Chat with Louis Ostrach
November 19, l997 - 10:00 a.m.

[ Linda/Ames - 12 - 09:48:08 ]
Hello again, Louis and I are here ready for your questions. Please remember that since we are typing to each other, there may be a little delay before your question is answered. Please be patient - Let's chat!

[ Louis/ARC - 15 - 10:06:41 ]
RE: [Duncan/ARC-Duncan/Lockmart] Louis, this is Duncan. Although I don't think he's able to attend the chat room, Rob Tylor asks the following questions, and I will forward your answer to him: As a paraplegic, I have wondered what the effects of microgravity might be on the natural effort by the body to repair the CNS, especially the Spinal Cord. Have any research procedures been planned with that in mind (I believe that the Embryonic growth of CNS fibers may be effected by micro-gravity, in the sub-cellular, i.e genetic, condition) Also, has NASA considered the position of the physically disabled in space. Paraplegics suffer, on a day to day basis, the effects of lousy circulation; a weakened skeletal structure and disturbance of the immune system (amongst others) and learn how to survive these effects with ease. If NASA could put a paraplegic in an environment absent from gravity for an extended period of time, and observe the physical changes within the paralysed body - something very rewarding may be learned. Any interest in putting somebody like myself into such an environment?
In fact, the Adult Neuronal Plasticity Team is studying how the central nervous system responds to the novel environment of microgravity by altering the connections and functions of various groups of nerve cells. They will also study the re-adaptation of the brain when the animals return to the one-g of Earth upon recovery of the shuttle experiment. Similarly, the cricket experiment, Dr. Eberhard Horn of Germany, is studying the regeneration of specific sensory nerves in micro-gravity and in 1-g control specimens. NASA is indeed very interested in the basic science of nerve regeneration and the potential for applied benefits. Your suggestion about flying a paraplegic astronaut is intriguing and poses many interesting questions and possibilities for research. I'm not aware, however, of any definite plans to follow through on this suggestion.

[ Duncan/ARC-Duncan/Lockmart - 17 - 10:08:42 ]
Great answer Louis, thanks, I'll pass it on to Rob Tylor.

[ Louis/ARC - 19 - 10:18:29 ]
RE: [Sarah-Sarah/Greenmeadow] Dear Louis, When you were a kid did you think your research would go into orbit?
I actually never thought that I would be directly involved in space research. I was always very interested in the space program, though, since I was just a kid when the first man was launched into orbit and I had just graduated high school when men first landed on the moon. It is interesting how life offers unexpected opportunities - as a kid, I always wondered how a fertilized egg could possibly develop into a whole animal. What kinds of forces or controls could possibly direct a bunch of cells that look alike to develop into muscles and bone and brain. As a scientist, I studied how the brain, in particular, develops in the embryo since I was fascinated with the complexity of the adult brain. And now, I'm helping other scientists do their experiments on the same subjects using space and zero-gravity as tools to understand the development process.

[ Louis/ARC - 23 - 10:33:10 ]
RE: [Patti/CJHS] When you talk about the ground personnel being aware of the experiment requirements, I'm not sure I understand what they need to know besides how to load things into the shuttle?
Just imagine that you are a scientist in your lab at a big university and you are getting ready to do your experiment. You and your staff have developed specific procedures, gathered all the necessary supplies and equipment, arranged for all the skilled people that you will need to perform specialized parts of the experiment (or the data analysis), and don't forget that you all are gathered in labs with lights, temperature controls, electrical outlets, computer terminals, desks, chairs, pencils, pare, etc. Now, imagine that you are going to move into an empty building and set up all of that equipment, make arrangements for all those people, and get your experiment ready to give to another group of people to perform for you. That is what doing a shuttle experiment is like. In other words, with a few exceptions, at the launch site, NASA provides the basic facilities that are expected in a lab and the scientist brings all of his/her special equipment, procedures, and staff to get the experiment ready. Then, the scientist has to literally give the experiment to the folks who will load it on the shuttle and wait for launch. The experiment is performed by the crew, who have been trained by the scientist but are not usually part of his/her regular team. And finally, when the shuttle lands and the experiment is given back to the scientist, any special processing at the landing site is performed before everyone goes back to their home lab. Now imagine, every step of that process has to be understood and prepared for so that nothing is forgotten (the scientist can't run down the hall to a friend to borrow a piece of equipment that he forgot because that friend down the hall isn't at the launch / landing site). Does that give you a better idea of what the ground personnel are doing?

