UPDATE # 2 - March 13, 1997

PART 1: Planning a big upgrade for Atlantis
PART 2: Fun learning and a program for Mission Control
PART 3: Hanging the plaque for tricky trajectory maneuvers
PART 4: Practicing to fly in space
PART 5: Status of STS-83
PART 6: Subscribing/unsubscribing: how to do it

[Editor's note: Dennis supervises a bunch of engineers who help keep
the Shuttle Orbiters ready to fly. If any of the systems on an Orbiter don't
work right, Dennis's team figures out how to fix them or they design
something new to make the problem right.]

PLANNING A BIG UPGRADE FOR ATLANTIS
Dennis Dillman - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/dillman.html
February 27, 1997
I just got back from a week in Downey and Palmdale, California (both near
Los Angeles). A team of us met at the Boeing-North American plants at both
of those cities to plan out what is called an Orbiter Maintenance Down
Period (OMDP) for the Orbiter Atlantis. Each of the Orbiters goes through
an OMDP every 3 to 5 years where we fly it on the back of a Boeing 747 (a
big airliner) to the Boeing plant in Palmdale. While there, major parts of
the Orbiter are disassembled and inspected for cracks or corrosion, and
any major new pieces of equipment are installed.

Atlantis will go out to Palmdale in November for several months. During
the OMDP, we will install two big new changes for the Orbiter.

Currently the Orbiter's cockpit, that was designed more than 20 years
ago, has a lot of mechanical gauges (like the fuel gauge in your car) and
four computer screens that display only numbers in green. These were
state-of-the-art 20 years ago, but now the computer screen that you're
reading this on is much more advanced. Nobody has built the old screens or
the mechanical gauges for a long time so we have a hard time getting parts
for them now. So, we will install a whole new set of 11 computer screens
in the cockpit that will replace all of the old gauges and screens. These
screens will display all of the information that the crew will need to fly
the Shuttle, and we can program the screens to display the information in
a way that makes the crew's job easier (like making malfunction
indications red, or displaying data with graphics to make it more easily
understandable, etc.).

The second big modification will change the way the Shuttle and its crew
figure out where it is (navigate). Currently when the Shuttle is coming
down for a landing, it homes in on some ground-based radio beacons called
TACANs (don't worry about what it stands for, it's lllooonnngg!) and uses
some trigonometry to figure out where it is at. Well, the TACAN stations
are going away, and there is a new space-based system called GPS (Global
Positioning System) that is much more accurate, and is gaining wider use
every day. You may have already been on a boat or airplane that uses
GPS. Some cars are already using GPS, and probably most cars will have it
in the future. So, it's about time for the ol' Shuttle to use it too, and
we will install GPS units during the OMDP. The GPS units receive signals
from a constellation of satellites that are already in orbit, then use
some algebra to figure out where the Shuttle is in relation to the
satellites.

We'll also make some other changes, like equipping Atlantis to dock with
the new International Space Station (right now it is equipped to dock with
the Russian Mir space station), and equipping it with some refrigeration
units to fly biological specimens to and from the space station.

Once the OMDP is done at Palmdale, Atlantis will be put back on the back
of the 747 and flown back to the Kennedy Space Center to be readied for
its next launch.

On a personal note, while I was out there for the planning meetings,
stayed on the Queen Mary - a steam powered passenger ship that was built
in 1936. It is now permanently docked at Long Beach and is used as a
hotel. In its day, the Queen Mary was the fastest ship around, taking four
or five days to go from New York to England. Now the Shuttle covers that
distance in a few minutes! Anyway, the Queen Mary is a beautiful ship with
lots of art and finished wood and I loved looking at all of the old steam
gauges and engines.



[Editor's note: Jenny goes to school at Boston University where she
studies aerospace engineering. She alternates semesters of full-time work
at NASA with semesters of full-time study at BU. Currently she is working
with the Flight Dynamics Officers in Launch and Re-entry and has learned a
lot about launch planning and how the engines on the Shuttle work.]

FUN LEARNING AND A PROGRAM FOR MISSION CONTROL
Jenny Gruber - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/gruber.html
Cooperative Education Students (Co-ops) at NASA have a wide range of
responsibilities. Co-ops are college students who alternate periods of
full-time work at NASA with periods of full-time study at a University.
Our most basic responsibilities are to learn all we can and to contribute
through small projects. The reason the projects are small is because
it's hard to get a big project done in only a semester.

As I said, learning is half our responsibility, so we get to see lots of
cool stuff! Every week, I usually attend two tours or lectures. The
tours take us around different facilities here at the Johnson Space
Center. For example, I've seen some of the simulators the astronauts use
to train, a virtual reality development center, and the lab where they
keep the Moon rocks. The lectures we have are given by people like Gene
Kranz and John Aaron, who were portrayed in Apollo 13, and John Young who
walked on the Moon. We also listen to other NASA veterans who have great
experiences to talk about and educational things to tell us. I also take
classes about space shuttle, space station, and futuristic,
rocket-science-type topics. Finally, I read, read, read. There are so many
manuals that are written to get me acquainted and help me with my
projects.

Speaking of projects, now we come to the other half of my
responsibilities. This semester, I'm working on a computer program that
will take one of the functions we use in Mission Control and move it to
the newer computer system we're using now. The program helps with Launch
Targeting. What does that mean? Well, when we launch a shuttle, we have to
worry about how high it will go and how fast it will be going when it
reaches outer space. This is especially important now, with all the
docking missions we're doing. Right now, we dock with the Russian Space
Station Mir two or three times a year, and pretty soon, we'll begin
building the International Space Station, which means more docking! When
you have to meet with an object in space, it's just like if you're running
to hug a friend. If you don't aim right, you might miss them. If you run
too fast, you'll crash into them, and if you don't run all the way up to
them, you don't get your hug. Either way, you look pretty silly, so it's
important to aim well. Well, that's about it for now. I look forward to
sharing more later.



