ISS Science Operations Status Report for week ending 06-05-02
The Payload Operations Center team has finished most Expedition
Four science activities and is busy planning and preparing for Expedition
Five — the next four-month research mission on the International
Space Station.
Expedition Five will officially get started during Space Shuttle Endeavour’s
visit to the orbiting laboratory on the STS-111 mission. Endeavour
will deliver two new research facilities – EXPRESS Rack 3 and
the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The new Space Station crew,
also riding up on Endeavour, will install these facilities in the Station’s
Destiny laboratory.
To enhance hands-on investigations inside the Station, engineers and
scientists at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
collaborated with the European Space Agency to build the glovebox.
“Without the glovebox, many types of hands-on experiments would be
impossible or severely restricted on the Space Station,” said Charles
Baugher, project scientist for the glovebox at the Marshall Center.
The glovebox — a sealed container with built in gloves on its
sides and front — will enhance the Space Station’s science capabilities
by providing a facility where the crew can work safely with experiments
that involve fluids, flames, particles and fumes that need to be contained.
During the upcoming four-month Expedition Five on the Station, the
glovebox will support the first two NASA materials science experiments
to be conducted on the Space Station: the Solidification Using a
Baffle in Sealed Ampoules, or SUBSA, and the Pore Formation and
Mobility Investigation, or PFMI. These experiments will study materials
processes similar to those used to make semiconductors for electronic
devices and components used in jet engines.
High-temperature furnaces and toxic materials required for the experiments
will be safely contained inside the sealed glovebox work area. Yet by
inserting their hands in the gloves, the crew will still be able to
change out samples and adjust video for the experiment — two critical
hands-on activities crucial to the success of both investigations. The
glovebox is connected to Station resources like power and computers,
so investigators on the ground can still send commands to their experiments
and receive data, such as video of samples being melted.
Besides the two materials experiments, two more new experiments will
be delivered to the Station, along with two experiments that are being
reflown and samples for research facilities already on board the Station.
Another 11 experiments are continuing operations started on earlier
Station expeditions. Endeavour will bring home samples and equipment
for 11 experiments completed during Expedition Four.
This week, scientists finished the year-long Active Rack Isolation
System ISS Characterization Experiment (ARIS-ICE) data collection
with three hammer tests. The ARIS system is installed in EXPRESS
Rack 2 to protect experiments from vibrations that disturb the quiet,
low-gravity environment. The hammer test imparts a known disturbance
to the rack, and then measures how ARIS responds to negate vibrations
that would disrupt experiments.
ARIS will remain installed in EXPRESS Rack 2 to support payloads in
that rack. One of the payloads, the Zeolite Crystal Growth Furnace,
finished processing its first set of zeolite samples during Expedition
Four. Endeavour will return the samples, so scientists can use them
to better define the structure of zeolites. Zeolites may potentially
be used to safely store hydrogen fuel. Endeavour will deliver a new
set of zeolite samples that will be crystallized during Expedition Five.
This experiment and others are being flown through NASA Commercial
Space Centers managed by NASA’s Space Product Development Program at
the Marshall Center. Antibiotics produced in space are being returned
for a pharmaceutical experiment, sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical
Research Institute, Wallingford, Conn. Endeavour is delivering a commercial
experiment that will grow soybeans in space for Pioneer Hi-Bred International
Inc., a Dupont Company, with headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa.
Endeavour will return plants grown in the Biomass Production System
sponsored by the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. This
experiment examines both technology for a permanent plant growth facility
for the Station and the microgravity performance of Apogee wheat and
Brassica rapa plants. There are three sets of plants currently
in the Biomass Production System. The final set of wheat seeds will
be planted one day after Endeavour launches and will grow while the
Shuttle is docked with the Station. When the Endeavour returns to Earth
with the plants, scientists will harvest the wheat plants to study the
effect of microgravity on photosynthesis. The Brassica rapa plants
will be examined to help scientists evaluate the hardware performance.
This week and during Shuttle docked operations, the crew will continue
their Crew Earth Observations (CEO) photography. Potential subjects
for the week include floods in Honduras and fires and volcanic activity
in Colima, located on the western side of Mexico on the Pacific coast,
ranging from the southern slopes of the Fuego de Colima volcano to the
Pacific coastal plain.
