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S P A C E T E A M O N L I N EUPDATE # 56 - October 23, l998 PART 1: STS-95 is more than just John Glenn STS-95 IS MORE THAN JUST JOHN GLENN
This shuttle mission has received much media attention because Astronaut John Glenn will be returning to space after 36 years and will provide a unique perspective for the study sponsored by NASA and the National Institute on Aging, of the similarities of physiological responses between space flight and the aging process. But as Senator Glenn himself has said, it's much more than that. Did you know about the 80 SPACEHAB experiments that will be onboard (one of which is described by Ray Oyung in Part 3 below) and some of the other activities this important flight will engage in? Did you know that a Spartan free-flyer will be deployed to gather measurements of the solar corona and solar wind and then retrieved using the Shuttle's mechanical arm? The Shuttle's robotic arm will also be used to test robotics systems for the upcoming International Space Station. And that's not all! Make sure to visit: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/countdown.html and read the prelaunch profile. You'll find lots of information at this site, and as of today, it is one of the links I could still reach that provided detailed descriptions of the overall mission. And you can be there! Quest's Learning Technologies Channel is giving you a chance to be present for the launch of historic Shuttle Flight STS-95. See the description and times for joining this exciting event in Part 2 below. You will need to pre-register if you wish to send in questions. Don't be left out. I plan to "be there" from my desk in California. I hope to see you online, Linda THREE CHATS AND A WEBCAST
->Thursday, October 29, 1998, 8:30 AM Pacific Time (11:30 AM Eastern) And Now... From The Launch Of STS-95 Register to participate at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/launch/sts95 Join Quest's Kennedy Space Center correspondent, Brandt Secosh coming to you live from the Launch of STS-95. He and his co-hosts, Karen Dodson and Mike Ciannilli will share with you the excitement of this historic event. Meet your hosts through their profiles at: Brandt: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/secosh.html Mike: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/ciannilli.html Karen: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge/team/dodson.html NOTE: The Space Team Online QuestChats below require pre-registration, which may be done at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats ->Thursday, November 5, 1998, 9 AM Pacific Time (12 noon Eastern): Sherri Carlson, electrical engineer at Kennedy Space Center, is responsible for checking the designs of the systems to make sure they will work together with the equipment they control. See her profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/carlson.html ->Thursday, November 12, 1998, 10 AM PST (1 PM EST): Ric Adams, project engineer at Kennedy Space Center, is involved in inspecting the space shuttle for any minor damage before, during, and after a mission. See his profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/adams.html ->Thursday, November 19, 1998, 10 AM PST (1 PM EST): Rick Pettegrew works with a team that analyzes the characteristics and behavior of fire. Rick and his team try to better understand the science by performing experiments in reduced gravity environments. Read Rick's profile at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/pettegrew.html [Editor's note: Ray is a team member on Quest's Aero Design Team Online http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero His experience in the study of fatigue, sleep loss and circadian disruption in flight operations has obvious tie-ins in the studies of sleep in space on STS-95. Pictures accompany the online version of this journal at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/fjournals/oyung/launch-30.html ] LAUNCH MINUS 30 DAYS http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/ray.html September 28, 1998 A lot has been going on since my last journal about STS 95, the shuttle mission scheduled for launch on October 29th next month. For background, the group I work with at Ames is part of a team of researchers and scientists from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and UC San Diego. We are studying how well astronauts sleep and breathe in the microgravity environment of space. Also, we're studying the effects of low doses of melatonin that the astronauts will take during the mission to see if it will help them obtain better sleep. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that's secreted from the brain at specific times. Certain companies have been able to create melatonin in a synthetic form. They determine the chemical building blocks that make melatonin and manufacture it in the lab in the form of a pill. Our experiment on this shuttle mission is only one of over 80 experiments in the shuttle payload. These experiments are important to life science research but there are other objectives for this mission too. Other items on the agenda are to deploy a satellite that will collect data from the sun and retrieve this satellite at the end of the mission before coming back to Earth. For more information about the entire STS 95 mission and the shuttle crew, click on the following URL: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/index.html/95synop.html For the past couple of months, our "Sleep Team" has been collecting data on 2 of the astronauts on three different occasions. We are going to use this data to compare the astronauts on earth before the mission, in space during the mission, and then again for several days after landing. During all of the data collection periods before the mission, we have trained 4 of the astronauts how to operate all of the equipment. [Ray describes his experiences with the astronauts of the STS95 mission http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/fjournals/oyung/rightstuff.html ] [Editor's note: David is a space shuttle flight controller in Mission Control at Johnson Space Center. As such he's responsible to monitor systems on the shuttle during flight and solve problems if they should arise.] PREPARING FOR THE UPCOMING FLIGHTS http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/paternostro.html Interviewer: Lori Keith October 2, l998 During the last shuttle mission, STS-91 (the last space shuttle to go to the Mir Space Station), I worked the MMACS position for Ascent/Entry. I also supported docking activities as mechanical officer. On the MMACS console, we monitor all the mechanical systems on board, which include hydraulics and auxiliary power units (APU). Ascent/Entry and docking activities are very critical -- things happen quickly, so it's really important to know your systems very well. If you need to make a call -- the flight director or the crew has a question -- you should ideally be ahead of them and be able to give them the answer crisply and with confidence. We are preparing to build a space station, which we have all been looking forward to. I am supporting STS-88, also known as Flight 2A.1. It is scheduled to launch in December of this year. We are training for this mission right now. We'll be having simulations for the next few weeks to help us prepare for this flight. I had an integrated simulation for this mission last week, which went well. All of our objectives were met, which included a lot of EVA tasks. An integrated simulation is one that includes everybody involved. This one included Mission Control, the flight crew in the simulator, and crew members involved in EVA tasks at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). At the NBL, the crew members practice EVA activities with the help of the divers in the pool. During this simulation we had a failure with the robotic arm. Usually for the failure given, we can do an IFM (in-flight maintenance) repair to fix it. In this particular case, we couldn't do that because of the location. We couldn't get behind a panel that has recently been installed. So now, we are trying to figure out how to remedy the problem. The IFM guys are looking at the problem now, as we will probably have to modify our orbital hardware or our procedures. That is why these simulations are so important. They prepare us for what might happen once we get up in space. This way we will be prepared for a particular situation, or can avoid it altogether. For STS-88, I'll work in the back room, as an Orbit2 Mech. We work on rotation -- different teams, different shifts, different flights. I may get to work one day on the upcoming STS-95, which is the flight John Glenn is flying on. I will be working as lead for STS-96, scheduled for May 1999. We begin flight-specific training about two to three months before a scheduled flight. We have begun preparation for STS-96 (getting products together, having meetings with flight controllers and crew reps) to make sure everything is coming together well. As a lead for this flight, I must make sure procedures, flight rules, time lines, etc. are all correct and that there is no issue with the hardware in my area that would delay the flight or prevent mission success. Recently, I went to Korea with the Naval Reserves for about three weeks. I had never been there before. It was very pretty there and I enjoyed it. We spent two weeks in a tent, what they call field conditions. This was interesting as usually I spend time on ships. Luckily, I had a little practice from the boy scout camping trip I took with my son in July. The first four days I was in Korea, it rained a lot. The tent leaked and it was muddy, but once it quit raining, it was okay. In the reserves, I support joint military exercises with other military troops. They are a lot like simulations here at NASA. I get to travel all over the world with the Navy, as I support two exercises a year for a couple of weeks at a time. For the next couple of years, I will probably be going to Japan and Korea to support these exercises.
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