[Editor's note: Bill works as a Flight Dynamics Officer (FDO) and is
responsible for all parts of the shuttle's trajectory (where it is going).
He specializes in orbit maneuvers (not launch or landing), especially for
rendezvous.]

HANGING THE PLAQUE FOR TRICKY TRAJECTORY MANEUVERS
Bill Britz - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/britz.html
March 12, 1997
I recently worked the STS-80 Shuttle mission and had the unique
responsibility of being the lead FDO. We pick one individual out
of our group to act as a lead for each mission. That basically means
that as the lead, you are responsible for all the trajectory operations
aspects of the mission. For STS-80, this was a very challenging task.
If you didn't know, we did something on STS-80 that has never been done
before. It's difficult to explain, but basically, we deployed two
spacecraft. We then kept the orbiter and the two spacecraft close
together so they could all communicate. After three days, we retrieved
one of the satellites.

Never before had we performed this type of multiple vehicle station
keeping.
It was very touchy, and we thought we were going to have to cut one of
the satellite's mission short. We managed to just squeak by and both
satellites had 100% successful missions. Unfortunately, the EVA hatch
problems overshadowed our great trajectory success. But, from a FDO
standpoint, this was a very successful mission! As a result of all the
hard work I and my team put in to this mission, the flight directors
gave us the honor of hanging the mission plaque at the top of the
Mission Control Center at the end of the flight.  So, if you ever come
to visit JSC and go to the Mission Control Center, look up at the
STS-80 mission plaque. You can say you know the guy that put it up there!



[Editor's note: Paul is an associate professor at USC where he researches
and teaches mechanical and aerospace engineering. His "moonlighting" job
is as a "payload specialist" for STS-83. Payload specialists are not
career astronauts; they are people who are selected to fly in space
because of their particular scientific or technical expertise in some area
that the people in the regular astronaut corps don't possess. Paul is a
backup to both the combustion payload specialist and the materials payload
specialist. If either one of them couldn't fly for any reason, he would
fly in their place.]

PRACTICING TO FLY IN SPACE
Paul Ronney - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/ronney.html
March 1, 1997

A typical day for me involves going to the training center in Huntsville,
Alabama, or in Houston, Texas, at approximately 8:00 in the morning. We
train on experiments that are going to be flying on the upcoming mission,
learning how to operate those experiments. Sometimes there is a lot of
repetition because you want to be sure you're very proficient at working
with the experiments. In other words, you always want to have more than
an, "Oh yeah, I kind of know how to do that. I'll figure it out as I go
along," attitude. Once you get into space, you just don't have much time.
You want to be sure you're very proficient so you can do the experiments
fairly rapidly, making as few mistakes as possible.

So on the science side, we learn: how to do all the experiments; what the
objectives of all the experiments are; what the scientists are trying to
learn; what kind of information is most important to them; and what is
nice to know, but could be left out.

Also, I needed to learn how to use all the general shuttle systems. These
include things such as: how to use the spacesuits, the computers, all the
video and camera equipment, the bathroom, and the kitchen; how to take
pictures of the Earth; and how to bail out in the unlikely event we
ever had to.

Working in space is a lot different from working on Earth. Even things as
simple as eating and going to the bathroom have to be relearned. So far so
good, as far as my training goes, although I've heard it's a lot different
when you don't have gravity helping you out.



STATUS OF STS-83


The next scheduled shuttle mission is STS-83, a 16-day microgravity
lab scheduled for launch on April 3 at 2:01 p.m. EST. Before launch,
we'll provide periodic updates about preparations for the mission.
These reports will contain jargon and unfamiliar terms; our intent is
not to confuse you, but to provide a glimpse at all the details involved.
Detailed daily reports can be found at the NASA Shuttle Status web
site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm
Since the last updates-sto message, Columbia was moved to the Vehicle
Assembly Building, lifted to the vertical position and mated to the
external tank and solid rocket boosters. Columbia's roll out to Pad 39A
was delayed 24 hours due to a liquid oxygen T-0 umbilical carrier plate
alignment problem. On Tuesday morning, the crawler transporter was
positioned under the mobile launcher platform (MLP) with the Shuttle
mounted on top and first motion for the 3.4 mile move to the pad began at
6:32 a.m. The Space Shuttle Columbia arrived at the pad in the afternoon
and was hard-down at about 12:39 p.m. Hard-down had to be re-executed
when it was discovered that a firex line under the MLP was
misaligned. The MLP was raised again and final hard-down came at 2:47
p.m. Overnight, auxiliary power unit No. 2 was successfully hot fired
followed by rotation of the Rotating Service Structure around the vehicle
on Wednesday morning.

The STS-83 Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) is underway
today at KSC. The TCDT is held prior to each Space Shuttle flight
providing the crew of each mission opportunities to participate in
simulated countdown activities at KSC. The TCDT includes a mock launch
countdown culminating in a simulated main engine cutoff (Friday).
The crew also spends time undergoing emergency egress training
exercises at the pad and has an opportunity to view and
inspect their mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay.

Overnight, inspections were made of the low pressure fuel turbo pumps on
the three Space Shuttle main engines. The pump on engine No. 1 was found
to have unacceptable rotor blades and the decision was made to remove
and replace this pump. The work will begin today and is not expected to
impact the overall schedule for launch. The engine heat shields are being
removed at this time and the actual removal and replacement of the pump
will take place tomorrow. A preliminary leak check will be conducted
Friday night prior to previously scheduled pad operations on Saturday.




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