News Release

New science investigations, a fresh team ready for Expedition Three on International Space Station

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center News Center

New science investigations, a fresh ground crew to operate experiments, two more science racks, and delivery of Leonardo -- the logistics module carrying experiments to the International Space Station -- are all contributions of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to the next Space Station expedition.

The Aug. 9 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-105 mission will mark the beginning of the newest four-month science expedition -- Expedition Three -continuing through the landing of the Space Shuttle Endeavor on STS-108 mission in early December.

Discovery will deliver more scientific experiments and a new three-member crew to the Space Station, and return to Earth with scientific equipment, samples and data, as well as the three Expedition Two crew members.

"We will focus more on the research program," said John Uri, lead increment scientist for Expedition Three at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. "We are on our way to building and maintaining a world-class science research laboratory in low-Earth orbit."

To conduct 18 U.S. experiments during Expedition Three, Uri's team will work closely with the Payload Operations Center - NASA's command post for Space Station science activities at the Marshall Center. A new cadre of controllers replaced their Expedition Two colleagues and started working on Aug. 6 in three shifts, around-the-clock, seven days a week. Their mission is to link Earth-bound researchers with experiments and astronauts aboard the Space Station.

"Science is happening on the station 24-hours a day-- even when the crew is sleeping," said Ray Echols, the lead payload operations director who heads the cadre working in the science control center at Marshall. "Allocation of a small amount of the crew's time to set up and install experiments can yield a lot of science.

Once many experiments are started, we can control them remotely from the ground."Via communications and computer equipment at the Payload Operations Center, Echols and his team can send commands to experiments or enable investigators around the world to command their experiments remotely or talk to the Space Station crew.

"The Expedition Two crew has blazed the trail for Expedition Three by taking the first set of payloads and operating them on the Station," said Echols.During Expedition Two, 18 experiments were operated, and more than 15,000 commands were sent to experiment payloads and support equipment on the Station. On March 9, a Canadian principal investigator made the first call to the Station crew about his experiment. On May 1, experimenters working at a Colorado "telescience" center were the first to send commands remotely to a Station experiment.

Investigators on the ground and the team in the operations center, staffed by members of Marshall's Flight Projects Directorate, act almost like a "fourth Station crew member" by operating experiments remotely and receiving data from the experiments in space.

Engineers from Marshall's Flight Projects Directorate also managed the development of the Italian-built Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module. On its second trip to the Station, this "space moving van" will be ferried to the Station inside Discovery's payload bay. Riding inside Leonardo are two new experiment racks, called EXpedite the PRocessing of Research Experiments on Space Station or EXPRESS racks, built and tested by The Boeing Company at Marshall's Space Station Manufacturing Building. These racks transport and support experiments, providing power, fluids, gases, cooling and data-storage and transmissions computers.

The addition of EXPRESS Racks 4 and 5 will bring the total research racks inside the Destiny laboratory module to five. EXPRESS Racks 1 and 2 and the Human Research Facility were delivered, activated and checked out during Expedition Two. (EXPRESS Rack 3 will be delivered on a future expedition.) These racks will continue to support existing and new experiments.

"We are doing science in all the disciplines, and the science is becoming more complex with every new expedition," said Uri. "With Expedition Three, we are pleased to bring a number of new scientists to the Space Station team, and look forward to continuing work with those who already have experiments on our newest orbital research facility."

Eight new experiments will get under way in the five research facilities, and 10 experiments -- started on Expedition One or Two -- will continue.

"One of the advantages of Space Station research is the flexibility to continue long-duration research over several expeditions, modifying research procedures and parameters to take advantage of intriguing results," said Uri. "We want science on the Station to be as much like science in an Earth-based laboratory as possible, but of course without gravity."

The first experiment to be mounted outside the Station -- the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) - will be delivered by the STS-105 crew and mounted outside the Station during an Extravehicular Activity, or space walk. MISSE will test the durability of hundreds of samples, ranging from lubricants to solar cell technologies.

By examining how coatings fare in the harsh environment of space, scientists can learn how to develop materials for future spacecraft and make materials last longer on Earth. Rachel Kamenetzky is the MISSE principal investigator at the Marshall Center, and the experiment is managed by Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and is a collaborative effort among NASA centers, the U.S. Air Force and private industry.

The first experiments with biological cell cultures also begin on the Station in Expedition Three, with delivery of a major facility: the Cellular Biotechnology Operations Support System (CBOSS).

"This will be our first opportunity to use a sophisticated bioreactor to grow cells in low gravity created as the Station orbits Earth," said Uri. "Cells appear to grow more three-dimensional, like they do in living tissues, when they are cultured in space."

Bioreactor cell growth in microgravity permits cultivation of tissue cultures of sizes and quantities not possible on Earth, allowing research in areas pertinent to human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and AIDS.

###

The Cellular Biotechnology Operations Support System is managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and is part of the Microgravity Research Program at Marshall - NASA's Lead Center for low-gravity research.

For more information on Expedition Three experiments, visit: http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/background/experiments.html
http://www.scipoc.com/factchron.html#exp3fact


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.