Discovery STS-29 – Got a Perfect View

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"The challenge really is the first 61/2 hours," STS-29 commander Mike Coats said in a preflight press briefing. "Doing the things we have to do in that first six hours is a rush. If we can get through that without falling behind the timeline and get the satellite deployed safely, then we'll feel like we're over the hump." Once the TDRS-4 is well on its way, the crew will settle back and begin a series of tests utilizing the mission’s secondary payloads. These payloads include the Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) experiment flown on STS-26; CHROMEX, a chromosome and plant cell division experiment; the IMAX camera flown during missions 41-D, 41-G and 61-B; AMOS, the Air Force Maui Optical Site calibration test, and two student experiments, as well as the Space Station Heat Pipe Advanced Radiator Element (SHARE). Throughout the mission, data will be recorded by the Orbiter Experiment Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation System (OASIS), which will measure vibration, temperature and noise levels during flight.

PCG – Protein Crystal Growth Experiment
STS-29 protein crystal growth experiments are expected to help advance a technology attracting intense interest from major pharmaceutical houses, the biotech industry and agrochemical companies. A team of industry, university and government research investigators will explore the potential advantages of using protein crystals grown in space to determine the complex, three-dimensional structure of specific protein molecules. Knowing the precise structure of these complex molecules provides the key to understanding their biological function and could lead to methods of altering or controlling the function in ways that may result in new drugs. It is through sophisticated analysis of a protein in crystallized form that scientists are able to construct a model of the molecular structure. The problem is that protein crystals grown on Earth are often small and flawed. Protein crystal growth experiments flown on four previous Space Shuttle missions have already shown promising evidence that superior crystals can be obtained in the microgravity environment of space flight. "Of all the experiments that I'm aware of we've ever done on the shuttle, that is the one that has the most potential immediate gain to society," Mission Specialist James Bagian said.

To further develop the scientific and technological foundation for protein crystal growth in space, NASA's Office of Commercial Programs and the Microgravity Science and Applications Division are co-sponsoring the STS-29 experiments being managed through the Marshall Space Flight Center. During the flight, 60 different crystal growth experiments will be conducted simultaneously using 19 different proteins. The experiment apparatus, first flown aboard Discovery on STS-26, fits into one of the Shuttle orbiter's middeck lockers.

Shortly after achieving orbit, a mission specialist astronaut will initiate the crystal growing process which will continue for several days. The experiment apparatus differs from previous protein crystal payloads in that it provides temperature control and automation of some processes. After Discovery's landing, the experiment hardware and protein crystals will be turned over to the investigating team for analysis.

Lead investigator for the research team is Dr. Charles E. Bugg of the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Bugg is director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, a NASA-sponsored Center for the Commercial Development of Space located at UAB. Flying crystal growth experiments through their affiliation with the UAB Center for Commercial Development of Space are Dupont; Eli Lilly & Company; Kodak; Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research; Schering-Plough Corp.; Smith, Kline and French; Upjohn; and Biocryst Limited.

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CHROMEX – Chromosome and Plant Cell Division in Space Experiment
CHROMEX will test whether the normal rate, frequency and patterning of cell division in plant root tips can be sustained upon exposure to microgravity and whether the fidelity of partitioning of the chromosomes is maintained during and after exposure to microgravity. In the experiment, plants will be induced to initiate growth by passive rewarming to cabin temperature.

For the CHROMEX studies daylily and haplopappus gracilis will be flown in the Plant Growth Unit (PGU), located in the orbiter middeck. The PGU can hold up to six plant growth chambers (PGC). One PGC will be replaced with the atmospheric exchange system that will filter cabin air before pumping through the remaining PGCs. Upon recovery, plant root material will be fixed in preparation for microscopic analysis which will study the number of roots formed, the length, weight and quality of each based on subjective appraisal as well as quantitative morphological (structural) examination.

