Code UG Weekly Notes 11-07-01

Physical Sciences Division
Weekly Highlights for Week Ending 11/07/2001

*** Indicates item is appropriate for the HQ senior staff and may appear
on the OBPR Web site: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov

EDUCATION and OUTREACH

KC-135 STUDENT PROPOSAL REVIEWS: GRC has received 50 KC-135 student proposals
in combustion science, fluid physics and acceleration measurement for
review. John McQuillen (GRC) is leading and coordinating the reviews.
Results of the reviews will be provided to JSC. Mr. McQuillen will also
participate in proposal rankings to be conducted at JSC on 11/30/01.

STS 102 ASTRONAUTS VISIT: The following media interviewed Expedition
Two crew members Jim Voss and Susan Helms when they visited the Marshall
Space Flight Center on October 30th: WAAY TV, Huntsville (ABC affiliate);
WAFF TV, Huntsville (NBC affiliate); WHNT TV, Huntsville (CBS affiliate);
the Huntsville Times; and Kent Faulk, Birmingham News.

U.S. LAB MOCK-UP AT THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) UTILIZATION
CONFERENCE: The full-scale U.S. Laboratory Module "Destiny"
mock-up was the focal point for the exhibits that accompanied the ISS
Utilization Conference at Cape Canaveral, FL, October 15-17, 2001. Located
in the center of the exhibit hall, this display was truly the product
of a joint Glenn Research Center (GRC)/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
effort, as the conference marked the first time that both half-length
GRC and MSFC mock-ups were assembled and connected to form a full-length
representation of the ISS lab module, and the exhibit served as a "dry-run"
for the World Space Congress, Houston, TX, October 2002. The Fluids Integrated
Rack (FIR) and Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) were featured in the GRC
section of the exhibit, with an active Space Acceleration Measurement
System (SAMS) display in the Shared Accommodations Racks (SAR) rack; the
MSFC section featured their EXPRESS-1, Materials Science Research Rack
(MSRR), and Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) racks. Arrayed around
the mock-up were the ISS kiosk and an Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus
(MDCA) hardware display. Among the many visitors to the mock-up were the
two American Increment 2 astronauts, Susan Helms and Jim Voss, the ISS
Program Manager and Research Manager, Tommy Holloway and John-David Bartoe
respectively, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Center Director, Roy Bridges,
Jan Davis, MSFC Flight Projects Director, NASA Chief Scientist, Kathie
Olsen, and the Director of the Headquarters Physical Sciences Division,
Eugene Trinh, who were all suitably impressed by the high fidelity of
the exhibit and noted its training potential. The mock-up served as a
catalyst for networking, contacts were made regarding use of the FIR for
biotechnology experiments, as well as obtaining high fidelity imagery
of the HRF and WORF for inclusion in the mock-up for future exhibit opportunities.
The exhibit was visited by several members of the media, including the
Associated Press and Popular Mechanics representatives, who were briefed
on the Lab’s purpose and planned science by GRC and MSFC personnel. MSFC
soon will make available about 50 images taken in and around the mockup.

To view pictures of the mock-up at the conference, please access the
following web page:
http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/outreach/issutil/ISSconf.html

ISS FLIGHT PROGRAM

PHYSICS OF COLLOIDS IN SPACE (PCS) ON ISS CONTINUES TO PRODUCE EXCITING
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS: PCS began a new phase of detailed investigations this
past week. During 48 hours of operations, experiments on the colloid-polymer
critical point sample and colloid-polymer crystal sample began. The colloid-polymer
crystal showed the most interesting data this time. The science team had
been rather discouraged with this sample until our measurements this week
showed that the crystals have been growing exceedingly slowly instead
of being completely stagnant as previously thought. The sample had been
crystallizing for more than 100 days, but unfortunately the science team
had not taken adequate data during this time to fully characterize the
crystal evolution. Subsequent to these observations of the sample, we
rehomogenized the sample in order to gather more data on the early stages
of crystallization. Several dynamic light scattering measurements were
performed on the colloid-polymer critical point sample in an effort to
learn as much about the equilibrium state of the gas-like, colloid-poor
phase of the sample. Of particular interest is the possibility of observing
critical density fluctuations, which are relatively large amplitude variations
in the local number of colloids that would be associated with being close
to the boundary between a sample that remains homogeneous and one that
spontaneously de-mixes.

MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH PROGRAM OFFICE (MRPO) PAYLOAD OPERATIONS STATUS
ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) 7A.1 STAGE: Week 12 of Stage
7A.1 of ISS Increment 3 began during the week of November 5, 2001 with
all MRPO payloads performing nominally. The Structural Biology Experiment,
DCPCG, has initiated the last phase of study for the remaining time on
ISS. Preparations are now in progress for the transition to Increment
4 (I4) involving database changes and hardware relocation on-board the
ISS. Flight UF1, the starting point of I4, is scheduled for launch on
November 29, 2001.

DESIGN NET PRODUCES FIRST ELECTRONICS PROTOTYPE FOR THE LTMPEF PROJECT:
One month after the LTMPE Project PDR, the "team of 10 at Design
Net," as they were called at the review, have detailed the design
of the Germanium Resistance Themometer (GRT) circuit board. The first
prototype board is now built, populated with components, and in test.

