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S P A C E T E A M O N L I N E
UPDATE # 87 - July 12, 1999 PART 1: Off to launch STS-93 OFF TO LAUNCH STS-93
It's been a long time coming, but it's finally going to happen. STS-93 will launch July 20 in the wee hours of the morning (so actually it's just after midnight the 19th). This mission is featured in the Female Frontiers project. See http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/frontiers Surrounding this launch, we will bring you the special perspective of three Student Ambassadors as they witness this historic mission. Stephanie, Marissa, and Sabrina will write journals and share their experiences with you live from the Kennedy Space Center. Not only will STS-93 put the most sophisticated X-ray observatory ever built into orbit, but it will mark the first U.S. shuttle flight commanded by a woman. Join us live for the Student Ambassador webcast Thursday morning and then the pre-launch webcast that night before the spectacle of a night launch just after midnight KSC time. It will be my first chance to see a night launch, and I'm really looking forward to it! Check the schedule at the event web page so you won't miss out. See: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/sto/launch/sts93 and pre-register to participate. Linda Conrad Space Team Online project manager NASA Quest Team UPCOMING CHATS
->Wednesday, July 14, 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. GMT) Kurt Bush makes sure that astronauts have enough elbow room to work in space. Kurt creates computer models of astronauts working in the SpaceLab to learn if they can work without getting in each other's way. (He says it's like making a NASA version of the movie Toy Story.) Read Kurt's profile and field journals at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/bush.html Pre-register for this chat at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting ->Thursday, July 15, 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT, 3 p.m. GMT) Elizabeth Bloomer works with a group that is in charge of the payloads (the experiments and satellites) that the shuttle carries into space. During a mission, they have to know the right things to do when a payload is not working correctly. They do a lot of practicing so they know exactly what to do when things do go wrong. Read Elizabeth's profile and field journals at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/bloomer.html Pre-register for this chat at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting ->Tuesday, July 20, 1999, 7 a.m. PDT Back by popular demand, Space Team Online presents a Forum. Join the following members of STO during our forum with students in Colombia and other countries. Kurt Bush - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/bush.html Rick Hashimoto - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/hashimoto.html Emily Nelson - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/nelson.html Luis Rodriguez - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/rodriguez.html Join members of Space Team Online during our forum with students in Colombia and other countries. The experts will be online to discuss their career fields and offer their reflections on the 30th anniversary of the moon landing and the historic STS-93 mission with Eileen Collins. Pre-register for this international forum at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/chats/index.html#chatting [Editor's note: David Project is a manager for science experiments that fly on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. What this means is that he works with scientists to make sure that the experiments flown on NASA missions will be a success. One of the steps is pre-testing in as close to 0 gravity conditions as we can get on Earth. See pictorial version at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/journals/cox/06-29-99.html ] MY PARABOLIC EXPERIENCE!
By: David Cox http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/cox.html Interviewer: Brandt Secosh June 29, 1999 I recently had an unbelievable experience that I wanted to share with all of you. Earlier this month I got to feel what it is like to float in space! NASA has this airplane (based out of Houston) that they use to test how certain things (and people!) react to weightlessness. (Remember various scenes from Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks and others were floating? They filmed those scenes in the same exact plane that I was in!) They fly this plane nearly straight down toward the Earth to accomplish the true weightless effect (Zero-G). Of course the plane can only fly straight down for so long (without crashing!) so the sensation lasts for only thirty seconds at a time. Then in order to do it again, they must fly back up to altitude. They do this by nearly flying straight up for about a minute. During this time your body feels twice gravity (2G). Then, they point right back toward the ground again for 30 more seconds of free fall! They do this flight profile (called "parabolic") 10 times in a row, take a 5 minute break (to allow you to tinker with your experiment or get more vomit bags!), then 10 more times, followed by a 7 minute break while they turn the plane around (since we are now halfway across the Gulf of Mexico!), then they do 10 more, 5 minute break, and finally 10 more for a grand total of 40 parabolas equaling 20 minutes of weightlessness! This really messes with your body. The weightless parts are truly a unique experience that I found quite spiritual, like floating in the clouds, while the 2G parts are very taxing on the body. Most people (at least 80%) get sick on their first flight, many violently ill. My body held up extremely well. Although I did get sick once after 30 parabolas, I shook it off and went right back to floating again! I actually got to fly two days in a row. On the second day, my body performed flawlessly and felt strong (even through the 2G portions) which really allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the experience. The top-center picture is me doing a back flip while floating in the airplane as it plunges toward Earth! Check out my eyes! I was just waiting to hit my head on the ground just like when I try to do a back flip