The experimental plan is to collect and treat roots post flight, before the first cell division cycle is completed. Root tip cells will be analyzed for their karyotype, the configuration of chromosomes, upon return. Haplopappus dicatolydon is a unique flowering plant with four chromosomes in its diploid cells. Daylily monocatolydon also has specific features of its karyotype.  Previous observations of some plants grown in space have indicated a substantially lowered level of cell division in primary root tips and a range of chromosomal abnormalities, such as breakage and fusion.

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Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) Student Experiments
The two student experiments on this mission are particularly interesting projects which could assist man in his future attempts to conquer extended missions into our solar system.

SE83-9 – CHICKEN EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT IN SPACE
"We can grow a better crystal in space, so is Earth the best place to have children?" asked John Vellinger, a Purdue University mechanical engineering student, who proposed this experiment while he went to Jefferson High School, Lafayette, Indiana. "Can we even have children up in space? We can look at the development of the embryo of the chicken egg. Certainly it's not going to answer these questions, but it can give us some valuable data as to whether this is an area that we really need to look at and examine for future space colonies."

The experiment, sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken, involves 32 fertilized chicken eggs that will be carried into space, cushioned against any shocks during launch and landing in an incubator box designed by Vellinger.. An earlier version of the experiment was destroyed in the Challenger disaster. “This will be the first incubator of its size to fly in space, and these will be the first chicken eggs to be put in space,” Vellinger said. “What we are doing is on the edge of the frontier as far as what we’re trying to gain scientifically.”

16 of the eggs will be fertilized nine days before launch, the remainder seven days later. An identical group of 32 eggs will remain on Earth as a control group. Throughout the mission, Vellinger will attend to the earthbound eggs much as a mother hen would, turning them five times a day to counter the effects of Earth's gravity on the yolk. Under normal gravity, the embryo of a chicken egg will sink to the bottom and stick against the shell, so a hen must regularly turn her eggs to avoid the problem. But in weightlessness, the embryo will remain suspended in the middle of the egg, eliminating the need to turn them. However, other changes in the embryos’ development can’t be predicted.

Upon return to Earth, the spaceflight group will be returned to Vellinger, who will open and examine 16 of them. At the same time he will open and examine half the control group eggs. The examinations are intended to identify any statistically significant differences in cartilage, bone and digit structures, muscle system, nervous system, facial structure and internal organs. The other half of the eggs (16 spaceflight and 16 control) will be hatched at 21 days and their weight, growth rate and reproductive rate will be studied.

Vellinger's goal is to determine whether a chicken embryo can develop normally in a weightless environment. The scientific team supporting Vellinger includes: Dr. Cesar Fermin, Tulane University; Dr. Patricia Hester, Purdue University; Dr. Michael Holick, Boston University; Dr. Ronald Hullinger, Purdue University; and Dr. Russell Kerschmann, University of Massachusetts. Stanley W. Poelstra of Jefferson High School is Vellinger's student advisor. Dr. Lisbeth Kraft, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., is the NASA technical advisor.

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SE82-8 – THE EFFECTS OF WEIGHTLESSNESS ON THE HEALING OF BONE
This experiment, proposed by pre-med student Andrew I. Fras, formerly of Binghamton High School, N.Y., aims to explore how bone injuries heal in weightlessness, a question that could prove important as astronauts venture to Mars and beyond. ''From the beginning of our experience with spaceflight, we’ve realized that weightlessness has a tremendous impact on the structure of bone. But nothing of this nature has ever been done before in space,'' said Fras, who is now attending Brown University's Medical School. He sees it as ''a first step towards both learning how to treat fractures under these conditions and also to shed some light on the basic processes of bone healing on Earth.''

Observations of rats from previous space flights, as well as non-weight bearing bone studies in gravity using rats, have shown that minerals, calcium in particular, are lost from the body, resulting in a condition similar to osteoporosis. Calcium is the main mineral needed in bone formation. The SE82-8 experiment will fly four Long Evans rats. About four days before blastoff, a veterinarian will use a dental drill to burr tiny holes through the non-weight-bearing fibula bone in one of each rat's hind legs. The surgery will be conducted under anesthesia, but the rats will be killed after their return to Earth, so the bones can be studied. A matched control group will be Earth-based.