DYNAMX DESIGN FOR FLIGHT EXPERIMENTAL CELL RELEASED: The DYNAMX cell
sidewall flight design has been released for fabrication. The cell end-plate
design analysis for heat flux uniformity into the helium sample using
numerical modeling techniques showed some non-uniformity on the prototype,
so modifications have been made to reduce these non-uniformities. Before
the flight end-plate design can be released for fabrication, the modeling
to improve heat flux uniformity into the cell sample must be completed.

SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

FLUID PHYSICS:

***BUSINESS WEEK CITES FLUID PHYSICS INVESTIGATOR’S RESEARCH:
A NOVEL TOOL UNFOLDS FOR PROTEIN RESEARCH (Business Week Nov 5, 2001):
Proteins are the basic structures of life: What they do in our bodies
depends on their shape. If a string of amino acids folds one way, it may
become an essential enzyme. A different shape, however, may form a protein
associated with a genetic disease such as cystic fibrosis. Researchers
around the world are struggling to understand the dynamics of protein
folding because it’s the key to designing new wonder drugs. Trouble is,
the folding happens too quickly to study the process in detail, and the
dozens of amino acids in a protein chain can fold into so many complex
three-dimensional shapes that even supercomputers strain to simulate all
the possibilities that might prove valuable. To narrow the problem, researchers
assume each amino acid prefers to be surrounded by certain other molecules,
then they program a computer to search for the best overall "fit."

Now, there’s a more accurate shortcut. A team at Pennsylvania State University,
led by physicist Jayanth R. Banavar, has developed a so-called neural
network system that does a better job of predicting protein structure
by mimicking the brain’s circuitry. When Banavar’s system was tested–by
feeding it data on 213 amino-acid strings–the neural network correctly
predicted the shape of 190 of the resulting proteins. As Banavar’s team
will report in an upcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, existing software tools accurately predicted only 137 of
the final protein structures. Prof. J. Banavar (Penn State) is fluid physics
co-investigator collaborating with fluid physics PI Prof. J. Koplik (City
College).

EFFECTS OF EVAPORATION AND THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTION ON VOLATILE LIQUID
DROPLETS: Fluid physics PI Dr. Zhang (OAI) and his Co-I Dr. Chao (GRC)
reported on a hybrid optical system of laser shadowgraphy and direct photography
to study .. Experimental results of evaporating sessile drops on a glass-slide
surface for three volatile liquids show that both evaporation and thermocapillary
convection strongly affect the drop spreading and contact angle. They
studied spreading and contact angle of liquids on a solid surface closer
to practical applications, because the evaporation and the themocapillary
convection induced by the evaporation are inevitable in most practical
industrial processes, such as painting, coating, film cooling, and etc.
Experimental results of evaporating sessile drops on a glass-slide surface
for three volatile liquids show that both evaporation and thermocapillary
convection strongly affect the drop spreading and contact angle. Thermocapillary
convection promotes the evaporation over the spreading and shortens the
spreading-evaporation balance stage to become undetectable. The contact
angle of sessile drops with low evaporation rate is increased by evaporation.
However, strong evaporation decreases the contact angle to create a contact-angle
plateau in the evaporation-dominant contraction stages. The spreading
of an evaporating liquid on a solid surface plays an important role in
many industrial and material processing operations. An understanding of
the evaporation effects on the contact angle of a droplet is important
in the study of the spreading of volatile liquids. Unfortunately, both
experimental and theoretical studies on this subject are still lacking.
This work is reported in the following paper:
D. F. Chao, and PI, N. Zhang, "Effects of Evaporation and Thermocapillary
Convection on Volatile Liquid Droplets," ournal of Thermophysics
and Heat Transfer, Volume 15, Number 4, October – December, 2001.

THEORY DEVELOPED FOR WAVE BEHAVIOR IN DUSTY PLASMA CRYSTALS: Fluid Physics
PI Prof. A. Bhattacharjee (U. of Iowa) and colleagues have developed a
unified theoretical treatment is given of longitudinal (or compressional)
and transverse modes in Yukawa crystals, including the effects of damping.
A dusty plasma consists of highly charged microparticles suspended in
a gaseous electrical discharge. One of the important issues in dusty plasma
systems is the precise nature of the inter-particle potential. It is widely
believed that in two-dimensional systems, the potential is Yukawa. In
a Yukawa system, charged microparticles interact with each other through
a screened Coulomb potential. Dispersion relations were obtained for hexagonal
lattices in two dimensions and bcc and fcc lattices in three dimensions,
and theoretical predictions were compared with two recent experiments.
Dusty plasma research is a rapidly growing field with applications ranging
from fundamental studies of freezing and melting phase transitions to
the formation of stars to the control of contamination in the processing
of semiconductor devices. This work is reported in the following paper:
X. Wang, A. Bhattacharjee, and S. Hu, "Logitudinal and transverse
waves in Yukawa crystals," Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2569 (2001)

UPCOMING EVENTS

Additional meetings and symposia can be found at: http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/ugml/ugmltext.htm

November 15, 2001, TeleConference MRT Meeting, 10:00am – 02:00pm CST

December 12-13, 2001, Face-To-Face MRT Meeting, MSFC

March 18-22, 2002, 2002 American Physical Society March Meeting, Indianapolis,
IN

April 20-23, 2002, 2002 American Physical Society April Meeting, Albuquerque,
NM

April 22-25, 2002, 2002 Applied Computational Research Society Joint
Meeting on Computational Micro And Nano Technology, International Conference
on Computational Nano Science, Modeling & Simulation of Microsystems,
San Juan Marriott Resort, San Juan, Puerto Rico http://www.cr.org