Code UG Weekly Notes 2-06-02
Physical Sciences Division
Weekly Highlights for Week Ending 2/6/2002
*** Indicates item is appropriate for the HQ senior staff and may appear
on the OBPR Web site: http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov
GENERAL
MRPO PARTICIPATION IN MSFC SPACE LAUNCH INITITATIVE REQUIREMENTS WORKING
GROUP: Microgravity Research Program Office (MRPO) employees are participating
in the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) Requirements Working Group to ensure
that generic payload requirements are adequately addressed during the
development of the SLI System Requirements Document (SRD). Topics covered
in the SLI System Requirements Document include spacecraft to payload
interfaces, resource capabilities for payloads, and group/flight operations
infrastructure requirements. The baselining of this document is expected
to occur pending a successful SLI System Requirements Review (SRR), tentatively
scheduled for November 2002. The working group will meet weekly to prepare
for the SLI SRR in late fall ’02.
SHUTTLE PAYLOAD FLIGHT OPPORTUNITY POLICY AND PLANNING: The chair person
of the Shuttle Flight Assignment Working Group (FAWG) reported that a
strategy, addressing flight opportunities for Shuttle-base
research customers, has been formulated and is being proposed to the Flight
Planning Board representatives at NASA HQ. Further details of the strategy
will be unveiled to the FAWG committee members in February. The FAWG,
which meets twice monthly, is considering reducing the meeting frequency
to once per month in light of the anticipated "Shuttle payload"
flight rate reduction.
EDUCATION and OUTREACH
EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP FOR STUDENT ACCESS TO SPACE PROGRAM: With the assistance
of Felecia Ewing, Universities Space Research Associates/Marshall Space
Flight Center (USRA/MSFC), an engineering team from the University of
California at Irvine (UCI) conducted a joint workshop with the members
of Texas Space Grant Consortium for high school students and their teachers
at the University of Texas at Austin, 1/23-24/2001. The objectives of
the workshop were to learn methods of crystallization of biological macromolecules
and the use of the Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen (EGN) Dewar. The samples
prepared during this workshop have been stored at MSFC’s Structural Biology
Laboratory and will be loaded in the EGN Dewar for the STS-110 mission
in April 2002. This will be the fourth launch of the EGN Dewar to the
International Space Station, and it is noteworthy that student samples
have been included in each flight.
ISS FLIGHT PROGRAM
MICROGRAVITY RESEARCH PROGRAM OFFICE (MRPO) PAYLOAD OPERATIONS STATUS
ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS) UF1 STAGE: Monday morning (2/04/02)
at approximately 7:30 am CST, a loss of attitude control occurred on the
ISS resulted in power loss to all payload racks. This condition lasted
for about 6 hrs, until control was reestablished. Power was progressively
provided back to the racks, and currently all payloads are operating normally.
Two of the MRPO payloads, which require continuous power -STES (protein
crystal growth), and CBOSS (cellular science) -caused concern, but only
CBOSS may have suffered some minimal loss of science due to its low temperature
set-point (4 deg C). This loss is difficult to determine quantitatively
at this time.
LTMPE ELECTRONICS TESTED AT JPL: The MISTE Experiment team and Design
Net verified that the Germanium Resistance Thermometer (GRT) electronics
board exceeds the performance requirements when connected to the MISTE
development Instrument. It appears to be able to meet the goal requirements
with proper cable shielding.
LTMPE PROJECT TEAM SHOWS OFF THE HARDWARE: During the MRT meeting held
at JPL, the LTMPE project hosted a tour of the labs where the MISTE/Design-Net
testing was taking place. Storyboards were set up showing the instruments
in development, and the electronics and software development process.
Flight-like hardware developed at the University of New Mexico, Design
Net, and JPL was also on display. A MISTE science team member demonstrated
the finer points of phase transition and why it is important.
SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
BIOTECHNOLOGY:
ITERATIVE BIOLOGICAL CRYSTALLIZATION (IBC) SCIENCE ADVISORY GROUP (SAG)
REVIEW: The second semi-annual IBC SAG review was conducted during the
week of January 28 at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The IBC
project team, with their development of the Lab-on-a-Chip technology,
is taking the lead in the application development of micro-fluidics for
microgravity research across all NASA disciplines. The SAG members, comprised
of both industry and academia specialists, were asked to provide an independent
assessment of the current IBC science goals and objectives, the science
feasibilities of the Lab-on-a-Chip technology, and the ability of the
engineering team to achieve the IBC science goals and objectives. The
assessment was very favorable toward the IBC project. The SAG members
were also asked to return feedback in the form of survey questions and
a summary report, which will be used to direct the continuation of the
formulation path for the IBC science goals and objectives, along with
the supporting technology.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Additional meetings and symposia can be found at: http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/ugml/ugmltext.htm
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:
Computational Micro And Nano Technology, nternational Conference on Computational
Nano Science
Modeling & Simulation of Microsystems , San Juan Marriott Resort,
San Juan, Puerto Rico
http://www.cr.org
May 9-11, 2002, Fundamental Physics Investigator Workshop, Laguna Cliffs
Marriott Resort, Dana Point, CA, http://funphysics.jpl.nasa.gov/conference-02/index.html