The effects of weightlessness on the origin, development and differentiation of the osteoblasts (bone cells) and their production of callus will be studied. Mr. Fras will attempt to determine whether bone healing in the rat is impeded by the loss of calcium and the absence of weight bearing during space flight.

Andrew Fras is the only student to win the NASA/National Science Teachers Association's Space Science Student Involvement Program twice. His first project, "The Effect of Weightlessness on the Aging of Brain Cells," flew on STS 51-D in 1985. Fras' student advisor is Howard I. Fisher of Binghamton High School. Orthopaedic Hospital/University of Southern California, Los Angeles, is sponsoring the experiment and providing advice, direction and scientific monitoring; the advisors are Dr. June Marshall and Dr. Augusto Sarmiento. Dr. Emily Holton, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., is serving as the NASA technical advisor.

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OASIS – Orbiter Experiments Autonomous Supporting Instrumentation
Special instrumentation to record the environment experienced by Discovery during the STS-29 mission is mounted in the orbiter payload bay. Called OASIS, the instrumentation is designed to collect and record a variety of environmental measurements during various in-flight phases of the orbiter. The primary device is a large tape recorder mounted on the aft port side of the orbiter. The OASIS recorder can be commanded from the ground to store information at a low, medium or high data rate. After Discovery's mission is over, the tapes will be removed for analysis. The information will be used to study the effects on the orbiter of temperature, pressure, vibration, sound, acceleration, stress and strain. It also will be used to assist in the design of future payloads and upper stages.

OASIS is about desk-top size, approximately 4 feet in length, 1 foot in width, 3 feet in depth and weighs 230 pounds. The OASIS data is collected from 101 sensors mounted along the sills on either side of the payload bay, on the Airborne Support Equipment of the IIUS and on the tape recorder itself. These sensors are connected to accelerometers, strain gauges, microphones, pressure gauges and various thermal devices on the orbiter.

OASIS was launched aboard Discovery on STS-26 in September 1988. Upon return to KSC, the OASIS recorder was removed from the payload bay and the tape analyzed. Use of this data improved efficiency in turnaround of the IUS airborne support equipment for Discovery's STS-29 mission. As more OASIS data is collected, it will be increasingly beneficial for future IUS flights on the Space Shuttle. On STS-29 launch day, the system will be turned on 9 minutes before Discovery's liftoff to begin recording at high speed to recover high fidelity data. Following the first burn of the orbital maneuvering system, the recorder will be switched to the low data rate and will be commanded again to high speed for subsequent OMS burns. Different data rates are to be commanded from the ground at various times during the on-orbit operations. If tape remains, the recorder will operate during descent. NASA is flying OASIS aboard Discovery in support of the IUS program office of the Air Force Space Division. The system was developed by Lockheed Engineering and Management Services Company under a NASA contract. Development was sponsored by the Air Force Space Division.

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SHARE – Space Station Heat Pipe Advanced Radiator Element
After a decade of development at JSC, an innovative system that could become Space Station Freedom’s “air conditioner” will be flown aboard Discovery. Called SHARE, it will test whether a natural process can serve as dependable, durable cooling system for America’s permanent Space Station, said Principal Investigator Gary Rankin.

Unimpressive in its outward appearance – it looks somewhat like a slat from a giant venetian blind – the first-of-its-kind heat pipe uses no moving parts and works through the convection currents of ammonia. Three electric heaters will warm one end of the 51-foot long SHARE. The heaters turn liquid ammonia into vapor which transports the heat through the length of the pipe, where a foot-wide aluminum fin radiates it into space. The fin is cooled by the space environment, and the ammonia is in turn condensed and recirculated. Two small pipes run through the center of the radiator down its length, branching out like the tines of a fork at the end which receives heat, called the evaporator. The top pipe holds the vaporized ammonia; the bottom holds liquid ammonia. In the evaporator portion, a fine wire mesh wick, which works along the same principal as the wick of an oil lamp, pulls the liquid ammonia from one pipe to the other, where it vaporizes. Small grooves allow the condensed ammonia to drop back to the bottom pipe.

