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S P A C E T E A M O N L I N EUPDATE # 80 - April 27, 1999 PART 1: Scrubs can be expected SCRUBS CAN BE EXPECTED
I'm back from my whirlwind jaunt to Kennedy Space Center. Brandt's journal below will give you a little of the scoop on our activities surrounding the webcast. I promise to add my two bits sometime this week, complete with pictures. I thought I had scheduled well: If I returned to California on Thursday the 22 right after the webcast, I would get to see both the roll-out of Discovery (from the VAB to the pad) for the May launch and also the night launch of a Delta 3 rocket with the Orion 3 satellite aboard. Both were scheduled for Wednesday the 21. By the 21, it was apparent that the rollout would be delayed until Friday, and you may have read, the rocket launch was also scrubbed Wednesday, and then there was an on-pad abort the following night. The best laid plans.... Wednesday's launch scrub is not really atypical. One of the things I am trying to learn to adapt to is the multiple reasons for delaying a launch (Remember the 24-hour scrub of STS-90?). Thursday's attempt to launch the Delta 3 rocket was stopped when the first stage main engine and vernier engines failed to ignite. In this case, the countdown sequencer computer did not send the engine start command. Often the issue is safety, sometimes weather, sometimes to save an expensive payload. Whatever the reason, planning around a launch needs to be kept flexible. This makes our job at NASA Quest interesting as we attempt to schedule programming for you around the launches of the shuttle missions. I hope you'll plan to join us for the launch of STS-96 on May 20 or .... Keep a good thought! Linda
QuestChats require pre-registration.
->Tuesday, April 27, 1999, 8:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time:
Diane McMahon communicates science information between
scientists who have experiments flying on space shuttle missions and NASA.
She works with a group that makes sure that all requirements are met for
flying experiments on a space shuttle.
See her profile at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/mcmahon.html
Register at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting
->Tuesday, April 27, 1999, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EST)
Dale Lueck, design engineering lead
For the past 25 years, Dale has been involved with designing
instruments for chemical analysis and process control. Recently, he was
assigned as the design engineering lead for the Analytical Instrumentation
Control Group at Kennedy Space Center. See his profile at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/lueck.html
Register at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting
->Thursday, April 29, 1999, 10 AM Pacific Daylight Time:
Dionne Jackson is responsible for testing and identifying metal alloys
that are used as flight hardware and in supporting equipment and
structures. Read her profile at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/jackson.html
Register at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting
-Thursday, May 6, 1999: Space Day:
->8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. PDT Laura Hoppe, First female INCO Flight
Controller. See her online profile at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/hoppe.html or
To register, see Female Frontiers schedule:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/schedule.html
->Tuesday, May 11, 1999,10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EST)
Meet your Student Ambassadors who will represent you at the launch of
STS-93. This Webcast will also serve as an optimum time to test your
technologies so you are ready for the live events from Kennedy Space
Center in July! Event Page is located at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/frontiers/ambass.html
->Tuesday, May 11, 1999, 11 AM Pacific Daylight Time:
William Foster, a ground controller, works in the White Flight Control
room, which is the new front room of NASA's Mission
Control Center (MCC). He is one of many people responsible for providing
flight controllers with space shuttle data and maintaining voice and data
communications between the MCC and the space shuttle. Currently, Bill is
assigned ascent/entry duties and is scheduled to support the next several
shuttle launch and landing operations. Read his profile and field
journals at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/foster.html
->Thursday, May 13, 1999, 8:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time:
Mike Ciannilli, test project engineer, monitors all of the systems on the
orbiter as they are tested, and resolves any conflicts during systems
testing that may arise. He helps find solutions to any problems that occur
during testing. Additionally, Mike is know to NASA Quest members as the
narrator of several special online video events! Read his profile and
field journals at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/ciannilli.html
->Wednesday, May 19, 1999, 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EST)
Tour of the ISS Mockup and Training Facility at JSC
Join us for our regularly scheduled guided tour of the International Space
Station mockup and training facility at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in
Houston, Texas. Information on this event may be found at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/tours
For continuing Female Frontiers schedule see:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/schedule.html
For April Space Team Online chats see:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats
FEMALE FRONTIERS PUZZLE
The online version is at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/ffpuzzle
Question #7: Answers due by Wednesday May 12, 1999
What is Space Shuttle Columbia going to do after STS-93 (give the word(s)
the
KSC engineers use)?
Question #6: Answers due by Wednesday, May 5, 1999
Which little satellite is Elizabeth Bloomer (STO expert) worried about
because if something goes wrong, it might be in the shuttle's path? How
heavy is it?
Question #5: Answers due by Wednesday, April 28, 1999
What do the symbols on the STS-93 mission patch mean?
Send your answers to Student Ambassador, Stephanie Wong:
wongtong@connect.ab.ca
Check your personal score at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/events/ffpuzzle/scoring.html
Answer to Question #4: Astronaut Catherine Coleman is the other woman
astronaut on STS-93. What is her nickname? Which previous mission(s) was
she on and what "team" was she in?
