Space Team Online QuestChat

Date: September 10, 1998

Featuring: Angie Lee
Experiment Systems Manager
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 5 - 08:51:56 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Good morning Oran.
Good morning, Michelle, and welcome! We will begin our chat in about 10 minutes. Thanks for joining us today!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 8 - 08:57:54 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Are any of the experiments you design for the space shuttle dangerous?
Kira, we have not begun our chat at this time. We will begin in approximately 5 minutes. Please hold your questions until then. Thanks for joining us today!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 10 - 08:58:29 ]
RE: [Roy-Roy/Australia] *yawn* Hello all.
Good morning, Roy. We'll begin our chat shortly.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 11 - 09:00:11 ]
Good morning and welcome to today's Space Team Online chat with Angie Lee from NASA Johnson Space Center! Angie helps scientists develop and obtain the things they need to make their experiments work in space. She helps them turn their idea for an experiment into something that can fly on the space shuttle or the International Space Station. This includes taking an experiment, and the investigators/scientists who developed it, through the whole process needed to make their experiments work in space.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 13 - 09:01:19 ]
RE: [Oran/NASAChatHost] And now, here is Angie Lee to answer your questions.
Hi, everybody! I'm really looking forward to our chat today!

[ AngieLee/JSC - 16 - 09:03:17 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] Angie, How long are the shifts you sit at the console in the Science room?
Hi, Roy! The last mission that I worked was the STS-90 Neurolab mission, and most of my console shifts were about 8 hours long. It usually gets so exciting, though, that I'll stay on console for 10 or 12 hours just listening in and watching.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 17 - 09:04:07 ]
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[ AngieLee/JSC - 19 - 09:05:01 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Hello Angie. Are any of the experiments you design for the space shuttle dangerous?
Hi, Kira! Any scientific experiment that your perform, whether it's in the Space Shuttle or on the ground, has some degree of risk involved. The scientists take every precaution to make sure that nobody gets hurt, and the astronauts always have the option to stop doing the experiment if they are not comfortable with how it's going.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 21 - 09:07:31 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Good morning Dr. Lee. Do you know of any websites that explain physics concepts such as bow shock in terms that younger students might comprehend. I work with K-6th and I don't understand it well enough to explain. Perhaps something with pictures/diagrams?
Good morning! Unfortunately, I'm not personally aware of any such websites. And, please, just call me Angie. "Dr. Lee" is so formal, and besides, I don't have a Ph.D.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 22 - 09:09:21 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] Angie, What happens if an experiment fails and can not be compleated? Is it postponed to a later mission, or is it scrubed?
It really depends on the experiment and how serious the failure is. If the failure can be worked around during the mission and enough data is collected so that the scientist can still complete his analysis, then it's not normally reflown.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 25 - 09:14:44 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Last question was for wrong chat - sorry - what I wanted to ask you, was : Are there plans for more experiments with toys in Space. I have a video tape of demonstrations with slinkies, yo-yos etc. done aboard the space shuttle and it is most interesting to see how everyday objects perform in space.
I've seen the toy demonstrations, too. They're really pretty neat. I don't know about any more future experiments to study these kinds of things, but using everyday objects in space is one of the challenges in my job. Tasks and tools that are fairly simple to use on the ground don't always work so well in space.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 27 - 09:16:37 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] Angie, After the shuttle has landed, is your job finished with the experiments, or is there post flight work to be done?
No, after landing, my job continues. For the human life sciences experiments, most of the scientists need to collect additional data from the astronauts to track how their bodies readjust to gravity after being in space. Also, there's a LOT of work involved in unpacking and removing all of the experiment hardware from the Shuttle and sending it back to Houston.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 30 - 09:20:51 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] What was the hardest design problem you've had and have the astronauts and/or you ever had to improvise on a design for an experiment while in space?
Hmmm, that's a tough one. The hardest problems to solve are usually the ones that don't have a clear, specific cause. As an example, we had a laptop computer screen that started to flicker and scroll while the crew was trying to use it for one of our experiments on STS-90 Neurolab. We had the crew try everything from turning the computer on and off, reconnecting all of the cables, and even giving it a good whack to try and stabilize the screen. The crew finally thought to put it in front of an exhaust fan to try to cool it off a little, and that worked. We're still not exactly sure why it started behaving that way in space.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 33 - 09:26:32 ]