SHARE occupies an envelope on the sill of the payload bay designed to hold a manipulator arm. A small instrument and control package has been mounted in the forward bay. “The orbiter is designed to carry double RMS arms, but only the port side envelope has ever been used for that purpose,” Rankin said. “SHARE will be on the starboard side, and it will take up very little room in the payload bay.”

Rankin has worked with the heat pipe development at JSC for ten years, and SHARE is a result. During those ten years of work, more than 200 JSC workers have contributed to what has now become SHARE, Rankin said. Among those who have contributed are employees in the Structures and Mechanics Division, the old Flight Projects Engineering Office, the Crew Systems Division and the Technical Services Division. Construction of the actual flight hardware for SHARE began almost six years ago.

While Grumman built the actual radiator element, the avionics, mounting pedestals, support beam and all other hardware were built by JSC’s Tech Services. Thermal blankets for portions of the experiment were built in the Crew Systems Division. “It would really be impossible to name everyone at JSC who has had a part in SHARE,” Rankin said. “Through the years, it has been almost totally an in-house project of the center, a large team effort.”

An early heat pipe experiment flew aboard STS-8 in August 1983. Although it was small in scale, using only a six-foot long radiator, the STS-8 experiment operated successfully for two hours and demonstrated the concepts potential. A full-scale radiator element then was built and tested in thermal environments at JSC in 1984, Rankin said. The SHARE flight experiment took shape later that year and was scheduled to fly in 1986, but the two-and-a-half-year halt in shuttle flights delayed the experiment.

Now SHARE is ready for lift-off. “To be next in line is a major accomplishment. It’s been a major career milestone to follow this from a concept all the way through to a flight experiment, challenging and rewarding at the same time,” Rankin said. “We want to demonstrate the generic capability of this family of heat pipes. We have very high confidence that the basic concept for the Space Station system is a viable one.”

The radiator for SHARE weighs about 135 pounds, but with its support pedestals, support beam, heaters and instrumentation package, the total experiment weighs about 650 pounds. Crew members will switch the heaters on using controls located on the aft flight deck. Each of the experiment's two 500-watt heaters and single 1,000-watt heater is controlled individually and will be switched on in turn, applying heat that will increase steadily in 500-watt increments up to a maximum of 2,000 watts.

The experiment will be activated for two complete orbits in two different attitudes, the first with the payload bay toward Earth and the second with the orbiter's tail toward the Sun. The heaters will go through a complete 500-watt to 2,000-watt cycle for each activation. This will simulate the heat that needs to be dissipated from the Space Station, and the two attitudes will provide data on the heat pipe's operation in
different thermal environments. The payload bay facing Earth is a warmer situation than the tail-to-Sun attitude. On Space Station Freedom, the radiator would keep their edges facing the sun, thus shading most of their surfaces.

Other information also may be obtained during STS-29 if time permits, including a test of the heat pipe's minimum operating temperature, thought to be about minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and a test of its ability to recover from acceleration. The crew may fire the orbiter's aft reaction control system thrusters for about 6 seconds, an action that would push the fluid in SHARE to one end of the pipe. The heaters then may be turned on again to see if the heat pipe will automatically reprime itself and begin operating.

For the Space Station, 50 to 100 radiator panels such as SHARE’s would make up two arrays along the station’s truss structure. Each radiator panel will operate independently, thus preventing the failure of a single panel from disabling an entire array.

SHARE is a passive heat pipe experiment. A more active flight experiment, the Shuttle radiator Assembly Demonstration (SRAD), is planned for a future flight. Once the concept is proven by SHARE, scenarios for assembly of the radiator panels will be played out during a shuttle mission, project engineer Steve Glenn said. “We’d like to show how you’d put a bank of these together, and the assembly technique would involve extravehicular activities and the RMS,” Glenn said. Three different methods are being studied and would need to be evaluated with hands-on criteria: one using only the RMS; another using two spacewalking astronauts, one flying a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU); and a third combining spacewalking crewmembers and the RMS.

