UPDATE # 50 - September 12, l998

PART 1: I'm off to Key Largo!
PART 2: Upcoming chats
PART 3: STS-95 and "Oh my God!" moments
PART 4: Getting ready
PART 5: Subscribing & unsubscribing: how to do it!

I'M OFF TO KEY LARGO!

From the responses I got to the Back to School Special, I'd say it sounds
like we have a goodly number of newcomers. Welcome! As you are nursing
those desk-high bruises you'd almost forgotten over the summer and are
popping throat lozenges to keep that abused voice box working, we're
preparing some really terrific content to stimulate your students about
space, preparation for missions, and, this fall, a special NASA Life
Sciences offering that features physical health and lifelong learning.
So let the interaction begin!

Come on-line September 23-30 with NASA Life Sciences' Challenge Project
as the Challenge Mission takes Buzz Aldrin, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry,Jr.,
James Cameron, Kate Mulgrew, Tom Whittaker, and others on an underwater
adventure to study health and learning in the Scott Carpenter Space Analog
Station. This is all in anticipation of John Glenn's return to space
aboard STS-95 to study the effects of aging in the space environment.
        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge

During the week-long mission underwater, in a vehicle built to simulate 
the space environment for educational purposes, our invited guest "crew"
will be coming to you at least twice per day to discuss the topics of
human potential and human exploration in space. A schedule for these
activities (some tentative depending on celebrity calendars), can be found
on-line at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/news/calendar.html

Even that fat cat, Garfield, got in on the act this past week and
contributed his "Space Factoids" at:
    http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/learning/paws/

So fasten your "virtual" snorkel and flippers and join us coming to you
live from Key Largo, Florida. I'll be there to bring you as much of the
excitement as I can.

Stay in touch,
Linda

UPCOMING CHATS

Registration is required to actively participate in all chats.
(Chats may be observed without registering.) Please see:
        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats
for full instructions on how to register for the chats or your choice.

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

FEATURED CHALLENGE PROJECT CHATS:
A full listing of the Challenge Projects chats may be found at:
        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/challenge_chats.html
Below is just a teaser to let you know what's in store.

->Wednesday, September 16, 3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Pacific Time:
  Eugene Roddenberry, technical advisor, "Earth: Final Conflict"

->Friday, September 18, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.  Pacific Time:
Dennis Chamberland, commander, Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station

->Wednesday, September 23, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time:
James Cameron, film writer, director and producer

->Thursday, September 24, 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time:
Robert Phillips, professor emeritus, Department of Physiology, Colorado
State University and
Thomas F. Rogers, chairman, The Sofron Foundation/president, The Space
Transportation Association

->Saturday, September 26, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time: Christine
Wells, professor emerita, Arizona State University

->Sunday, September 27, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time: Christopher Roosa, former
congressional staff member, U.S. Marine Corps (son of Apollo 14 astronaut,
Stuart Roosa) and
Eugene Roddenberry, technical advisor, "Earth: Final Conflict" (son of
Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame) and
John-Henry Williams, president, Hiller Communications (son of baseball
hall of famer, Ted Williams)

->Sunday, September 27, 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time:
Sebastian O'Kelly, assistant to Senator John Glenn joins
Eugene Roddenberry


->Monday, September 28, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time: Jennifer McCarter, public
affairs specialist joins Eugene Roddenberry

->Monday, September 28, 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time: Sonya
Renner, development director, Space Center Houston

->Tuesday, September 29, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time:
Patsy Donn, professor/director, Counseling and Psychological Services
Center, Ball State University and
Thomas R. Leaird, businessman; vice chair, YMCA National SCUBA Program
Advisory Committee; Secretary: Muncie YMCA Board of Directors

->Wednesday, September 30, 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time:
Rose Grymes, Life Sciences Outreach program manager and
Tom Whittaker, professor, Adventure Education, Prescott College who this
May became the first disabled person to summit Mount Everest.


[Editor's note: Angie is an experiment systems manager at the Johnson
Space Center. She helps the scientists get what they need to make their 
experiments work in space.]

STS-95 AND "OH MY GOD!" MOMENTS
by Angie Lee
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/lee.html

Interviewer: Lori Keith
August 31, l993

I am now working several different projects for the Station and for
the shuttle. I
have two experiments on the upcoming STS-95 mission, scheduled for launch
in October. This is what I have been spending the majority of my time on
lately. Senator John Glenn is one of the payload specialists for this
mission. For this flight, I am also the payload project manager for the
overall human life science experiments. This has been quite challenging
and stressful at times. It is also a lot of fun and I am enjoying
the work.