[ Patti/CJHS - 24 - 10:37:49 ]
Thanks! That really helps! I had no idea that so much was involved.

[ Louis/ARC - 25 - 10:40:37 ]
RE: [Sarah/Greenmeadow] Thanks for your answer, I am soo excited, What do you think the most beneficial results of your mission might be?
With so many experiments on different topics, it's hard to say which one is going to be the most beneficial. We are expecting to learn a great deal about the development of the brain which will have important applications to prenatal and childhood diseases. We are hoping to learn more about how the brain adapts to new stimuli which would relate to many medical problems involving brain damage caused by accidents or disease. We are trying out some very new technolgies for gathering cellular activity data from the brain that may be helpful for studying the brain more effectively on earth. My suggestion is to keep watching with us and we'll all be excited about the results of the mission.

[ Louis/ARC - 27 - 10:44:21 ]
RE: [Sarah-Sarah/Greenmeadow] Do the people at Kennedy understand the science of your payload?
I'm not exactly sure who you mean but in fact, we work very closely with scientists and engineers at Kennedy Space Center to prepare each experiment, assemble and test the equipment that will fly on the shuttle to perform the experiment, and to coordinate the recovery of the data from each experiment. So, I suppose the answer is yes, the people at Kennedy Space Center do understand the science that we are going to fly on Neurolab.

[ Louis/ARC - 30 - 10:54:43 ]
RE: [Patti/CJHS] So what happens to an experiment if something needed gets left behind? Will they still do part of it, or is it lost altogether?
The simple answer is: our staff have a great deal of experience identifying each and every item that will be needed to prepare the experiment on the ground at the launch site, to perform the experiment on board the shuttle, and to complete the experiment processing at the landing site. Even so, we rehearse, just as the actors and stagehands, and musicians would for a play. We perform a number of tests to be sure that the people, facilities, and procedures are all in place and ready to be used at the right time. The first of these is called the Experiment Verification Test which runs through the entire preflight, inflight, and postflight timeline with every scientist and every experiment procedure performed on the ground. For this test, we pretend that we have a spacelab but we do go through all the procedures. Then we perform a series of tests called Mission Integrated Simulations and Joint Integrated Simulations where the shuttle crew performs the inflight experiment procedures inside an exact replica of the spacelab with replicas of all the experiment equipment and supplies. Finally, we also perform a Facility Trial Run where we assemble all the scientists, their staff, and our staff at the launch site (Kennedy Space Center) to test the facilities - the labs, the equipment, the timeline of our planned preflight and postflight procedures, etc. By performing all of these tests and by keeping careful track of forgotten items or missing people, or inadequate lab space, or whatever, we can assure ourselves and the scientists that when we launch for real, we will have everything in its place. The we hope that all the equipment performs properly and that the mission returns to Earth safely.

[ Louis/ARC - 31 - 10:55:38 ]
RE: [Sarah/Greenmeadow] Did your payload launch today?
No, this was not the Neurolab mission. Neurolab, STS-90, is planned for an April 2, 1998 launch.

[ Louis/ARC - 32 - 10:56:25 ]
RE: [Duncan/ARC-Duncan/Lockmart] Louis, if you don't mind, what we'd like to do is take all of your answers and post them to the Q&A section of NeurOn, that way many more people can share the knowledge you've passed on.
Duncan, I don't mind but if you think they need to be scrubbed in any way, go for it.

[ Linda/Ames - 34 - 11:00:48 ]
I can't believe that an hour has passed! I personally have learned much from this session. I want to thank Louis for answering our questions so thoroughly. Thanks for joining us! Hope to see you in other NeurOn chats soon!

[ Patti/CJHS - 35 - 11:04:25 ]
Thanks Louis! I had a great time.

[ Louis/ARC - 36 - 11:05:26 ]
RE: [Patti/CJHS] Wow! It seems like it would be hard though to do a thorough test since you have gravity. There must be a lot you have to guess on these tests, right?
That's a very good point. In fact, certain of the critical questions we test on a special airplane called the KC-135. It's a large 4 engine jet specially equipped to fly straight up and then straight down - in parabolas just like a roller coaster only it keeps going. At the top of each "hill" everyone and everything inside the airplane becomes weightless for about 30 seconds. (at the bottom of the hills, everything experiences 2-g, twice normal gravity) We can test procedures, equipment, and such to be sure we can use them effectively on orbit. By the way, if you saw the movie "Apollo 13" you saw the effect of this simulated weightlessness since many of the sciences of the movie were filmed on this special NASA airplane.