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IMAX Movie “The Fragile Earth”
The IMAX project is a collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum to document significant space activities using the IMAX film medium. This system, developed by the IMAX Systems Corp., Toronto, Canada, uses specially-designed 70mm film cameras and projectors to record and display very high definition large-screen color motion picture images. During STS-29 the crew will photograph natural changes and man-made damage to the planet, as seen from low earth orbit, for a new IMAX film to succeed "The Dream is Alive,“ tentatively titled "The Fragile Earth." Among the subjects to be photographed are deforestation in Brazil, an active volcano in Nicaragua, erosion in Madagascar, the changing shape of the Sahara desert in Africa and beach erosion around the globe. "I don't think it will solve anything or dramatically change any directions," said John Blaha. "But I think seeing a movie like that will give people a better perception, a better understanding of what we're doing to our planet. I think it'll help."

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THE SKY’S NOT THE LIMIT FOR IMAX
NASA has had a long-standing commitment to letting the public share in the exploration of space. It started when the Mercury missions flew in the early 1960s. This commitment has been fulfilled, in particular, through the use of still and motion-picture photography. NASA has recorded on film nearly 30 years of manned spaceflight achievement – a unique accomplishment in its own right. However, this photographic archive – impressive as it is – has not been able to convey as realistically as one might hope, the sensation of actually travelling in space.

Thankfully, this situation changed in 1985 – a period when shuttle flights reached a peak. On June 19, 1985, President and Mrs. Reagan, accompanied by astronaut Kathy Sullivan, attended the world premiere in Washington D.C. of “The Dream is Alive” – as one film critic remarked soon after seeing it: “It makes space travelers of us all.” Following the premiere showing, President Reagan joined in the plaudits: “It’s just about as close to being in space as you think you can be, and still have you feet on the ground.” Critics loved it, audiences loved it, and by the end of 1988 the film had premiered in 14 countries, overdubbed in nine languages. At that point, it had been seen by over 15 million people.

However, getting the camera aboard the shuttle was no easy matter. The first problem was a political one. It must be remembered that all film exposed by astronauts in the American space program had previously been consigned to the public domain, in keeping with NASA charter. So how could NASA justify flying a “private” camera on a U.S. Government-funded spacecraft? The answer was not to grant this privilege to the Canadian company IMAX Systems Corp. directly, but to fly the camera “at the request of” the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. So it was that the National Air and Space Museum, NASA and the Lockheed Corporation joined forces to make “The Dream is Alive,” with the Museum and Lockheed footing the 3.6-million bill to produce the film.

At the same time of the release of “The Dream is Alive” in 1985, IMAX was planning to obtain even more ambitious footage of space. An IMAX camera flew on Atlantis STS 61-B in November 1985, and the company was hoping to participate in further flights of the shuttle. It had plans to attach IMAX cameras onto the shuttle’s robot arm, and to accompany an astronaut flying an MMU on a tether-free spacewalk. However, when Challenger exploded in January 1986, IMAX’s ambitious plans were laid to rest until the shuttle’s return to flight status.

Currently, the IMAX team is engrossed in the production stage of two new space films. The first, “The Fragile Earth,” is scheduled for release in the autumn of 1990. The film will focus on Earth as seen from low-Earth orbit. It will show how our planet is changing, and how man is contributing to that change. The second new IMAX space film is tentatively entitled “To the Stars” (Edit – which later became “Destiny in Space”). It will focus attention on international efforts in space exploration, and will look outward into the solar system and beyond. The film may also include footage of the Soviet manned space program. IMAX officials are negotiating with Glavkosmos for the possible flight of an IMAX camera aboard the Mir space station. (Keith Wilson, Spaceflight News, January 1990 – edited)

And, of course, “The Fragile Earth” in the end became “Blue Planet”…

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AMOS – Air Force Maui Optical Site Calibration Tests
The Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) tests allow ground-based electro-optical sensors located on Mt. Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii, to collect imagery and signature data of the orbiter during cooperative overflights. The scientific observations made of the orbiter, while performing Reaction Control System thruster firings, water dumps or payload bay light activation, are used to support the calibration of the AMOS sensors and the validation of spacecraft contamination models. The AMOS tests have no payload unique flight hardware and only require that the orbiter be in predefined attitude operations and lighting conditions.

