Space Product Development Weekly Highlights – April 30, 2002

Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing (CAMMP) – Zeolite Crystal Growth – CAMMP started its first set of ISS experiments on Monday April 22, 2002. Carl Waltz, ISS crewman, successfully mixed all nineteen autoclaves using the automatic mixing feature prior to activating the furnace at 5:11am CST. This represents the first of a series of four experiment sets to be preformed in the ZCG-FU rack class payload. The ZCG-FU rack payload was launched on Endeavor on December 5th, and can be operated by a crewman or by commands from the ground. The current set of nineteen experiments will investigate zeo-type materials to store hydrogen and will look at improving catalysts for chemical processing. This set of experiments is sponsored by Dupont, MSI, Intek Inc., and the Environmental Research Institute (ERI). The ZCG team monitored operations from the USOC in Huntsville, Northeastern University in Boston and Intek Inc. in Ohio.

STS-107 Mission Simulations – The Space Product Development Program participated in the first STS-107 Joint Integrated Simulation and the third Mission Integrated Training Simulation the week of April 22 at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Representatives from many of the payload developers for this mission worked with mission and project scientists, mission and project managers, SPACEHAB, Boeing and JSC to simulate problems and devise solutions for different sections of the mission timeline. Post-simulation debriefs were held after each simulation to review items that need to be clarified or better coordinated before the actual mission takes place in July. STS-107 is currently scheduled to launch on July 19.