N E U R O N - Neurolab Online Project

UPDATE #25 - May 15, 1998

PART 1: NeurOn is still growing!
PART 2: Space Day Chats - Meet Quest's other projects
PART 3: Talk to us so we can serve you better.
PART 4: A much quieter outback
PART 5: Meet Dennis Chamberland, NASA bioengineer
PART 6: Home (far!) away from home
PART 7: Subscribing & unsubscribing: how to do it!

NEURON IS STILL GROWING!

It's hard to believe that we are still adding bios to our team page, but
that has something to do with the fact that many of the Neurolab team
members are just beginning to surface and catch their breath after weeks
away from home inundated with space concerns. And the photos are coming
in. Check out the photo gallery where I've added some more of the pictures
from the Kennedy Space Center's photographer. He had the lenses and the
right of passage I lacked, and the pictures are definitely more dramatic! 

I am currently working with several NeurOn participants to get some
fill-in-the-blanks type journals completed so that we can be sure to wrap
up a well rounded project for reuse by classrooms at any time. I have
already heard back from crew members Jay Buckey and Dave Williams with
comments like, "We had a wonderful time and it is hard to believe that it
is now all over. The data collection is almost completely finished. All
that remains now is to get the results."

Alan's short journal below describes well the feelings in more than the
Outback. As I go to my old haunts here at Ames, that same all's quiet,
something's missing feeling prevails. Many have already moved on. Chris
Barreras is doing research to get up to speed on the Space Station for his
new assignment. He and others will be joining us in the Space Team Online
project  (http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space) that will feature the assembly 
of what Katie terms "the Tinkertoy Moon" below. Even WITN is moving on.
Sigh!

An upcoming feature of Space Team Online entitled "The Challenge Project"
will feature NeurOn team member Dennis Chamberland's "Scott Carpenter
Space Analog Station." Below I have excerpted from his bio to refresh your
memory. A Website is in the process being built to house this project.
It's beginnings in very rough form may be seen at:
	http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge

 But don't get rid of the NeurOn bookmark yet! We have chats coming up,
Stefan has returned with tons of pictures to share, we have answers to
questions arriving from our experts, and we have an opportunity for you to
give us feedback.

Stay tuned,
Linda

SPACE DAY CHATS

The goal of Space Day is to advance science, math and technology education
and inspire future generations to realize the vision of our space
pioneers. Space Day '98 takes place on Thursday, May 21. In anticipation
of that day, Quest is hosting a two full days of QuestChats on May 19 and
May 20. During these days, classrooms will be able to interact with NASA
experts from our various projects in real time. Besides NeurOn folks,
experts on Mars, Space Shuttle and International Space Station and
aeronautics will be represented. This is a great chance to explore your
"next step."

See all of the details and register to participate at:
http://quest/common/spaceday.html

NeurOn-specific chats:

->Tuesday, May 19 at 7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time:
Liz Bauer is a Hardware Engineer
Liz's job is to oversee the preparations for the integrating of hardware 
into Spacelab. Read her bio at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/bauer.html 
prior to joining the chat. 


->Tuesday, May 19 at 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time:
Chris Barreras, Payloads Engineer 
Chris most recently worked on rodent hardware that flew on STS-90. 
Please read his bio at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/barreras.html
prior to joining the chat. 


->Tuesday, May 19 at 11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon Pacific Daylight Time:
B.J. Navarro, Stowage Manager 
B.J. most recently packed the STS-90 space shuttle with all the experiment 
hardware. Read her bio at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/navarro.html
prior to joining the chat. 

->Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00a.m.-8:00a.m. Pacific Daylight Time:
Angie Lee, Experiment Systems Manager 
Angie Lee is experiment systems manager at Johnson Space Center. Her job
is to help the scientists develop and obtain the things they need to make
their experiments work in space. Please read her bio at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/lee prior to joining the chat.

->Wednesday, May 20 at 2:00p.m.-3:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time:
Cecilia Wigley, System Safety, Reliability & Quality Assurance Lead 
Cecilia is the system safety, reliability, and quality assurance lead.
Read her bio at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/wigley.html
prior to joining the chat.


Other NeurOn chats are listed at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/chats

*Note change in schedule for bilingual chat with Jose Limardo 
->Friday, May 22 at 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time:
Jose Limardo, Hardware Project Engineer
Jose is currently working on three experiments for the STS-90 Neurolab
mission. Born and educated in Puerto Rico, Jose is completely bilingual.
Please read Jose's bio at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/limardo.html
before joining the chat. 

TALK TO US SO WE CAN SERVE YOU BETTER

At Quest our mission is to reach the classroom with good content about
NASA, its people and its projects. The goal is to excite kids about the
process of learning and inspire some to pursue one of the multiple careers
represented at NASA. You are our major testing facility. We need to hear
from you so we can learn how to serve you better.