The AMOS facility was developed by Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) through its Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss Air Force Base, N.Y., and is administered and operated by the AVCO Everett Research Laboratory in Maui. The principal investigator for the AMOS tests on the Space Shuttle is from AFSC's Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. A co- principal investigator is from AVCO. Flight planning and mission support activities for the AMOS test opportunities are provided by a detachment of AFSC's Space Division at Johnson Space Center, Houston. Flight operations are conducted at JSC Mission Control Center in coordination with the AMOS facilities located in Hawaii.

DTO (Detailed Test Objective) / DSO (Detailed Supplementary Objective)
Like many of the experiments aboard, the success of AMOS is dependent upon the weather conditions as the shuttle passes over the numerous ground observation points. Because of the unpredictability of the weather, AMOS, IMAX and a DTO involving the ground-based observation of orbiter water dumps have all been given tentative time schedules in the mission flight plan. Flight Director Charles Shaw says the weather-dependent experiments and DTOs will be rescheduled and “intertwined” as the opportunities present themselves.

DTO 301D: Ascent Structural Capability Evaluation / DTO 305D: Ascent Compartment Venting Evaluation / DTO 306D: Descent Compartment Venting Evaluation / DTO 307D: Entry Structural Capability Evaluation / DTO 308D: Vibration and Acoustic Evaluation / DTO 311D: POGO Stability Performance / DTO 312: External Tank Thermal Protection System Performance (Method 2, Photography of ET) / DTO 318: Direct Insertion ET Tracking for ETR / DTO 319D: Shuttle/payload Low Frequency Environment / DTO 330: Water Dump Cloud Formation / DTO 333: Ascent Debris (Photos) / DTO 517: Nose Wheel Steering Runway Evaluation Test No. 2 / DTO 518: Revised Braking System Test / DTO 786: Text And Graphics System (TAGS) Test / DTO 787: Attitude Match Update / DTO 789: Payload and General Support Computer Evaluation / DTO 790: IMU Reference Recovery Technique / DTO 805: Crosswind Landing Performance

DSO 457: Salivary Pharmacokinetics of Scop-dex / DSO 458: Salivary Acetaminophen Pharmacokinetics / DSO 462: Central Venous Pressure Evaluation / DSO 466: Variations in Supine and Standing Heart Rate / DSO 467: Influence of Weightlessness on Baro Reflex Function / DSO 468: Preflight Adaptation Trainer / DSO 470: Relationship of SAS to Central Blood Flow / DSO 901: Documentary Television / DSO 902: Documentary Motion Picture Television / DSO 903: Documentary Still Photography

Flight Director Shaw explains that nine of the DTOs will be “active”, requiring crew participation. One of the most interesting among those is DTO 330, also known as Water Dump Cloud Formation, which involves the crew dumping water over a ground-based observation point in clear weather. The cloud formation has also been described as “Cleave’s Comet”, because the phenomenon was witnessed over Houston during Mission 61-B in November/December 1985, when Mary Cleave flew aboard Atlantis. The first time the cloud formation is known to have occurred was during STS 61-A, when the orbiter Challenger made a water dump and later flew right through the cloud that subsequently formed.

DTO 786 – Text And Graphics Text System (TAGS) Test
The STS-29 crew will continue to exercise the abilities of the new Text And Graphics System (TAGS). TAGS brings a current fad, the fax machine, into orbit. Using laser technology, it is capable of transmitting high-quality photographs to the shuttle. About 400 photos are to be transmitted during the mission as a test of the system that will replace the standard teleprinter used for years aboard the shuttle. TAGS is believed to have also flown on STS-27.

