QUESTION:
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?

ANSWER from Louis Ostrach on November 19, l997
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?