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UPDATE # 14 - February 27, l998 PART 1: No more changes! NO MORE CHANGES!
In three words that was the tone of the last Payloads meeting. Actually it was the shortest of all the meeting I've attended, and I think, counting me, there were only about six people there! Most of the rest are either at Johnson or Kennedy Space Center doing testing and preparations for the now officially delayed launch. (In case you missed it, STS-90 has been rescheduled for an April 16 launch.) One of the key persons who gave a report was Marilyn Vasques, Logistics Operations Manager. Hers is one of our newest bios online at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/vasques.html But let me try to give you my version of what Marilyn does. Imagine an orchestra conductor trying to prepare for a concert with a short timeline in which the players are from all over the world, the instruments have not yet been ordered, let alone shipped and received, and the chairs and platform have not been set up. The only thing the performers have going for them is that each knows his/her part. This is only a tiny idea of what Marilyn confronts since each "player" in her "orchestra" needs a lot more than one instrument. Marilyn has to be a very organized, energetic, emphatic but calm person to pull it off! Her role alone gives good reason for the "No more changes" theme the morning took. Notwithstanding that, Marilyn has a "magic hat" (a box of items that has been assembled from her years of experience) that will allow her to pull off some last minute miracles. Marilyn shared with me some wonderful stories of things that can happen when human disconnects cause "sour notes." I hope to have them ready to share with you soon. In an attempt to keep you in touch with the complexity of the Neurolab process, I invited myself to a meeting entitled: Neurolab Middeck and Cold Stowage Preship Review. The bottom line is: not all of this process is as exciting and fun as the crew training Dave describes in Part 4! Amazingly a certain sense of humor was maintained as "we" plowed through some 40 plus pages of status review, and then we went into the HiBay, a place where the items to be shipped were displayed on a table, each packaged and labeled for easy identification. I even saw a package of labels labeled "labels" (well, you get the picture!) See more about my visits to HiBay in Part 5 below. Your NeurOn pal, Linda BETTER GET SET! BAW IS COMING
Brain Awareness Week is March 16th, and we have a really cool way to bring a neuroscientist into your classroom to do some experiments with your kids! Join us on Wednesday, March 18 at 10:00 pacific time, 1:00 eastern for a live interactive program on Learning Technology Channel (part of Quest's bag of tricks). Here's the deal: Dr. Eric Chudler from the University of Washington will be online with us remotely from the classroom of Kristi Gustafson in North City Elementary School, I will be in the LTC studio, and you, hopefully, will be in your classroom all ready to participate! We will do three experiments together and then discuss the results online. Here's all you need to do before hand: Don't wait! *Register now (access is limited) to use the Chat room at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/events/baw/index.html#register *Print the online student materials needed http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/events/baw/index.html#materials *Make sure you're ready to receive the video portion by downloading the free software: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/events/baw/index.html#technologies That's all the lesson plan you need! Details are at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/events/baw/index.html We hope you'll join us. WITN CAREER SEGMENT CHATS
On March 5th What's In The News releases the first of three career video
segments scheduled to air in accordance with your local PBS station
scheduling. Each segment will be followed by a Web chat with the featured
expert scheduled about two weeks following air time. Here's the schedule:
March 5, l998 WITN Aerospace Engineer Career Segment features Karina
Shook Chat with Karina: March 19
March 19, l998 WITN Meteorologist Career Segment features Steve Sokol
Chat with Steve: April 1
April 2, l998 WITN Nutritionist Career Segment features Janis Davis-Street
Chat with Janis: April 15
To participate these chats, pre-register at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/chats/index.html#witn
To find out more about the WITN scheduled broadcasts see:
http;//quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/video
[Editor's note: Dave is a mission specialist, the Canadian Space Agency member of the Neurolab crew. Below you will find the description he sent as he and the other astronauts train for STS-90.] DEMONSTRATING THAT SCIENCE IS FUN
by Dave Williams January 20 - 23 This past week started with the second in the series of classes for Jay and me as Crew Medical Officers. We had a chance to discuss the contents of the shuttle onboard medical system (SOMS) kits and went over the contents of all of the kits item by item. This was followed by training sessions in the nominal and off nominal operations of the rotating chair for the vestibular experiment. Wednesday brought a 4 hour simulator session to review the experiment impacts of power losses in the Spacelab. We had a chance to review all of the many payload powerdown procedures and spent a fair amount of time looking at the electrical distribution diagrams for the Spacelab hardware. We finished the day with a 2 hour brief on contingency deorbit procedures in preparation for another simulation session on Thursday. Thursday morning Rick and I had a 4 hour EVA prep and post simulation in which we reviewed the complete procedure for preparing and donning and doffing our EVA suits. We spent approximately 15 minutes in the suits in the airlock of the CCT in building performing comm and suit checks before donning