DTO 789 – Advanced PGSC Laptop to fly on STS-29
During the next mission, the STS-29 crew will test a laptop computer with almost 60 times the memory and twice the speed of any portable computer yet flow in space. The updated version of the Shuttle Portable Computer (SPoC) could prove a boon to crews facing reams of non-critical information during flights. The new computer, called the Payload and General Support Computer (PGSC), will bring the latest technology into the shuttle’s crew cabin.

The GGSC is an advanced version of the SPoC, a laptop that has flown on every mission since STS-9. Both are modified off-the-shelf computers built by GRiD. But while the SPoC represents 1980 technology, the PGSC is 1988 technology, said Lou McFadin, project manager in JSC’s Avionics Systems Division.

SPoC offers a miniaturized version of the global orbital tracking map that is the flight control room’s central display; readouts of Mission Elapsed Time, Time to Acquisition and Loss Of Signal; and Greenwich Mean Time. On the portable computer’s flip-up display, the map shows current position, day and night cycles, Earth observation points and tracking coverage boundaries, both by satellites and ground stations. The portable computer also offers a backup source for calculating deorbit targets, to be used only in a dire emergency and a complete loss of communications with the ground. These functions, plus limited other programs, fill the SPoC’s 384k bubble memory.

But the PGSC, a GRiD computer featuring a 20-megabyte hard disk, can run all SPoC software with a tremendous amount of room to spare for other programs, including word processing and possibly a computerized flight data file. In addition, the PGSC has a built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive that could revolutionize data gathering from payloads. “It has the latest technology available in portable computers. In August 1988, the first model delivered by GRiD to Houston came to JSC,” McFadin said. He and his team worked on several modifications that readied the computer for flight.

The PGSC has a 8-megabyte Random Access Memory (RAM), about 18 times that of the SPoC. Despite its expanded capability the PGSC, on average, uses only half of the electricity required by the SPoC, and it can run for at least ten minutes on battery power, said Bob Tucker, of the SPoC team, another JSC team at work on SPoC and PGSC software. The battery power will allow the crew to move the computer from place to place without turning it off, Tucker said.

On STS-29, the PGSC will fly in place of a second backup SPoC normally aboard the shuttle. Mission Specialist Jim Bagian will have the lead in performing a Detailed Test Objective (DTO) during the mission to evaluate the new computer. As part of the DTO, the PGSC will be compared with the SPoC while both computers are running the same software. “For a majority of the time that they’re on orbit, both computers will be running,” Tucker said. “The main purpose is to see if the hardware works well in zero-G. Where we go from here – the possibilities are endless.”

Those possibilities include a computerized version of the Flight data File (FDF), a 25-book, 2,500-page file aboard the shuttle that holds vital information covering all aspects of a mission. With an electronic version the crew could access that information over the computer, said Mark Dean, who is developing the program. A computerized FDF could save the crew valuable time by providing easier access to needed information. To put it simply, that would mean less flipping of pages. The information also can be more conveniently arranged. “On a page, there are boundaries. But on a computer screen, there really aren’t. You can easily scroll in all directions,” explained Dean, a systems development programmer in the Orbit Procedures and FDF Section. “Also, we can vary the size. One small screen could zoom to fill the main screen.”

One portion of the FDF – extracted from the Reference data Book, basically a directory of where each item aboard the shuttle is stowed – could be accessed more quickly on a computer. The reference book is never completed until  after the final item has been stowed aboard the shuttle, and the PGSC could make updating the directory an easy task. “Updates to it could be put on a floppy disk, and it could be fed to the hard disk after they’re on orbit,” Dean said.

Dean estimated that a computerized FDF would take only about five megabytes of memory space, but such electronic data will never replace the unbreakable printed page on shuttle flights. “We’re not trying to replace it. We’re just looking at other ways to supplement and present it in the future,” Dean said. Still, for Space Station Freedom, an electronic FDF may be the main source of such information.