RE: [Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future-Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future] Angie- Could you walk us through the steps involved in designing an experiment to be included in a mission, perhaps using a specific example from the upcoming STS-95 mission?
Hi, Meri! The first step in the process is that NASA Headquarters releases an announcement to the scientific community asking for experiment proposals, usually to study some specific area of life sciences. In the case of STS-95, NASA HQ wanted to focus on aging. Scientists from all over the country (and the world) then submit proposals for experiments to NASA HQ. NASA HQ then selects a small number of those proposals for development. That's where people like me come in. We work with the scientists to further refine their experiments for flight in space. We'll design and build the hardware, help develop the crew procedures, conduct crew training, do testing both here at JSC and in Florida at KSC, integrate the equipment into the Shuttle, and finally support the scientists and the astronauts on orbit by working on console during the mission.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 34 - 09:28:08 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Did any of your experiments ever go wrong and did you learn something you didn't expect?
You always run into little problems or things you don't expect on orbit. I do know that some of the scientists have found out new things that they didn't expect after analyzing the data they gathered on orbit.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 36 - 09:29:23 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] Are you currently working on anything to be flowen on STS-96?
Nope, not yet, although that's always a possibility.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 38 - 09:31:07 ]
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[ AngieLee/JSC - 39 - 09:33:09 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What was the most unexpected (funny?) side effect of an experiment in space?
The funniest thing I can think of happened on a mission called Spacelab Life Sciences-2 which flew in October of 1993. In that mission, one of the experiments had the crewmembers breathing a controlled mixture of gases and then studying how their lungs processed the mixture. The gases were mixed in a large rubber bag, and the crewmembers breathed on a mouthpiece that was attached to the bag. Well, something went wrong with the gas delivery system, and too much gas was being pumped into the bag. The bag ended up inflating like a big balloon. It didn't pop or anything, but the crew had a lot of fun by using duct tape to make a "smiley face" on the bag and dressing it up with a crew jacket.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 42 - 09:35:25 ]
RE: [Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future] Can you give us a description of results from one of the Neurolab experiments? Were scientists running Earth controls simultaneously to the inflight experiments?
The Neurolab scientists are right now in the middle of doing their data analysis from that mission. They're scheduled to present their findings next summer, so unfortunately, I don't have access to much of their results yet. However, many of the scientists have reporting finding new and exciting information in their preliminary analysis of the data. I'm looking forward to reading their reports next year.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 43 - 09:37:53 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] Have there ever been an experiment on the shuttle (or pressurized addon lab) that required a different enviroment? (pressure change, temp, etc)
Any experiment that requires special environmental controls is usually somehow self-contained. There are obviously limits on how much you can vary the internal cabin environment before crew comfort and safety are a concern. I do know that the internal cabin pressure can be changed and in fact is when a spacewalk is planned. That way , the crew can pre-breathe and prepare for the environment in their space suits.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 45 - 09:39:04 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Have you worked on any experiments that will help on future space flights to the Moon, Mars or for longer missions on the new space station ?
The ultimate goal of all of the life sciences experiments we do is to develop new methods and countermeasures to help use keep astronauts healthy in space, especially for longer duration missions like a trip to Mars.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 47 - 09:42:18 ]
RE: [Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future] From reading your biography, it sounds like a lot of STS-95 will involve metabolic studies (what goes in and what comes out, food-wise). Will there be a comparison of younger vs. older crew members to see if age affects metabolism?
Yes, there will be some comparisons made. One of the things that the scientists have noticed over the years of studying young, healthy astronauts is that the effects on their bodies after staying in space are remarkably similar to the effects of aging. That's what prompted Sen. Glenn to suggest that NASA focus some of it's research on aging.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 52 - 09:44:25 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Do you know how young a member of the shuttle crew can be? Have any experiments ever been proposed to study the effects of space on youths or children?
Most of the astronauts that are selected are usually in their mid to late 30's and early 40's, although a couple have been in their late 20's. I'm not aware of any studies on children or young adults, but there have been studies conducted on animals to see how the lack of gravity in space effects their development. Several of the animal experiments on Neurolab looked at this sorts of issues.

[ Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future - 51 - 09:43:45 ]
Kira- I'd love to learn the answer to that question, myself! Meri ;-)

[ AngieLee/JSC - 55 - 09:48:09 ]
RE: [Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future] Angie- Could you describe some of the high priority areas for research on the first few International Space Station missions?
The main priority will be construction of the station, which unfortunately makes doing science very difficult. We do, however, have several human life sciences experiments that are scheduled to be performed on those early missions. Most of them are fairly simple or require only pre-flight and post-flight data. It may be a few years before we can do large, complex experiments as we've been able to do on the Shuttle and in Spacelab.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 57 - 09:50:07 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] What physical activities (exercises) will the astronauts be doing for the purpose of age comparisons.
The astronauts have a variety of excercises to choose from on orbit. They usually opt for a treadmill to run on or to peddle on the bicycle ergometer. There really aren't any special excercises we're having them do to study aging--just a normal, active and healthy exercise plan.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 58 - 09:51:19 ]
RE: [Yoshihide/Japan-black.jack.] Good morning Dr.Lee. Sorry,I can not write English well. If you understand my question,please answers my question. What is Dr.Mukai doing now,for STS-95?
Dr. Mukai is a Payload Specialist on the STS-95 mission. That means she will fly with the rest of the astronauts, but her primary duties will be to the payload experiments on the mission.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 60 - 09:52:40 ]
RE: [Roy/Australia] How long does it take for addon modules to be added to the space shuttles' airlock?
The process from start to finish can take over a year, if you include integrating and testing all of the equipment in the module prior to the actual installation into the Orbiter's cargo bay.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 63 - 09:54:21 ]
RE: [kiramunger/homeschool-KiraMunger/Homeschool] Angie, Thank-you for answering my questions. This was my first chat. Say Hello to Squealer, I have a cat named Nara that looks like him!
Thanks! It's been great talking to you, too!

[ AngieLee/JSC - 67 - 09:55:41 ]
RE: [Yoshihide/Japan-black.jack.] Thanks to Dr.Lee,answers my question.
My pleasure!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 68 - 09:55:44 ]
As a final reminder, please use our online feedback forms at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/qchats/qchat-surveys after today's chat with Angie Lee. Thank you!

[ AngieLee/JSC - 69 - 09:56:37 ]
Thanks, everybody! This has been a fun chat for me, and I hope for you, too.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 75 - 09:59:10 ]
RE: [Meri_Cummings/NASA_Classroom_of_the_Future] Thanks for all the information! Perhaps I'll see you in February if you'll be involved in the International Space Station educators workshop?
No, I'm not involved, but I hear really good things about those workshops. Have fun!

[ AngieLee/JSC - 76 - 10:00:07 ]
RE: [Michelle-Mrs.Mock/MontessoriSchoolofCorona] Thank you Angie. Do you work with Senator Glenn on his experiments?
Yes I do. The two primary life sciences experiments he's doing or orbit, the Sleep and PTO experiments, are my responsibility.

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 70 - 09:57:55 ]
This concludes today's chat with Angie Lee from NASA John Space Center. Thanks to everyone for joining us and a special thanks to Angie Lee for sharing her time with us today.

[ AngieLee/JSC - 72 - 09:58:23 ]
RE: [Oran/NASAChatHost] This concludes today's chat with Angie Lee from NASA John Space Center. Thanks to everyone for joining us and a special thanks to Angie Lee for sharing her time with us today.
Bye! It's been great talking to everyone!

[ Oran/NASAChatHost - 73 - 09:58:48 ]
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