NASA Space Station Science Operations Status Report 20 August 2004

International Space Station Expedition 9 Science Operations status report
for the week ending August 20, 2004

To help teach hearing impaired students the physics of sound, the crew
aboard the International Space Station conducted an educational experiment,
demonstrating a musical instrument called a chicken shake. The crew showed
how microgravity affects the egg-shaped percussion instrument, similar to
Cuban maracas without handles. The sessions will be used in educator
workshops.

NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke conducted another imaging session of
the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 (BCAT-3) experiment. Fincke took a total
of 157 photos documenting the formation of particle suspensions in
homogenized liquids. Possible future applications of the colloidal alloy
experiments are photonic crystals for telecommunications and computer
applications and extremely low threshold lasers, as well as improved use of
supercritical fluids for food extractions, pharmaceuticals, dry cleaning,
and rocket propellants.

Both Fincke and Gennady Padalka conducted a session with the Educational
Payload Operations by demonstrating a musical instrument called a chicken
shake. Crewmembers showed how microgravity affects the egg-shaped percussion
instrument that is very similar to Cuban maracas without handles. In
Caribbean or South American orchestras, chicken shakes are used in the
percussion section to add to its variety of rhythms, textures and tone
colors. The sessions were videotaped and downlinked for later use by the
Maryland Science Center in educator workshops designed to educate hearing
impaired students about sound and the physics of sound.

NASA’s payload operations team at the Marshall Center coordinates science
activities on Space Station.