here on Earth! While it looks like I am holding things in my hand, I actually have my hands so wide open since I did not know what to expect! Kind of like a deer in headlights! It was the coolest feeling to float. It is exactly what the astronauts feel when floating in space!! I guess I should tell you why we were doing all of this floating around. It was to test out some newly developed liquid systems that we are designing for a plant experiment scheduled to fly on the Space Shuttle in November 2000. You see, liquids behave very differently in space than they do here on Earth. For example, in a glass of water on Earth the water stays on the bottom and the air stays on top simply because water is more dense than air. But in space, density does not matter since gravity is not there to pull on things, and the water is free to float around with the air. So if you need to get water to certain places while in space, you must learn about the other factors that influence who will win, the water or the air. These factors include surface tension and also the use of various coatings such as the Teflon (just like on your pots and pans). For the Space Shuttle experiment, once in space, we will first deliver water to plant seeds so that they can start to grow. Then, we will take tons of digital pictures as the roots grow across very strong magnets (that's another long story for the intense plant biologists). And finally, we will inject a water based liquid called a "fixative" (which is very similar to formaldehyde, just like in your biology class) that will stop the cells from changing (after the Shuttle lands and gravity kicks in again). By now, hopefully you have figured out that the liquid systems that we needed to test were the water delivery system and the fixative injection system. Well, do you want to know who won, the water or the air? Buy the book! No, just kidding! We were very pleased that the water won!! Now we have much greater confidence that we can get water to the seeds and get the fixative to touch the roots for the actual Shuttle experiment. A very successful week of testing which, by the way, is much cheaper than a Space Shuttle flight. [Editor's note: Brandt Secosh is NASA Quest's correspondent at Kennedy Space Center. We have gotten questions about the effects of launch activities on the wildlife around KSC. Here Brandt devotes a journal to the subject of wildlife. See the pictures in the online version: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/journals/secosh/06-22-99.html ] NESTING TIME AGAIN
by Brandt Secosh http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/secosh.html June 22, 1999 It is that time again for the big event at Kennedy Space Center! No, not a launch - it is time for the annual nesting of the Loggerhead turtles! Wildlife is abundant at Kennedy Space Center and lives in harmony with the space program activities year-round. The Loggerhead Turtle, a threatened species, is found in temperate and subtropical oceans throughout the world. The Loggerhead is a highly mobile species with no clear home ranges defined to date. The second largest nesting colony in the world is along Florida's East Coast. Nesting is common to North Carolina, but the majority of the nesting occurs in Florida. KSC provides two habitat types for two different life stages of this species, the reproductively mature females and the sub-adults and juveniles. Nesting occurs on the KSC beaches each summer between April and September. About 98% of all marine turtle nests on KSC are Loggerheads. Seasonal nest estimates for the secured stretch of KSC beach (10 km) ranged from 888 nests in 1984 to 1,791 nests in 1990. The total reproductive potential, disregarding actual hatch success, during the last eight years is about 1 million hatchlings. The loggerhead turtle leaves the water during the night and crawls ashore to lay her eggs in a sandy nest. The task of excavating a nest may take her over an hour to accomplish. The turtle, weighing several hundred pounds, digs a nest cavity with her rear flippers. She then deposits approximately 100 pliable Ping-Pong ball sized eggs into the chamber, covers them with sand, and returns to the sea. After roughly a two-month incubation period, a cluster of tiny hatchlings emerges from the sand and scrambles to the Gulf. The existence of this species has been severely threatened because of fishing operations. In addition, a continuing threat to the clutches (eggs) deposited at KSC is predation by Raccoons and, to a lesser degree, Feral Pigs. The levels of predation vary with the area and predator control methods. On KSC, enough Raccoons have been removed from the beach to drop predation rates dramatically to the 1-2% level. Another problem faced by the species in this locale is disorientation of hatchlings. Disorientation is believed to be the confusion of newly emerged turtles whereby they avoid a dark background and head for the brighter horizon. On undisturbed beaches this brighter horizon would be the ocean and the darker areas would be the dune or land mass. In lighted areas the opposite is true and can cause this disorientation. 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. Following last Thursday's Flight Readiness Review, Shuttle managers announced July 20 as the official launch date for STS-93. Today, Truck No. 1 on the Rotating Service Structure at Launch Pad 39B, has been repaired and is ready to support standard prelaunch activities. Last Friday, engineers completed a simulated countdown test for the payload's inertial upper stage and workers conducted routine voltage tests as well. Columbia's aft compartment closeouts are in work this week. Flight crew equipment early stow occurs tomorrow along with preparations for ordnance installation. STS-93 SCHEDULED OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (target dates only): - Shuttle ordnance installation complete (July 15) - Orbiter aft compartment close-outs complete (July 16) - Orbiter hypergolic system pressurization complete (July 16) - Flight crew arrives at KSC (July 16 at about 7 a.m.) - Launch countdown clock begins (July 16 at 10 p.m.) - Close payload bay doors for flight (July 17) SUBSCRIBING & UNSUBSCRIBING: HOW TO DO IT!
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