Her nickname is "Cady". She was on mission STS-73 and in the "blue" team.
RESPONDING TO YOUR NEEDS
Continuing to respond to our latest survey requests and suggestions for improvement: * I have not had time to figure how to get into live broadcasts and What do I have to do to see videos of projects in this part of the world ? I've had no success so far. As a former classroom teacher, I understand completely the first remark! Time is that great commodity that is already stretched to the max in preparation, considering that the typical teacher "orchestrates and choreographs" about 5 hours of active presentation per day. As of this moment, I have no control over time, though I do continue to try! The question then becomes, how can we make it easier for you to get prepared. Our LTC project manager has created (and continues to edit based on your suggestions) a "how to" page to not only help you download the free players, but also to give you some example files to try the technology. You'll find it at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/technology.html If you still have questions, please contact her using the links at the bottom of the page, or me. * I am somewhat concerned on what appears to be a pervading trend in our society. In particular I speak of the Female Frontiers idea. Why is there not a section for males in your website. The males in our society are just as interested and just as deserving of recognition. Our young men look at these web sites and other media in our society and they are forgotten. Would it not be fair, appropriate and less sexist if there was a Male Frontier section as well. If you can think of a reason why not, I would like to here it. The easiest response I can think of is that if the Shuttle program had not already been dominated by men commanders for its 100 or so flights, there would be no reason to celebrate the first woman shuttle commander. Whereas, I agree that males are "just as deserving of recognition," I would challenge you to browse the Space Team Online roster of team members and do a quick check on the balance male to female. I think you'll find that it does not reflect the numerical balance of our population. I don't find it surprising that there might be reason for special short-time feature projects like Female Frontiers to provide role models to young girls who are interested in careers that have traditionally been filled by males. I might add, the Female Frontiers project is not designed only for the interest of women. Men with an historic perspective will hopefully find this site informative, appropriate, and an inspiration to all young people who aspire to great feats. [Editor's note: Brandt is our own NASA Quest correspondent at the Kennedy Space Center. Among his many responsibilities is the coordination of the ISS Behind the Scenes monthly presentations from KSC. In this journal you'll learn just a touch about webcasts behind the scenes.] LIGHTS, CAMERA, WEBCAST! http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/secosh.html April 24, l999 It has been an interesting week here at Kennedy Space Center. For the past three months, Space Team Online has worked with the Learning Technologies Channel to produce a series of web casts that allow students to "log on" to the exciting events at the Space Center. What is a web cast? It is an event that is distributed to your computer using RealMedia© technology. The web casts from Kennedy have one more very important feature in that they are interactive. This means that, as you view the event, you can also ask questions using a chatroom. The presenter will answer your questions live as you view it in your browser! Our most recent web cast featured Michael Ciannilli who took us on a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building with Linda Conrad, the Space Team Online project manager. Some of our previous events included a tour of the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) to view actual components of the International Space Station and to interact with Joe Delai and Sharon Carlson. Joe and Sharon are engineers who work at Kennedy and are excited to inform you of the progress of the ISS. Mike, Joe, and Sharon hosted a web cast together that gave a great overview of the purpose of the International Space Station and the assembly process that is involved. Some of our future web casts will involve Space Shuttle launches, facility tours such as the launch pads and the Orbiter Processing Facilities, and a variety of other space related topics. We encourage all of you to join us in this series. To find out how to prepare your computer to use the real media technology, please visit the Learning Technologies Channel at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/iss/index.html. If you have a particular event that you would be interested in, please e-mail me at brandt@palmnet.net. A lot of coordination takes place for the production of a web cast. It is always a team effort and even though it is hectic, it is a lot of fun. Our LTC project manager, Kate Weisberg, oversees the production and gives us advice on how to best present the event. The Space Team Online project manager usually develops the content and the technical issues are left up to me at Kennedy Space Center. We are very fortunate to have many Engineers at Kennedy Space Center that are willing to take their time and share their expertise with us. So, to all of them, I say "THANKS!" To all of you I say, "Come and join us, and let us know how we can best serve YOUR interests!" [Editor's note: Robert Dempsey is a flight controller for the International Space Station (ISS) and works with the computer system that will operate the station.] FLYING HIGH WITH TEXAS IN '99! http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/dempsey.html April 19, l999 Every now and then we get to step outside of our normal duties and share the excitement of our jobs with others not in the aerospace community. In my case, I got to mentor a team of high school students in the Texas Fly High '99 Program. In this program, which is in its second year, approximately 20 teams of high school students from around Texas work on an "experiment" that demonstrates something about microgravity. Each team consists of 12 students led by a high school science teacher collaborating with a mentor who works at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). In my case, the team comes from the McAllen area in south Texas. Mr. Aaron Salinas, a physics teacher from San Perlita High School, lead