Cage Clean-up, Not too bad in good company!

On May 19th in a meeting of the Payloads Group, Chris Maese admonished his team not to forget to close out their projects before moving on to whatever their next projects would be. If I had any dreams of being the exception and escaping without participating in the clean-up of the RAHF cages, Stephanie (our high school friend from Canada) reminded me during our chat with Cecilia Wigley last week with her, "Have the waste trays been cleaned out yet?" How could I really leave the Habitat issue in midair?

So, I scheduled a time to go back to the HiBay and work with Kerry, not on the waste trays yet, but first on the cleanup of the RAHF cages! Believe it or not, the scientists are not quite done with the waste trays. There's apparently some information they can still garner from the rat leavings. It's kind of like archaeology, but smellier!

	On the table there were about a dozen cages carefully sealed in plastic bags. Kerry looked through these to find one that could be cleaned without waiting for science to disconnect the sensor wiring required in one of the experiments. He selected one of the cages that had housed a dam (mother rat) with her neonates (baby rats) and moved it to the table. See picture at right: chosen cage is on left, wiring on cage at right.
	As he opened the bag I braced myself for the nasty smell - but, it wasn't all that bad! If you look really closely at the picture, you'll see one of the reasons. Besides being pretty dry, each cage was packed with a cut up OdorEater (you know, the liners people put in shoes to keep them from getting smelly). The first task was to remove the lixit metal tubes that carry water into the cage. Apparently there are some rubber washers that wouldn't be able to withstand the heat of the washing process.
	I think I counted somewhere between 8-10 screws that needed to be removed, and then it took some tapping with the mallet and pushing from the end, but the lixit unit finally lifted out. Kerry then began to loosen any larger waste particles away from the corners of the cage and followed up with vacuuming the loose material using a commercial grade vacuum cleaner.
	Oh, and don't forget the paperwork! Each step needed to be documented for each separate cage. Then of course someone from Quality Assurance has to check the whole process, make sure it's all going as planned and then affixing the official stamp (He carried a rubber stamp in his pocket!)
	Speaking of paperwork, Kerry had already discovered a flaw in the procedures that described the "how-to's" of the next step. The paperwork stated that the water would heat to the desired 200° in about 1/2 hour, though it warned that the temperature gauge on the Ultra-sonic bath was unreliable. It had been 2 1/2 hours since Kerry had turned the heat on and the water was still not at optimal temperature! He had to check it periodically with a long thermometer. Finally the correct temperature was achieved and the cage was placed into the water.
	The vat into which the cage was lowered was about 20 inches deep. There was a mesh hammock-like insert that suspended the cage about 4-5 inches above the bottom so there was about 10 more inches of water that covered the cage completely. Bubbles and the coloration of the water you can see pictured at left was due to Joy detergent in the vat, but the major player in the cleaning of the cage is the almost imperceptible vibration you could see (and I think you may be able to seen in the picture at right) as the cage was bombarded by ultrasonic waves. I placed my fingers on the edge and it felt almost like the vibration you feel when you get a slight electrical shock.
	It did the job and, in about 20 minutes, Kerry lifted the cage out of the water and placed it into the "rinse cycle." This was just a vat of cold water partially meant to begin the removal of the soap, but even more, to cool off the cage so that Kerry could handle it for the rest of the rinsing process. Today would not be a good day to get many cages done. The water had been turned off in the building so the chance and timing to complete the rinse process was unknown. At least I got to see one...
	And what Kerry pulled out of the rinse water was incredible! It really was clean! There were tanks of water in the lab that held some water so Kerry then sprayed off the cage in the sink to ensure that the soapy residue was all gone.
	Now it was time for the cage to join the others drying on the shelf. Job's done - on one RAHF cage anyway - many to go. During the wait between the wash and rinse, Kerry had gotten another cage ready to place in the bath. So as Kerry kept busy, I got a chance to interview him for his bio which is now online! Now, guess what's next..... Do you recognize the waste trays? ----->