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UPDATE # 131 - September 18, 2000 PART 1: Reserve October 2-6 RESERVE OCTOBER 2-6
We are getting set for a week-long series the first week in October and should have programming to meet your needs and interests. In the Upcoming Events section below is a taste of what is to come. We will again be working with Classroom Connect as they provide curriculum helps to support our live interactions. The week-long theme will be the role of the shuttle in building the International Space Station. Join us, Linda Conrad lindac@quest.nasa.gov UPCOMING EVENTS:
Please be sure to visit each site before the scheduled time. Usually these events require pre-registration and some include preparation. ->October 2-5 - Full week of activities, with a launch At this point tentatively scheduled are: * Monday, October 2 - Lonnie Moffitt who follows hardware development on the orbiter, keeping the astronaut office up to date. He also works with the astronauts who are working technical jobs between flight assignments. * Tuesday, October 3 - David Hamilton who is a dive specialist, training astronauts in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (a giant swimming pool) to do space walks (extra-vehicular activities) and to manipulate robotics on orbit. * Wednesday, October 4 - Joe Delai who works with the contractors to design, manufacture, test and implement hardware for the International Space Station. Joe will be co-hosting our series "Under Construction - The International Space Station" from the Kennedy Space Center this school year. * Thursday October 5 - Join us for this day long series of interactive chats, forums, and webcasts featuring a diverse group of female NASA role models hosted by our Young Women of NASA Advisory Council members. * Thursday, October 5 - The day will culminate with a webcast live from the launch of STS-92 at Kennedy Space Center. ->Thursday, October 12, 10 -11 am PDT (1-2:00pm EDT, 5-6:00pm GMT) QuestChat with Sharon Cobb who researches and studies new materials to determine how they will be affected by gravity. Pre-register and join this chat from: http://quest.nasa.gov/common/events.cgi?prj_sto To see a complete listing of NASA Quest's offerings, see the schedule of events at: http://quest.nasa.gov/common/events [Editor's note: Ric is a project engineer in the Special Instrumentation Lab at Kennedy Space Center. Here he describes an exciting project he has been working on.] 3-2-1 ACCELERATE! Interviewer: Brandt Secosh September 1, 2000 The term "Lift-Off" has become the most recognizable phrase to indicate the launch of space vehicles from Kennedy Space Center. The term itself implies an upward direction of movement. In the not so distant future the phrase "3-2-1, lift off" may change to 3-2-1 - accelerate! Frederick Adams is a Technical Lead for a project that is known as Magnetic Levitation /Launch Assist (MagLev). The launch of a space vehicle using magnetic levitation and propulsion would radically change the way we launch space vehicles. Instead of launching a vehicle vertically, it would be launched horizontally with the vehicle riding on a "sled" which is magnetically levitated on a rail. Do you recall what happens when you hold two magnets with the same poles close together? They will push away (repel) from each other. That is how the sled levitates above the rail that it rides on. That is a bit oversimplified but gives us a foundation to understand the concept of MagLev. The track that a system like this would use would ideally be about five miles long and within ten seconds accelerate the space vehicle to a speed that would allow the engines to operate using oxygen from our own atmosphere. The vehicle would never go to a vertical flight mode. It would continue on a true horizontal trajectory until leaving the earth'9s atmosphere! One of my first questions for Ric was, "What is the advantage of launching a vehicle this way?" Ric pointed out many advantages! First, the engine that would be used on the vehicle is known as a rocket based / combined cycle (RBCC) engine. This engine would use oxygen from our own atmosphere and would require the vehicle to carry only a small load of internal oxygen. This alone would make the vehicle MUCH lighter since liquid oxygen weighs approximately 16 times as much as liquid hydrogen. The engine would not be totally effective until the vehicle reached a high rate of speed (MACH 2). Once the vehicle reached that speed the air would be very compressed and would allow the engine to operate - burning the atmospheric oxygen and onboard hydrogen for propulsion! The concept of launching a vehicle using horizontal acceleration as compared to straight up is much more cost effective and efficient because the vehicle can use atmospheric oxygen during most of it'9s flight. Currently when we launch a space shuttle we use most of the fuel and liquid oxygen onboard to lift the weight of the orbiter (including fuel and liquid oxygen) against the force of gravity. When a vehicle is accelerated horizontally along the ground it allows us to add horizontal velocity while accelerating. It is the horizontal acceleration that provides most of the energy required to stay in orbit. A vehicle at orbital height with no horizontal velocity would fall right back to earth. An object in low earth orbit has most of its energy in kinetic form (high horizontal speed) and only 5% of it'9s energy in potential (altitude) form. The vehicle itself could be redesigned to carry more payload (people and equipment). Designs are being considered to carry up to 200 people per flight and could have the ability to launch two to three flights per day. Private citizens could have access to this transportation as well as government. Ric shows an incredible amount of enthusiasm when he talks about this project, especially when he ponders the potential uses it will play in our lives! He envisions 10 to 15 launch sites worldwide supporting 2500 launched per year! Why 2500 launches per year? Can you envision hotels in space, colonies on Mars, warehouses in space and site seeing in space? These flights will be designed to support our adventures in space. In closing - the concept of magnetic levitation vehicles is not new. A lot of the work has focused on magnetically levitated train systems. Please visit this link to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. What is exciting is the new focus on launching space vehicles using Magnetic Levitation and the incredible benefits that this technology will bring to our lives! There are many challenges ahead and I am convinced that Scientist and Engineers will conquer those challenges. STATUS OF ORBITER PROCESSING
RE: MISSION: STS-106, 4th ISS Flight scheduled for launch September 8 Shuttle Atlantis continues to perform well on orbit. KSC ground control is preparing to support landing operations on the first KSC landing opportunity at 3:50 a.m. EDT on Sept. 20. A second opportunity is available at 5:25 a.m. EDT on Wednesday if needed. Daily press releases can be found at: http://quest.nasa.gov/space/news/press.html RE MISSION: STS-92, 100th Shuttle Mission scheduled for launch October 5 At Launch Pad 39A, the Rotating Service Structure was moved in place around Space Shuttle Discovery yesterday. The Shuttle'9s payload bay doors are open in preparation for installation of the Z-1 Truss payload early this week. Friday, members of the KSC launch team and the seven-member flight crew concluded Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities with a simulated main engine cut-off and crew egress from Discovery'9s crew compartment. Workers at the pad will resume efforts to replace the orbiter maneuvering system transducer seals. Over this past weekend, technicians were to have completed the replacement of a fuel line quick disconnect on auxiliary power unit No. 2. Milestones: Payload installed into orbiter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 19 Helium Signature Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 19 Prelaunch propellant loading of Discovery'9s onboard tanks . . Sept.20 Space Shuttle main engine flight readiness test begins. . . . . Sept. 23 Orbiter aft compartment close-outs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sept. 26
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