip that begins next week. We were told about what groups we will be in; how meals are done; what equipment we need to take, etc. Our class will be split into two groups and we will have two senior astronauts with each group. We will be further divided into tent groups of three people each. I am the only female in the group I am in and I will be sharing a tent with one of my classmates and one of the senior astronauts. Each tent group is also a meal group. The way food is done is that there is a joint stockpile of basic foodstuffs for each tent group. Each group is on their own for preparing meals. Since I will be paired with two rather big guys, I have made the offer that since I like to cook, I would be happy to fix the food if they will carry the heavy stuff.

At the end of the work day, I began preparing for my last evaluated class and my next qualification exam, which will be right after we get back from NOLS. This evening at home I watched video from the class I skipped last Friday. This was a science lecture on macromolecular crystal growth, i.e., growing protein crystals in space. What started out as a collaborative effort in the mid 1980s between a University of Alabama in Birmingham and NASA in Huntsville has turned into some of the top crystallography in the world. The research has allowed scientists to grow better crystals, both in space and on the ground, which permits those in the pharmaceutical industry to create better medicines. I know, I know, that sounds like a NASA public relations segment, but it is really true. This research and engineering group has done some pretty amazing things in the world of protein crystals. If you are not in this business, you will just have to trust me. . .

Why did we learn about this? Well, their experiments have been flown on the Shuttle a number of times. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of doing a program of Space Station experiments when the re-focus of NASA to lunar and Martian exploration scuttled their space research. NASA has changed the emphasis of its current research to be on what is needed for long duration space exploration. Protein crystals do not currently fit in that plan. That means that they will not be able to fly the experiments that they have been working on any time soon. It is impressive to me that the head of this group is not upset over the change in research focus for NASA. He believes in and fully supports the exploration vision and plan. He just hopes that, in time, they can get back on the Station and continue their work on crystals.

On Wednesday I did not have anything on my schedule. So, I spent most of the day studying. Another one of my classmates had a review class in one of the single systems trainers for the auxiliary power units system. I joined the review since that will be the next qualification test that I will have. It occurred to me during the lesson that the last time I had to think about or touch a switch on this system was roughly five months ago. I definitely had a lot of cobwebs, so it was good to revisit the procedures. In the afternoon I took a break from studying and went flying. The pilot and I zipped down to Corpus Christi and back. It was a good flight. We used the time when we were cruising along to talk through a lot of emergency procedures.

On Thursday I had another round of Russian fun. I think I may be getting the hang of the grammar again. However, my next class will not be for a couple of weeks due to the upcoming NOLS trip. So, we will see how much I recall when we return. After my Russian lesson, our class had a briefing on the microbiology monitoring that is done in space. This was a lecture on the types of air, water, and surface sampling that is done to ensure that nothing unwanted is growing anywhere. We also learned about the various ways that biological problems are prevented in the first place - the cleaning of equipment, the quarantining of the crew, etc. Following the class we took at look at all the equipment used for said monitoring.

My last activity for the day was a late afternoon/evening simulation focusing on communications problems. The simulation consisted of four hours of running various procedures that you would normally do on-orbit, such as activating and configuring various Shuttle systems, doing water dumps, and doing routine maintenance of the fuel cells. As we went through these procedures, we dealt with various audio and instrumentation problems. We went through a lot of malfunction procedures that we have not encountered before. I enjoyed the class, even though we got finished fairly late in the day, about 9:00 p.m.

Today I found out what technical job I will have when I am done with the initial Shuttle and Station training. I will be what is called a crew support astronaut. I do not know exactly what the job will entail, but basically I will be a liaison to a crew preparing for and flying on the Station. I will be helping the crew during their training with whatever issues they may have. I expect that I will be doing some traveling to Russia, since the Station crews spend nearly half of their time in Russia training. And, I will be trained as a "Capcom," the person in the control center that talks to the crew in space. I am excited about this job. It will be a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

Friday was a busy day. It began with a toxicology class. This class was a hands-on session with the hardware used to measure various components in the atmosphere on the Station - are the oxygen levels right or is there too much carbon monoxide? Or is there some other component that should not be there and could potentially harm the crew? We also took a look at the hardware used to clean up hazardous materials, should there ever be a spill/release on-orbit.

Following the toxicology lesson I had my last evaluated class. Yea! This evaluation was a single systems trainer class on malfunctions in the computers during the entry phase of flight. We covered lots of things that I had not seen before and it was a busy class, but I passed with no issues. Of course, there are lots more evaluations in my future, namely the qualification exams. But, this is the last one in the series of evaluations that we have been doing with our malfunction classes and I am happy to have them completed.

My last class for the week was a lesson on the Station's inventory management system. Basically, this system is what is used to keep track of where stuff is on the Space Station. This system is actually pretty slick. There are literally thousands of items on the Station, and, consequently, it is very easy to lose things. Hmmm, now, where did we tuck away that widget four months ago when we were unloading the Shuttle. . .? The way that the tracking of things is handled is by just about everything that goes to the Station having a bar code on it. There are also bar codes on all the places were you can store things. So, when you are unpacking or moving something, you can scan it with a handheld bar code reader and scan the new location for the item and voila, the location information is sent to the master database on the Station's file server via the wireless network on board. Of course, the system is only as good as the data that is entered, so the crew does have to keep it up to date. The ground also has to know where everything is, so that when they put together procedures, they can tell the crew where to find whatever particular hardware is needed for that activity. So, the on-board inventory database is synced with ground version at least twice daily. And, not just the Houston ground. Moscow, Japan, and the Europeans all have to track their hardware, so everyone is kept in sync.

Ahhh, another week completed. And, I can put the books away for awhile, since I will be spending the next two weeks doing the outdoor leadership school.