Beyond that, we are spending US taxpayer dollars on Quest's projects. In
order to continue this type of outreach program, we need to demonstrate
the value to the classroom. 

We have to this point heard from some of you, and you have probably seen
some "firsts" as a result of your suggestions. But now we must acquire
some specific information to  demonstrate to NASA management that the
project is having an outreach impact. 

So, whether you are a classroom teacher, a student, or a NASA participant,
we need your feedback. We will be conducting a survey of the NeurOn
audience in a week or two through email and on the Web. So please, when
the time comes, take a few moments to help us in this small way. I promise
to make it as short and painless as possible!

A MUCH QUIETER OUTBACK
by Alan Wood
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/wood.html

April 29, l998
The atmosphere has really changed here in the Outback since launch. The
number of people has been reduced to a dozen or so and that is about a
quarter of the people here the week or so before launch so you can imagine
that the decibel levels have gone down. 

NASA Select TV is playing all day with regular reports and updates from
the shuttle. That along with processing the data coming from on-orbit
makes it real and close. 

MEET DENNIS CHAMBERLAND, NASA BIOENGINEER http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team/chamberland.html

In our office, we design what are called "Advanced Life Support Systems".
In other words, when we go to live in space permanently (like on the moon
and Mars) we will have to bring all our oxygen, water, food and those
things that will keep us alive for very long periods of time. We do
research in living life support systems, called bioregenerative life
support systems. That means, our life support systems are made up of very
large gardens of crops like wheat, tomatoes, beans, peanuts, tomatoes,
potatoes and other foods that the future space colonists can eat.
Meanwhile, the plants produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide and
purify drinking water! It is a wonderful system and exciting to watch.
Isn't it so cool to think about a huge garden on the moon or on Mars? 

A Bioengineer is a person who links living systems with non-living
engineering systems. Think of it this way - if you build a plant growing
box out of an aquarium and put in the window, you have performed one of
the functions of a bioengineer! You have begun to control the environment
of a living system (plants). Think of other ways you can control your
system, and you are doing the things that bioengineers do!

My personal ambition for the rest of my career with NASA is to concentrate
hard on the connection between space and the ocean environment. I call it
the Space-Ocean Analog. I consider that my specialty. One can use the
ocean as a kind of "test-bed" for space. It isn't  my idea originally. In
fact, it was first used in the Tektite program by NASA in 1969.  called
Tektite the "Space Station in the Ocean". I like to think that the ocean
environment is the closest thing to testing and practicing for space that
we know of on earth. NASA allowed me to design and build what is called
the "Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station".

We took it to the ocean off Key Largo in September and October of 1997. It
was on the ocean floor for 31 days. I spent 13 days in it myself, 10 of
them while the Space Shuttle Atlantis was in orbit. So far, I have
accumulated nearly a month living and working in these analogs on the
ocean floor. When I retire from NASA, I hope to retire in a permanent
seabase. I think there is a very good chance that will actually happen. 

HOME (FAR!) AWAY FROM HOME
by Katie O'Toole
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/video/otoole.html

This summer rockets and shuttles are scheduled to carry into space the
first building blocks of the new space station.  Although its designers
describe those blocks as giant Tinkertoys, the space station is an
enormously complex endeavor.  If completed as planned in the year 2003,
this orbiting community will fulfill a dream first envisioned in 1857.     

That's the year the Atlantic Monthly published Edward Everett Hale's
story, "The Brick Moon," a science fiction account of an orbiting space
base made of clay bricks hauled up from Earth. 
   
The term "space station" was first used by the German scientist Hermann
Oberth in 1923 to describe platforms in orbit that would be used to launch
flights to the moon and other planets. Those early visions became reality
in the 1970s when the United States launched Skylab, and the Soviet Union
put three Salyut space stations in orbit.  These missions paved the way
for Mir, which has now been in orbit for twelve years.

Partly to compete with the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan announced
in 1983, that the U.S. would build an outpost in space named "Freedom."
But the times changed.  The Soviet Union broke apart.  And the Russians
became our friends. The vision of the space station also changed.  The new
design was called "Alpha."  When the Russians joined in the effort, a
combination of the words "Russian" and "Alpha" produced the name "Ralpha,"
or "Ralph" for short.

By 1995, so many countries had become involved in the effort that clever
acronyms no longer worked.  The proposed space station became simply the
International Space Station, or ISS, a name that most likely will be
improved upon before the first crew moves in 1999.  Maybe we could borrow
Mr. Hale's idea and call our new orbiting home, "The Tinkertoy Moon."

SUBSCRIBING & UNSUBSCRIBING: HOW TO DO IT!

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