SUBMITTED ABY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Crew Talks to Students, Conducts Experiments*

ISS015-E-13632 : Fyodor Yurchikhin with telemetry hardwareImage above: Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin performs in-flight maintenance on telemetry hardware in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

After enjoying a light-duty day on July 4, the Expedition 15 crew members resumed work this week with science experiments and station maintenance aboard the International Space Station.

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin performed analysis on air samples collected inside the orbiting complex on Tuesday to check the station's atmosphere for microbial contamination.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson worked with the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS), installing tubes on the water pumps for two modules. The EMCS is combination centrifuge and growth chamber experiment that studies methods of growing plants in space for future long-duration missions to the moon or Mars.

In preparation for an upcoming spacewalk, Anderson completed recharging the first set of spacesuit batteries and began recharging the second set.

Later Anderson took a break from his work and spoke with math and science students at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences in Charleston.

+ Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + View crew daily timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html