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UPDATE # 20: April 11, 1998 PART 1: Hello from Cocoa Beach HELLO FROM COCOA BEACH
What a departure from sitting in my office at NASA Ames Research Center! I'm sitting in my hotel room overlooking a terrific, well populated beach (and believe it or not, lots of these sun worshippers don't even know there's going to be a launch in five days!) Cocoa Beach is going to have a surfing competition today, and I'm wondering where they are going to find the surf! The ocean I'm used to has waves! Maybe I should go find out, after all, it IS Saturday. But for the STS-90 teams there is little rest. A major part of the team has been working already since 8:00 (that's not counting the round-the-clock watch that parts of this payload require), and Easter Sunday is no exception. I will be joining Chris Barreras and his team tomorrow from 8:00 a.m. in the Outback. I'm going to be briefer than usual here, because if you're following my journals at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/events/launch you've probably heard everything I really have to say (not really, but certainly as much a one should have to tolerate from me!) I have placed one of those journals below, in case you haven't been there yet, but its much more fun to read when you can see the pictures, so I encourage you to go to the NeurOn at the Launch site. All from me for now, Linda CALENDAR OF EVENTS NEURON T-SHIRTS - ALL THE FASHION RAGE!
What is the well dressed NeurOn team member wearing? Answer: the NeurOn custom-made-for-you t-shirt. Crew members Jay, Jim and Dave are going to try to model them on orbit for you! Don't be left out. You can order your own at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/common/shirts/neuron.html [Editor's note: BJ packs the space shuttle with all the experiment hardware: the little things that the astronaut crew needs for our scientific experiments in space. BJ has been willing to include us on her newsy letters to family and friends.] WHAT'S UP WITH B.J. THIS WEEK AND NEXT!!!
by B.J. Navarro http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/navarro.html April 1, l998 Hello Friends and Family: 16 days to launch!!!!! The countdown is happening. My last hardware shipment to Kennedy Space Center leaves tomorrow. Everything we need to put together the late loaded experiment hardware will be there by Friday. I leave for Kennedy on Saturday, 4/4. Final assembly of the L-10 day experiment hardware begins Sunday morning. Most of the ARC team members are already at Kennedy. We do our first L-10 days late load turnover on Monday at approximately 4:00 a.m. in the morning. Now although that doesn't sound like a good time to be up, I'll be up ready to go. This is getting really exciting. Getting the house in order, getting the pets to friends to watch and packing needs to be done in the next couple days. If I sound confused if you talk to me it's because I'm excited and exhausted at the same time. The real fun is just starting! There's no April Fool's joke here. Check out the new things on the websites I've listed below. Especially pay attention to the NeurOn site look for me in the NeurOn Team, I have a bunch of neat pictures of me on my travels through Neurolab. Checkout my journal. Enjoy it! I'll be talking to you from Kennedy Space Center next time! Neurolab or Bust!! bj NeurOn site: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/index.html Carden Thank yous: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/kids/carden (New Site) Crew Page: http://www.psu.edu/nasa/ Neurolab Mission Site: http://neurolab.jsc.nasa.gov/ Life Sciences at ARC: http://lifesci.arc.nasa.gov/home.html KSC STS-90 Site: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-90/mission-sts-90.html DAY 2: HELPING WITH AN UNPLANNED EVENT
by Linda Conrad
April 8, l998
Well, after yesterday, I needed to really get down to business getting to
know what's happening with our NeurOn team members at work. I got up early
to join the Ames Research Center Team in their daily meeting The meeting
was shorter than the 27 page schedule covering the next four days: L-8 to
L-5 (launch minus 8 to 5 -days, that is).
After the meeting I got to chat further with Chris Barreras about his
report. Chris got very little sleep last night. It seems that in loading
the RAHFs into Neurolab, in the testing process, air bubbles were detected
in the water line. My understanding is that some think that air bubbles
might discourage an animal from returning to the lixit (the outlet for
water into the habitat). Chris and others spent a great deal of time
purging the system, taking care to measure all water put in and water
removed in the process. It's very important that no water removal be
construed as leaking, because of potential damage to the many systems
aboard already. Two RAHFs means much work.
Beyond the RAHFs, now Chris had what he referred to as an "unplanned
event," something that can throw a 27 page schedule into confusion! He
needed to purge the water lines of the RAHF cages (24 in all) to remove
any air bubbles, and guess who volunteered to help. I think I'm getting to
know these habitats pretty well!
I tagged along with Chris to the O&C (Operations and Control) Building
where a lab had been set up for the purpose. As usual, Chris was terrific
about showing me around and introducing me to folks I had not yet met. One
of the new acquaintances, Frank, was getting things ready for the process,
so in the meantime, Chris took me on a little tour.
The first "hurdle" was to get me the necessary permission to join him on
a brief escorted trip through the High Bay where so many of the pictures we
have in the photo section of NeurOn were taken as Neurolab underwent all
those post shipment hardware tests: making sure everything connected and
fit as planned, testing the circuits and systems over and over prior
to installing into the racks in Neurolab and then into the shuttle. I
thought it might be fun to show you the multiple badging that some people
have to go through to be cleared for all sorts of activities at KSC.
Believe it or not, there are almost as many badges hidden as showing in
the picture! All I needed was a TAA (more alphabet soup) Temporary Area
Authorization. The badge title is followed by eleven lines of 9 numbers
each. Out of all of those, I'm only authorized for three!
Once we were inside this huge area, it looked very familiar. The pictures
that we had already gotten from our team members and from the KSC website
were a very good representation of this huge hangar like area (still
inside O&C).
I was still awed by the size of things. The racks that can be seen in the
pictures were bigger than they looked, and you can see, especially if you
click on the image to see the enlargement, Chris is standing next to the
enormous transporter that carries Spacelabs like Neurolab to where it can
be installed in the shuttle. To his right you can see the cab in
which a driver sits to guide this vehicle.
We continued from there to the User Room. This is the place where flight
monitoring goes on. Not only do they watch the multiple monitors that
connect them visually to the shuttle, but you can see the computer
monitors that send data on the various experiments that are on board.
This is one of several spots including Johnson Space Center and Ames
Research Center where monitoring will take place continuously while STS-90
is on orbit.
Back to the lab: Frank was doing a trial run, I found out later, for the
benefit of a NASA quality inspector who was watching each step as they
were performed on one cage. It was a multiple step process, and I'll give
you as brief a summary as possible of what I did for the rest of the
afternoon. (We completed one of the racks - one still to go).
* First the cages were removed from the shipping boxes and place in a
"garage" or metal frame.
* Next Frank (and for awhile Chris) forced water through from one side
while I released it from the other waiting until the flow was completely
free of bubbles.
* Then we opened the top, and as more water was introduced we "tickled"
the lixit (the place the animal received the water from) to make sure the
flow was easy and free.
* When we had done the process once, we repeated introducing the the
iodine mix that keeps it healthy (all the above steps, except instead of
looking for bubble we measured the output)
* The next step reminded me way too much of housework! We removed the
cages from their garages and wiped down all surfaces inside and out with
alcohol and after wiping down the shipping boxes, we reinserted each newly
filled, newly cleansed unit.
After this "unplanned event" I think I'm ready to design my own habitat
for the Great Habitat Debate!
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