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Space Travel: NASA Suitcases Back on Earth

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By JEREMIAH MCWILLIAMS

The VIRGINIAN-PILOT

HAMPTON A small group of scientists huddled over two aluminum suitcases stuffed with multi-colored discs, plates and wires Monday in a lab at NASA Langley Research Center. Photographers edged in for a peek space-age paparazzi almost unrecognizable in surgical masks and hair nets.

The reason for all the buzz? The packages, shipped to Langley last week, were the first experimental samples retrieved and opened in the Materials International Space Station Experiments, or MISSE (pronounced missy). The program, supported by NASA, the Department of Defense and a consortium of companies, is designed to get hard data about what happens when materials ranging from plastics to ultra-thin carbon fibers are exposed directly to the hostile environment in space, 220 miles above Earth.

Government scientists and analysts from Boeing Co. hailed the program Monday as a key partnership between government and industry on the road to the next generation of space technology anti- ultraviolet coatings, super strong fibers, and other scientific delights that could eventually make their way to satellites and space vehicles, as well as to your garage.

Im just as excited as anyone else is to see whats happened to those samples, said Michael Stropki, lead investigator from the Air Force Research Laboratory, before the unveiling. This is what were looking for: Did it survive?

In August 2001, the two suitcases loaded with gossamer fabrics, carbon samples, and tiny solar cell plates were attached to the exterior of the international space station as part of the Discovery mission. It was a test of survival for each material sample: The 910 samples were bombarded with intense ultraviolet radiation, exposed to debris and attacked by atomic oxygen, a highly reactive and unstable element that corrodes many exposed surfaces in space.

The experiments were passive scientists did not manipulate or test the samples during their time in space.

The retrieval of the suitcases was delayed by the moratorium put in place on shuttle flights after the Columbia accident in February 2003. Discovery, which returned to Earth on Aug. 9, brought the samples back after their four-year journey in space.

A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this to come back, said Alan Cassell, a nanotechnology scientist with NASAs Ames Research Center.

The samples opened Monday showed some wear and tear. Some square swatches of fabric were completely torn or corroded , and several wires that looked like taut guitar strings had snapped.

But even destruction can be a success in the MISSE program, because it is a staging ground to see which materials will withstand the nasty environment of low-level orbit, scientists said.

These are rare opportunities to get real material samples in space and get real space exposure, Stropki said.

The programs third and fourth suitcases are at Cape Canaveral awaiting an eventual shuttle launch, said William Kinard, who works as NASAs chief scientist and principal investigator for the MISSE program. A fifth, he said, already is on the international space station.

Unlike in earlier experiments, scientists on Earth can track materials stored in the fifth suitcase in real time, said Robert Walters, MISSE 5s princip al investigator at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Private companies such as Boeing want to get into the testing program, and to grab a spot on shuttle flights that have not been scheduled.

We need to be ready to fly, said Gary Pippin, a materials scientist with Boeing, who said his companys scientists are trying to assemble the next round of material samples for a possible shuttle flight in 2007.

The draw for companies is the cost-effectiveness of combining public and private money, Pippin said.

Joining forces with the government is essential, he said. The research dollars are so scarce, both government and industry need to leverage.

NASA has invested more than $2 million in the program, with similar amounts contributed by the Department of Defense and companies, Kinard said. Those expenditures do not include the costs associated with shuttle launches.

It is relatively inexpensive to send two 60- to 70-pound suitcases to space aboard a shuttle, and the benefits are obvious, scientists said.

The cost avoidance is enormous, Pippin said. Its hard to put a dollar value on it.

Even scientists best equipment cant duplicate the environment of space, so it is crucial to put the materials in orbit, Kinard said.

We can do a lot of testing on the ground we can expose things to vacuums, radiation, and other threats, he said. What we cant do on the ground is expose them to all the environments at one time.

Much more will be known about the samples when they are packed up and shipped to NASA centers and company labs across the country for testing. But the excitement was already palpable in the sterilized lab.

I get really excited about it, buddy, I do, said Pippin, slapping a white-coated colleague on the back.

* Reach Jeremiah McWilliams at (757) 446-2643 or at jeremiah. mcwilliams@pilotonline.com.

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