Since Senator Glenn is a legend (one of the original Mercury 7
astronauts), it has been quite an experience working with him. His press
entourage is incredible. During one training session, Newsweek, Time and
Life magazines had reporters there to interview him. National Geographic
has been following the whole crew for an upcoming documentary. Senator
Glenn is an amazing man, and he reminds a lot of us of our grandfathers,
which is a weird thing to say about an American hero, but it's true. I try
to treat him like every other astronaut, which is how he wants to be
treated, so I have not asked him for his autograph. But I do have a lot
of what I call my "Oh my God!" moments, especially when he starts telling
stories of his past flights; history right in front of me -- past, present
and future.

We just delivered the majority of the STS-95 hardware. I went to Florida
for this, where we attended the bench review of all the hardware. The
hardware is actually laid out on benches and we, including the flight
crew, walk through and check it out one last time before it is packed up
and loaded into the module. We still have some training and mission
simulations to complete before the flight.

While I was in Florida, we also had a series of training sessions. The
only Spacehab training mockup available is in Florida. This makes training
a little more difficult. Spacehab is a commercial mini space-lab owned by
Space Hab, Inc. It is a small module that sits in the payload bay,
connected to the mid-deck by a tunnel, used to house science experiments.

The two experiments I am working are the Sleep experiment and the Protein
Turnover experiment. Senator Glenn is participating in both of these,
along with Dr. Chiaki Maukai on the Sleep experiment and Pedro Duque on
the Protein Turnover experiment. Both include Baseline Data Collection
(BDC). BDC is really rough on the crew members as subjects. We collect
blood samples at early hours in the morning, and their diets are
restricted. Everything they eat must be monitored: how much it weighs and
what time they ate it. If they eat in a restaurant, they have to weigh
the food before they eat it, and the dietitians have to go to the
restaurant to get the recipe so they can calculate the nutritional values.
Since we collect urine samples, the crew members carry a cooler around
with bottles in it everywhere they go. Every time they urinate, they must
do it in a bottle. Their private lives are totally invaded upon during
BDC. Several nights a week, they sleep in a makeshift lab in one of the
area hotels with monitored sleep recordings being made. It is very
disruptive to normal life.

Several weeks before we started BDC, I gave a lunch for the crew involved
to explain how it all worked. I love to cook, especially for others. I
served ham, turkey, roast beef, and several different types of cheeses
with sandwich fixings. I also made grilled chicken pasta salad, fresh
tomato cucumber salad and peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. We
brought in a few of the folks from the BDC team, including the dietitians
who would be making the crew's food for the week of testing. We all
talked about the week ahead and what we were to accomplish. It went well.
Afterwards, I had one of those "Oh my God!" moments. I had just had
lunch with Senator John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, a
national leader, and on top of that, I had made his lunch! I had cooked
for the Senator and had helped him spread mustard on a piece of bread.
I'm thinking . . . How did I get to this point? What an awesome feeling!

It has been really neat working with this crew. They are all so dedicated
and focused, and we all have fun, too. They have been a really great crew
to work with.

For Station, I have a couple of experiments I am working on that are just
pre and post flight experiments which don't actually involve any on-orbit
activities. This is good because it will let us still do some scientific
research even though the ISS won't be up and fully functional for a while.
Until ISS is up and functional, we will have very limited life science
data.

I'm also supposed to be attending the STS-95 launch in Florida. That will
be so exciting. Watch for my upcoming journal on this after the launch.


[Editor's note: Alyssa is one of our younger crew members on The Challenge
Mission. She is a student and represents Harker School, a partner
with NASA Life Sciences in this project.]

GETTING READY
by Alyssa Friedland	
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/team/friedland.html
September 10, l998

Dear Diary,
This summer I have been preparing to go on an underwater scuba diving
mission in the Scott Carpenter station in Florida. I got ready by becoming
scuba certified in Key Largo, Florida. The water was so warm we never
needed a wet-suit. It was exiting, exhilarating, fun, and totally scary
diving in the murky lagoon for the first time. The worst part was
practicing flooding your mask. You need to fill you mask with the salty,
dirty water, then put it back on and clear it by blowing through your
nose.

However, all in all it was a really awesome experience. We headed back to
California in the middle of July. For the rest of the summer I have gone
to summer school, Europe and volunteered at the Los Altos Library. The
only other things I have done to prepare for the mission are buy my own
mask, snorkel and diving fins. All I'm doing now is waiting for
September 18, when I fly to Florida.

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