Share

A Christmas Present For The 21st Century - USMP-4 On Shuttle Ends Near-Perfect Flight

The last of the U.S. Microgravity Payload (USMP-4) missions comes home Friday with a full haul of science and samples that will help scientists direct investigations for the era of International Space Station.

"Formulas and theories - and the researchers who know how to go out into industry to use them - are our most important products," said Sherwood Anderson, the mission manager at the final press conference of the mission.

While much of the work is basic research, he compared it to investing in the transistor and the laser which were invented in the 1947 and 1959, respectively. Full use of both did not come for many years, but much of modern society relies on them including eye surgery. Anderson noted that he had laser surgery just a day before the mission, yet was able to return to work almost immediately.

"These are the tools that our children will use to make tomorrow's products," he added. "My gift to my children is the research we're doing today."

"We've done extremely well," said mission scientist Peter Curreri. "We covered a lot of materials science from fundamental physics to solidification processes" in the 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.

Out of the four payload bay experiments and three Middeck Glovebox experiments, the investigators had only one major disappointment, but even that did not block the investigator from getting a good set of samples.

Mission manager Sherwood Anderson praised the flight crew for their work in ensuring a smooth ride for the experiments.

"They have worked with us very well and protected our science," Anderson said. "The crew gave us a beautiful, smooth ride, and the microgravity levels were great."

He added that the scientists were thrilled with the results they got from the glovebox experiments, and he gave the astronauts "two thumbs up" for their work.

Although the experiments had run exceptionally well, an extension to the mission would not provide much added value, Anderson said. Most of the facilities had used all their consumables or had been shut down in anticipation of landing.

Although no further flights of USMP are scheduled, Anderson said the payload assembly will be kept intact after samples are removed from the various facilities.

A quick score on the USMP-4 experiments includes (a more detailed science summary is available from NASA/Marshall's Liftoff web site):

Payload bay

• Isothermal Dendrite Growth Experiment (IDGE) was "an extraordinary success," Curreri said. It will continue running until a few hours before reentry. The remotely operated experiment, commanded from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has completed more than 111 growth cycles of dendritic (treelike) crystals under the gaze of video and film cameras. In addition to providing valuable data on how crystals form within metals, IDGE also demonstrated new remote-control operations - telescience - that will be important to International Space Station, and provided extensive science and space education for about 1,000 people participating in the IDGE visitor's center during the mission.

• Advanced Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) processed two of three samples it carried. The third sample apparently leaked vapor which caused a shutdown of the furnace as it was being started. However, one sample was processed under perfect growth conditions for each of the two AADSF principal investigators. The conditions of the samples may shed light on how to make better infrared detectors.

• Confined Helium Experiment (CHeX) ran 40 high-quality experiments at high temperature resolutions, and another 19 at lower resolutions which may also yield useful science. Using sheets of liquid helium between silicon disks, CHeX simulated 2-dimensional conditions that are expected to control the design of ultrasmall electronics in a few years.

• Materials for the Study of Interesting Phenomena of Solidification on Earth and In Orbit Experiment (MEPHISTO) made 35 Seebeck measurements as compared to 13 planned at the start of the mission. In the Seebeck effect, the liquid/solid interface in a metal produces a small electrical signal which is a measure of how the material is crystallizing.

• Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) and the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE) monitored vibrations and motions throughout the mission. These data will help the other scientists interpret their results.

• Enclosed Laminar Flame (ELF) experiment was give 50 test runs as compared to 18 in the flight plan. Many of the flames turned out to be less stable than expected. This will help in understanding and controlling flames in jet engines.

• Particle Engulfment and Pushing (PEP) experiment got twice as many experiment runs as planned, eight vs. four. The experiment looks for the critical velocity where an object is no longer pushed by a freeze front but becomes engulfed.

• Wetting Characteristics of Immiscibles (WCI) made 14 runs as compared to 8 requested. WCI may answer questions about why experiments that should have produced even dispersions of one material in another (like oil droplets flash frozen in water) instead produced a single mass of one material coated by another.

Share

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.