Team 1 from that region. Our group worked on building a "spacecraft" that would use gyroscopes in the same fashion that the International Space Station will use them for guidance, navigation, and stabilization. While I had come up with the general idea, it was up to the students, under my guidance, to design, construct, and test the "spacecraft". I first met the 12 intrepid students in March, in McAllen. I explained the general properties of gyroscopes and of the challenge that lay before them in conducting their experiment. Once the project had been outlined, they put their heads together and figured out the best design for the spacecraft. As is the case with real space missions, there were wrong turns as they realized several times that what seemed like a great idea wouldn't work in the unusual environment of microgravity or with the materials they could afford under the project's limited budget. Additional challenges presented themselves in weight and size limitations and the required stringent safety standards (the same which NASA applies to real missions). Still, they quickly came up with a design that proved to be very good. The next step was to procure the materials and actually fashion the vehicle. The students used some light wood to hold three gyros laid out in a plane. Penlight laser pointers were mounted to help track the motion of the spacecraft when weightless as the experiment was filmed with a standard video recorder. To simulate the sort of external forces, or torque, that spacecraft experience in space (e.g., the thin, but still present, atmosphere of the earth 250 miles up), the students used a small hand-held fan to push the vehicle. Over the next month, I helped them solve the little problems that came up, but mostly I dealt with the paperwork required in preparation for the flight on the KC-135. And how do you actually get to experience micro-gravity without going into space? You do it by flying parabolic arcs in the sky. A parabola is a bell-shaped flight path in which the plane banks up steeply, arcs over, and then descends sharply. This is how the weightless scenes in the movie Apollo 13 were filmed. In our case, we flew about 40 parabolas aboard NASA's KC-135 aircraft. While fun, this is not as easy as it sounds. All the people who flew on the plane had to pass a physical and go through "physiological" training. Since the KC-135 is not a standard commercial airliner (and in fact it is considered a test vehicle by the Federal Aviation Administration), all fliers must be trained in emergency procedures. This training consisted of a "ride" in a high altitude chamber to simulate a loss of cabin pressurization at 35,000 feet. Each flyer got to experience up to five minutes with very little oxygen to observe how they react. In my case, I felt extremely tired. Some students felt very giddy. The students were in Houston the week of April 12-16 for their flight. On the first day of the week, we went through NASA's Technical Readiness Review (TRR) process. During the TRR, the students explained to a panel of experts how the experiment would be run and what safety measure had been taken to ensure no one could get hurt during the flight. After we were approved, we spent the afternoon setting up the equipment on the KC-135. Unfortunately, due to the limited space of the KC-135, only four of the twelve students could fly. The eight who could not fly constituted the ground crew and were responsible for the safety reviews, test setup, media documentation, post test analysis, and experience dissemination. The four flyers were separated into teams of two, to fly on consecutive days. On one day, I accompanied two of them for two hours of measurements. On the other day, two others went up with a journalist from a local TV station in McAllen Texas. Each day began with a safety video and briefing. Then, while we suited up in our green flight suits, we also took some motion sickness medication. During each parabola, you experience 20-30 seconds of 2Gs (i.e., acceleration that makes you feel twice as heavy as normal), followed by 25 seconds of weightlessness and then ending in another 30 seconds experiencing 2Gs. That tends to make just about anyone sick and, therefore, it is routine to take medication as a precaution to minimize the ill effects. After all, you want to be able to enjoy the flight. On flight day, we took off from Ellington Air Field aboard the KC-135 and flew over the Gulf of Mexico to perform the parabolas. Since many of us had never done this before, the first few parabolas were used to familiarize ourselves with the experience of weightlessness. Although fun, it is not an easy thing to work in the absence of gravity. Each time you touch the experiment or a wall, you tend to shoot off in the opposite direction. And although you frequently see people "swimming" in zero-G to propel themselves about like a fish, the effort is completely useless and gets you nowhere. Therefore, we used straps to hold our bodies down while we operated the experiment. We took turns performing different tests, recording the data on two video cameras. Before we knew it, the flight was over and it was time to return to Ellington. After the flights, I gave the students a tour of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at Sonny Carter Testing Facility as well as a detailed tour of mission control, the shuttle mockups in Building 9, and the simulators in Building 5. After the tour, the students met with astronaut Pam Melroy, who told them all about her training and work. Over the next month, the students will analyze their data and write up their findings. In addition, they will share their experiences via a web page they plan to put together, in local newspaper articles, and on the local TV stations who covered the flight. In addition, the educational TV station, Channel One, will broadcast an in-depth documentary on the students' experiences as they progressed through the entire process. STATUS OF COLUMBIA PROCESSING
Below, we provide reports on the processing of Shuttle Columbia taken from the detailed daily reports found at the NASA Shuttle Status web site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm At times 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. Columbia is powered up in OPF bay 1. Orbiter mass memory unit loading is complete and workers opened the payload bay doors last night. Orbiter processing for mission STS-93 resumes following routine OPF receiving inspections.
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