 Another portion of the FDF for STS-29, parts of the Orbit Operations Checklist detailing the activities required during pre- and post-sleep periods, will be available on th PGSC. Bagian will use the electronic file during those periods as part of the test.

Another area that offers promise using the PGSC is in gathering information from and monitoring payloads, now done with internal payload hardware. While only orbiter-related information will be stored on the computer’s hard disk, information concerning payloads can be stored on floppy disks. In fact, the PGSC already is expected to be an integral part of an upcoming middeck experiment that will fly on STS-30, said Jeff Hanley, one of several Payload Operations Branch technicians working on the idea.
Information could be fed directly into the computer, to be placed on a floppy disk programmed prior to flight by the payload customer. “It will allow the crew to see temperatures, pressures and so forth on the middeck,” Hanley said. “When the PGSC is plugged into the payload, the crew can look at the data and perhaps enhance what they’re getting out of it.”

Displays may include graphic representations of what is going on inside an experiment, and a future program may allow the PGSC to monitor the performance of a payload and automatically make corrections if anything is awry. Customers are excited about the possibilities, Hanley said. “They look forward to being able to take advantage of not only the computing power of the machine, but also the much greater memory capability,” he said. And the 1.44-megabyte floppy disk should allow plenty of room for almost any payload’s requirements, he added.

On STS-30, the PGSC will gather data from a fluids crystal growth experiment, designated FEA-2, in the middeck. “The PGSC is pivotal to the performance of the experiment,” Hanley explained. “If you don’t have it plugged into the experiment, you’ll lose the data.” Such operations will be available for middeck and cargo bay payloads. “It’s really going to enhance our ability to do science on the middeck,” said Mary Cleave, STS-30 crew member. “It will give us more of a chance to interact with experiments and further prove the value of having a person available to work with a payload. Right now, most experiments are very automated.”

Other possible applications of the PGSC include a star map. “It would display navigational stars that are available and their positions, “Tucker explained. Another program may allow the crew to “toggle” between displays, allowing, for example, the deorbit program to run in one window at the same time as the world map is in another window. “The PGSC gives us the latest technology and the possibility of future applications we might not have even considered yet,” Tucker said.

(Modern times, indeed… it’s quite a funny read, looking at it from a 2012 perspective. Makes you wonder what people living in the year 2035 will think about our current state-of-the-art technology…) 

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So, it will be a busy five days for the STS-29 crew. “”We’ve got a lot to accomplish,” said Commander Mike Coats. If all goes well, on March 18, 1989, Discovery will glide to a dawn landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, after a five-day, one-hour and seven-minute mission. At $375 million, the 28th shuttle flight will have cost $51,603 a minute. NASA says that the decision about where exactly Discovery will touch down depends on the weather conditions. The landing is tentatively scheduled for runway 17 on the dry lakebed, so the astronauts can test the shuttle’s nose wheel steering system. But touchdown there will only occur if a crosswind of 12 to 15 mph is blowing. If there is not an adequate crosswind, the landing will occur on the concrete runway in order to obtain data which could lead the way to the installation of a new brake system capable of absorbing up to 70 percent more energy than the present system.

After landing, Discovery will be towed to the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, hoisted atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and ferried back to the Kennedy Space Center to begin processing for her next flight, STS-33, scheduled for August 1989.

(Countdown, February, March and April 1989, JSC Space News Roundup, Jan. 13, 1989, Deseret News, Mar. 5, 1989, and STS-29 Press Kit - edited)

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You’ve got to be kidding me

About a week before launch, Crip came in and sat down with all of us, and he said, “Listen, the only thing y’all are doing on this flight that’s important is launching that TDRS. We may just bring y’all down after four days.”
I said, “What do you mean, you may bring us down?”
He said, “Well, you know, we want to get the orbiter back, so we can get it ready for another flight.”
And I thought, “You want to save one or two days? You’ve got to be kidding me.” Anyway, I remember that, because that was not good. I wanted to maximize my time in space, not shorten it.
(John Blaha, PLT Discovery STS-29, JSC Oral History Project, December 2004)