PART 1: Ready, Set, ..
PART 2: Calendar of Events
PART 3: My chance to suit up
PART 4: Catching you up on the design world
PART 5: Subscribing & unsubscribing: how to do it!

READY, SET, ...

I hope I caught you before the ...Go, because I want to make sure that we
are in your planning for this academic year.

To begin with, I hope you'll join us September 1 for the "launch" of the
Challenge Project in a chat with Dr. Rose Grymes (see details below),
looking forward to the week of adventure underwater in the Scott Carpenter
Space Analog Station.  I had hoped to come to you with a firm schedule on
the activities to take place in that week (September 23-30), but it
turns out that delays in receiving some of our high-profile guest crew's
paperwork has delayed pinning the schedule down. I hope before you have
set your week of September 23-30 in concrete that you'll consider
remaining flexible enough to join us on-line for some exciting exchanges
with some extraordinary individuals. Take a few moments to peruse the team
page at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/team

As a new academic year begins for most, you can expect to once again
receive the Updates weekly. Remember, we consider you a part of our team.
Please let us hear from you with your ideas, concerns and encouragement.
Let's make academic 98/99 the best year yet on Space Team Online!

Yours truly,
Linda Conrad

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

->Tuesday, September 1, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Pacific
Time: Rose Grymes, Life Sciences outreach program manager
Rose and her team are responsible for developing and implementing the
Challenge Project. Join this chat after reading her bio at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/team/grymes.html
Rose has also been an active participant in Women of NASA and NeurOn.

->Thursday, September 10, 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Pacific Time: Angie Lee,
experiment systems manager
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. Read Angie's
autobiography at 

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/lee.html 

prior to joining this chat.

->Friday, September 18, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Pacific Time: Dennis
Chamberland, commander, Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station
Dennis is the designer and builder of the Scott Carpenter Space Analog
Station. This will be a good chance to ask your questions about the
habitat from which the Challenge Project exchanges will take place! Read
Dennis' autobiography at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/team/chamberland.html

->Wednesday, September 23, 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Pacific Time: Rick
Pettegrew, associate staff scientist
Rick works with a team that analyzes the characteristics and behavior of
fire. Rick and his team study "the basics" of combustion science. They try
to better understand the science by performing experiments in reduced
gravity environments. Read Rick's autobiography at:
 http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/pettegrew.html

->September 23-30: You can interact with the Challenge Project crew  from
the sea floor in Key Largo, FL, during the week of September 23-30, and
with other participants from Challenge Project partner museums and
national organizations through webchats, viewing their journals and
biography, and by posting questions. More details as they become
available.

ALL Space Team Online and Challenge Project QuestChats may be accessed
from:        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats

MY CHANCE TO SUIT UP
by Karina Shook

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/shook.html

Interviewer: Lori Keith August 14, l998
In May, I became certified as an EVA [Extravehicular Activity] Flight
Controller, working in the back room of the MCC (Mission Control Center).
Take a look at my 3/20/97 journal for more description of MCC.

Before I could work on my flight controller certification, I had to first
become certified as an instructor. This included reading lots of materials
and learning how to teach what the astronauts need to know. Then I sat in
on simulations (sims) with someone who was working towards certification.
Finally, I got to work some simulations myself. The sims prepare us for
the real thing. I also worked with a certified EVA flight controller
during a flight. The final test is a certification simulation. If the
evaluation is good, you get certified. Once you are certified, you can
work as a flight controller.

I have been assigned to Flight STS-88, scheduled for December, which is
the first Space Station Assembly Flight; and to Flight STS-93, scheduled
for January 1999, which will launch the AXAF (Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics
Facility). AXAF is another HUGE telescope like Hubble. While the Hubble
telescope looks at visible and infrared light, the AXAF will look at
x-rays. I am currently involved in astronaut training for both of these
flights. I will work in Mission Control for STS-88, but since we don't
plan to do any spacewalks on STS-93, I will only work in MCC for that
flight if something goes wrong with the AXAF or the shuttle. I still have
to train the crew to be ready though!