the suit. The session was a great review of suit procedures and with both found it invaluable. Friday morning I had water survival training at the NBL. For this session we don our launch and entry suits and are hoisted about 20 feet in the air and then dropped into the water. We have to release our parachute, move out from under it and then inflate and get into our life raft. Fortunately, I was also able to record a short video welcome for the 7th International Congress of Emergency Medicine while in my LES. The second video session was to welcome students to the Ontario Science Center for Engineering Week. It was taken with me hanging suspended above the water and finished with me being dropped into the water after reminding everyone that science is fun!! Friday afternoon, I gave a tour of the Spacelab to Canadian Space Agency President Mac Evans and Minister Manley during which the Minister had a chance to try the VCF experiment from York University and Bristol Aerospace. The hardware functioned flawlessly, and we are all looking forward to performing the experiment in space. This weekend was spent studying orbiter systems and going over the guest list and other administrative activities. Next week promises to be equally exciting as Kay, Scott and I have become "Prime Escargots"!! ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WASTE TRAYS AND MORE
Linda Conrad February 17, l998 Somebody in Payloads is watching out for you! Last week I was sitting at my desk answering email when the phone rang. It was Chris Barreras (our in-house expert on the Great Habitat Debate) and his comment was, "We're assembling the RAHF waste trays right now in the HiBay and it seems like a NeurOn-type activity. Would you like to come watch?" Would I! I dropped everything, grabbed the digital camera and followed Chris' instructions to find the HiBay. My first clue that I was entering something special was the super-sticky floor mat I had to step on to clean my shoes at the pass-protected door. What I entered was a room that was, for all the activities taking place in it, remarkably clean and organized. It's called HiBay due to the hangar-like high ceilings and looks a lot like one of those warehouses you see on TV, but those are usually dark and you can expect something awful to be lurking somewhere. Hibay, on the other hand is brightly lit and everyone in there is dressed in white. I felt like I had been invited into the inner sanctum! That, of course, was one of the first things I had to do. Chris instructed me to put down all my tourist-like paraphernalia (don't worry I got to take pictures and will share them with you) and don a white smock. Chris had gloves on, but since I had no intention of touching anything those weren't necessary for me. I was then introduced to Lorenzo Salcedo, the wizard of waste trays. Now those of you who designed habitats for the Great Habitat Debate and participated in the chats with Mary Williams and Chris Barreras probably have some ideas about the make-up of an RAHF waste tray, but I know I had no idea how complex they really are! For those of you who are new to this dialog, here's a question that was raised in the chat with Mary: How do you keep the animals for the microgravity experiments clean? I imagine that floating excrement would not be good for them. Mary's answer was: The cage systems have fans that gently blow from the top of the cage into a waste tray at the bottom. This keeps most of the excrement from floating around in the cage. These chats led people to redesign their waste handling systems, but none really included ALL the elements of the RAHF waste tray. So here goes: I'll try to duplicate what Lorenzo demonstrated (pictures coming soon online!) The waste tray itself consists of two light colored plastic frames that corresponds in size to the length of the RAHF habitats. The lower housing or frame is filled with a wire screen upon which Lorenzo had already placed a "filtrete" which looks a lot like a thin sheet of cotton secured in place with red RTV sealant. By the time I arrived, these had been drying for 12 hours lined up on a table. The first step I observed was the placing of a thin charcoal filter across the surface of the filtrete (again secured in place with sealant. Into the other "frame," which had a plastic, more open mesh, Lorenzo placed Bondina, a thicker, white cushion. The two frames (or sides of the "sandwich", as Lorenzo called it) were then put together, indeed much like a sandwich and screwed in place. The next step was the "horseshoe." Again I didn't touch it, so the best I can tell you was that it looked like stiff white plastic sheeting in the shape of a horseshoe. Lorenzo coated a side with Tepelon, and then screwed it in place around the waste tray. My understanding is that this horseshoe helps to guide the tray into place in the habitat. Then Ta-dah! Lorenzo held up the final product and smiled. As he worked, he had told me that he was awaiting hopefully the day when this whole unit will be made disposable. You see, not only does he get to put these together, but upon return from flight, he gets to pull them apart for cleaning! Ughhhh! SUBSCRIBING & UNSUBSCRIBING: HOW TO DO IT! If this is your first message from the updates-nrn list, welcome! To catch up on back issues, please visit the following Internet URL: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/updates To subscribe to the updates-nrn mailing list (where this message came from), send a message to: listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov In the message body, write these words: subscribe updates-nrn CONVERSELY... To remove your name from the updates-nrn mailing list, send a message to: listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov In the message body, write these words: unsubscribe updates-nrn If you have Web access, please visit our "continuous construction" site at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron
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