|
   |
 |
                 
|
UPDATE # 31 - December 12, 1997 PART 1: Chatting with an MSL-1 expert CHATTING WITH AN MSL-1 EXPERT
On Wednesday, December 17, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific, we will be welcoming John Horack to the Space Team Online chat room. John was the Science Communications Coordinator for MSL-1. In this role he got involved in all of the experiments which made up the mission. We hope that the December 17 chat will be much more technical in nature than most Space Team Online chats. The conversation will be about the experiments on MSL-1, and it is targeted at adults, college students or advanced high school students. This will be a special time to ask a NASA expert detailed questions about the microgravity research conducted in the Shuttle during STS-94 which flew over the summer. To be prepared, please familiarize yourself with MSL-1 beforehand. Excellent resources include the Web pages found at: http://www.ssl.msfc.nasa.gov/msl1/daily/updates.htm If you intend to participate, you will need to RSVP from this page: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/interact.html WELCOME NEW REPORTERS
Until now, most of the stories and biographies for Space Team Online have been written by the NASA experts themselves in their spare time. While this approach gives us a unique firsthand perspective, it puts a strain on the NASA experts as they struggle to find story-writing time when their primary duties are elsewhere. To make it easier for the experts, Space Team Online has recently brought two part-time reporters onto our staff. Lori Keith is working at Johnson Space Center and she'll be gathering stories about mission operations/planning/training, Space Station and other JSC activities. Brandt Secosh is working at Kennedy Space Center on stories about preparing the shuttle between missions, payload integration and shuttle launch. We can all look forward to more Field Journals courtesy of our newest STO team members. Welcome Lori and Brandt! SPACE TEAM ONLINE T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE
If you'd like to take your Space Team Online involvement to a new level, consider purchasing a T-shirt. They make great gifts (for yourself or others). For details, please see: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/common/shirts/shuttle.html [Editor's note: Kurt works at the Graphical Research and Analysis Facility Laboratory, or GRAF Lab for short. He develops software which draws realistic views of the Shuttle and Station to help experimenters better plan their work in space. More of Kurt's weekly journals are available at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/journals/bush] Kurt Bush MAKING PICTURES WITH TRIANGLES AND OTHER GRAPHICS WORK October 23, l997 I also got my de-triangle program working well in our computer model conversion program. It's real neat. All you have to do is push a button and all the little triangles that make a flat surface solidify into just a single surface with lots of sides. It works like a reverse pizza cutter. The pieces get put back together into a solid uncut pizza. When I got it done, it took awhile to get it on the other computers in the lab. The funny thing was that as soon as we got it circulated in the lab, two people needed to use it for their project. Wow, talk about finishing in the nick of time. So after that got done, I started working on an improved version of my program so it can run faster and smarter than it already does. Looks like more number crunching and calculations for me. * * * * * * * * * * November 6, l997 Well, my detrianglization program is smarter, faster and doesn't screw up. What more can you ask for from a program? Oddly enough, I was not hired for programming, but I am really good at it. After making the improvements to my program that runs in a larger program called Inspect, I got the job of putting someone else's improvements into Inspect. So I sliced and diced the program, putting only the improved parts into our/my latest version of Inspect. It works fine now and I'm glad I am done with it. On a personal note, after I wrote my last journal entry, I went home to find the apartment flooded. The water heater broke and filled half the apartment floor with water, which the cats were happily playing in. That was the final straw, so we moved to a bigger apartment in the same complex. My wife and I spent an entire weekend moving heavy boxes and furniture. The cats were not amused. Right now, I am working on a project for the I-MAX people. They are trying to decide which camera to use, and from where, for flight 3A of the Space Station construction flights. Gotta go now-- the fire alarm just went off and we gotta leave the building. Geez, I hope it's not another false alarm. * * * * * * * * * * November 19, 1997 Last week all of the Johnson Space Center was busy showing people in industry the things we do and how it can be used outside of NASA. This is part of NASA's plan to distribute the knowledge and technology to the consumer. After all, some of the technology generated here are high tech thermal blankets, a one man portable Jaws of Life used by firefighters, the modern computer (microchips), and other cool software and hardware. After three days of giving the same speech over and over again, the tour was over. (Yippy Yippy) Then I started to work on improving the Japanese Experiment Module. It's a piece of the space station that will go up after most of it is already up there. I have to make sure that our computer version matches up with the blueprints that we just received. So far, there are only a few modifications here and there, but nothing serious. I am taking note of all the differences and am starting to change our computer version to match the plans. Oh! I also watched the shuttle launch today. It was pretty cool. STATUS OF COLUMBIA PROCESSING
Below, we'll provide some details about the post flight work being done after STS-87 and the subsequent processing of Columbia as it prepares to fly again as STS-90. These reports will contain jargon and unfamiliar terms; our intent is not to confuse you, but to provide a glimpse at all the steps involved. Detailed daily reports about Columbia's processing 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 completed the STS-87 mission with a touchdown on KSC runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility on December 5 at 7:20 a.m. EST. The good news for STS-87 was the successful completion of the USMP-4 experiments and the two space walks which demonstrated equipment and techniques that will be used during International Space Station assembly. The bad news was a malfunction of the attitude control system aboard the SPARTAN solar research satellite which prevented any data from being collected. However, the crew successfully retrieved SPARTAN and brought it home so that it can be reflown on a future mission. After landing, processing began for Columbia's next mission targeted for April. This mission (STS-90) will be flying the NeuroLab payload to study brains and nervous systems in space. KSC ground crews completed safing and post-flight activities and then Columbia was towed to Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3. Inspection of the orbiter's thermal protection system (TPS) revealed more than 300 hits to Columbia's exterior TPS tiles, with about 132 measuring greater than one inch long. With inspections of Columbia's lower surface complete, technicians have identified 94 tiles that will be replaced due to damage sustained on mission STS-87. An additional 39 tiles were slated for replacement before Columbia's recent landing. Inspection of the orbiter's upper, exterior surface continues. Engineers are reviewing film footage and conducting extensive inspections to determine the cause for the high number of debris hits. The damaged tile posed no threat to flight crew safety. Residual cryogenic reactants in Columbia's power reactant storage and distribution system were off-loaded. Post-flight deconfiguration is in progress, including engine heat shield removal which is in work. Main engine removal is set for Saturday. Checks of fuel cell No. 1 revealed a oxygen leak that will result in the replacement of that fuel cell after the holidays. Fuel cell No. 3 was already slated for replacement during this processing flow. Initial health checks of the STS-87 payloads are complete, and both USMP-4 and SPARTAN are scheduled for removal Saturday morning (December 13). Disassembly of the STS-87 solid rocket boosters concluded December 2 with the removal of the right-hand motor nozzle. Inspections of both nozzles were completed and good, and both nozzles were shipped to Utah for further inspection.
|
||
|
|
|