In June, I had the opportunity to get in the water tank at the Neutral
Buoyancy Lab (NBL), wearing a spacesuit. That way, I could try out the
stuff I train the astronauts to do. The suit weighs about 300 pounds. We
train in the water, because it mimics (or acts like) zero gravity, making
the suit weightless. Of course, this takes a little help. The suit is full
of air, and it wants to float, so scuba divers add weights to the suit to
balance it out so that it neither sinks nor floats.

At first when you get underwater everything looks funny because of the
light rays getting bent. It's like that trick where you put a penny at the
bottom of a glass of water and then try to touch it while you look into
the glass. Because the light rays get bent as they enter the water, the
penny isn't where it appears to be! After being underwater for about 15
minutes, your eyes and brain adjust to the distortion and everything
begins to look normal under the water. It was really cool!

Under water (in the tank) there is a model of a shuttle payload bay and
space station modules, which are used to help the astronauts train for
different aspects of their missions. They learn to work with the different
tools and to practice moving around in these big bulky suits. I was in
the water with one of the new astronauts, and the first thing he said was,
"This is so cool!!" I hope to get another chance to get in the spacesuit
someday -- it really helps us to understand how difficult some of the
things the astronauts have to do on their spacewalks can be.

CATCHING YOU UP ON THE DESIGN WORLD

by Kurt Bush
August 17, l998

Well, it's been a while since my last journal so let me get you caught up.
I worked on making sure all the equipment and stuff can go down the
tunnels' twists and turns in the new Space Station. I found one that
didn't fit, and they redesigned it so that it could. Floating in space is
the last place you want to discover that your bed doesn't fit through the
door. OOPS!

I made pictures for the IMAX people to help them figure out which zoom
lens they should use for filming the construction of the International
Space station. They wanted to get wide shots of the entire station and
close up shots of the people working on it. They needed to see how good
a view they would get from the two choices so that they could decide on
one.

Oh, I got the "Lightning Award" from Lockheed Martin for my
animation. My Transhab animation was played for the head of the JSC
and the head of NASA. I guess they liked it since I got the award and 100
bucks to sweeten the deal. Yippee!

I am still helping to design the Transhab module. Mostly it is the
connecting tunnel that they are focusing on. I've got to help figure out
how a really tall and really short person can close the hatches easily.
The Transhab Module is the last piece to the International Space Station
so we have time to finish designing the thing. The pictures that I made
for them ended up on NASA's Space Station Page and the Discovery Channel
Online page. Go check out these places and my pictures.

I also made some pictures showing how the astronauts are going to
operate the WORF workstation. The WORF workstation is much like a
big camera stand that's right in front of one of the windows.

Well, I also am helping with a lot of pictures for the up and coming
NASA open house. People from businesses come down and see all the
latest news and inventions for about three days. Then they may apply
some of these new technologies in their workplace.

NASA has made a lot of cool stuff. Survival blankets and rescue
equipment were used after the Oklahoma city bombing. They used NASA
designed cable cutters that were the size of bolt cutters, but have the
strength of the "Jaws of Life". The Jaws are huge hydraulic things that
have to be carried and powered in fire trucks because they are so big. The
NASA cutters can fit in a tool box and use cartridges, like a shotgun, to
power the cutting rather than a fire truck. With four cartridges you
could cut off the top of a car, and they are a lot more portable.

NASA has been involved in a lot of interesting technology, or at least
pushed forward a lot of important technology that had already been
invented but wasn't popular at the time. Like, for instance, transistors
instead of vacuum tube powered stuff. NASA needed tiny computers for
the mission to the moon, and at the time the normal computers were the
size of buildings. With transistors, it shrank the needed size of the
electronics and made it portable enough to go to the moon. It made
possible portable TV's, radios, personal computers, and eventually
microchips.

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