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and here uh with us today inside the

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international space station flight

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control room we've been talking about

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docking vehicles we have another one

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soon to launch first before it docks and

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that vehicle is the spacex dragon it is

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the first commercial space flight to

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ever to launch to the international

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space station

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with it is carrying some special cargo

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and that is some science we love science

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so here to talk with us today is camille

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eileen she is the

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space station assistant program

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scientist welcome and thank you for

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joining us thank you for michael for

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having me great well first before we get

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into the science that's going up to the

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station and the science that's coming

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down

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first just tell me a little about

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yourself how did you get into this field

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how did you come to nasa

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oh my gosh um i

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was i always had an interest in space

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and airplanes ever since i was a child

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so when i decided to study engineering

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automatically you know aerospace

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engineering came to mind so i have

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several degrees in aerospace engineering

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a bachelor's degree from howard

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university

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and a couple master's degrees in

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mechanical and aerospace engineering

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and i've been at nasa for about 10 years

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um i've spent also six six or seven

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years at department of defense working

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on ballistic missile engineering okay

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great so when you first came to nasa did

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you immediately start in the science the

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station science program no when i first

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came to nasa actually i started at

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kennedy space center okay yeah over a

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decade ago doing space lab processing

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for this

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back in the day for the space shuttle

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then i've worked at headquarters during

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the early days of exploration

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and then i came to

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johnson space center six years ago where

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i served as the orion crew module test

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and verification manager and now i'm in

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the iss program science office great

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welcome we're very very glad to have you

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here thank you so um let's go ahead and

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talk about that spacex dragon so there's

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something special about it and and that

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is that it's um

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not just that it's the first commercial

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cargo you know ship to go up but the

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thing that's special about it is that it

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is a reusable vehicle so it can bring

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stuff like science up and it can bring

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stuff like science back and that's very

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important can you explain to us what

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that's going to do as far as capability

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yes the research community is very very

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excited about this capability as you

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said we haven't had this capability at

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least a dung mass we call down mass

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capability since the space shuttle so

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the spacex dragon being able to

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demonstrate that it could return

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hardware and samples is an exciting

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thing for the researchers

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and in addition it has a cold storage

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capability that's going to be

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demonstrated and that's going to be able

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to preserve samples that need

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refrigeration and that's something we

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haven't had okay great so that's kind of

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like those biological samples that you

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knew about they're taking the blood and

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urine samples and all that sort of stuff

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i know we have the energy experiment and

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they've been taking those samples you

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know recently and so those would come

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down on that as exactly that would be

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preserved so that's good um so let's

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talk about some science that's going up

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this is really exciting because what i

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understand we have some students

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that are sending and this is from fifth

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grade to college age so students there

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are sending like 15 i think different

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participants are actually sending their

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science experiments up to the space

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station can you tell me a little about

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that program yes

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the students designed 15 experiments

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that would be going up on the spacex

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dragon

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and these as you said range from 5th

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graders to college level

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students which is very exciting

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designing these kind of experiments

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they were selected from almost 800

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proposals that came from around the

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united states

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and so it's a part of the nanoracks

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module

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that will be flying up

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to the space station and that's a

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multi-purpose research facility that's

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on board the space station that's going

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to house these experiments and the

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experiments range from looking at the

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effect actually we have a list here we

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can get some of these because they're

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very interesting and very

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wide range from fifth grade to college

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but they all sound very um just very

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intriguing so we have fermentation of

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grape juice and microgravity i might be

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interested in that one

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there is composting in microgravity

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radiation effects on worms dna study of

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e coli bacteria vitamin c effects on

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bone density using cacti to purify water

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which would be very essential aboard

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international space station that's very

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interesting um stuff here so and when

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you think of the context of students

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designing these kind of experiments is

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really exciting and it helps motivate

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them and inspire them in their studies

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of science math technology and

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engineering it's a unique unique

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opportunity i can't even imagine any

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better motivation exactly for me if you

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know if i were a student and i had my

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science was actually going up aboard the

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international space station that's

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far better than you know my little

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science project that i had up in that

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you know

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room of that day so speaking of those

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science projects and stuff we we have um

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so we are going to be bringing back

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um some science and some hardware and so

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let's talk about one of them i know i've

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i've actually seen a lot of this taken

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place um on the last expedition in this

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expedition as well it's known as shear

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and it has to do with the polymer fluids

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the rotation you want to talk to me

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about that yes shia stands for sheer

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history extensional rheology experiment

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it's a mouthful but really it looks at

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the behavior of liquid polymers in the

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microgravity environment when they are

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subjected to stressing so they they're

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rotationally stressed and so um

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researchers are really interested in how

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that whole process

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and how the behavior of those polymers

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act in that environment and that really

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helps them with designing fabrication

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and repair processes of using in-situ

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materials on board the space station and

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does it have applications here on earth

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it does um in helping

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to

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do manufacturing processes of things

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like liquid adhesives

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great thanks well there really is some

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connection space to earth

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very important for us

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there's another one that's coming down

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and this one i am just i am just

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completely

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enthralled by it i mean i'm just very

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intrigued by it and it's the plant

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signaling

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um so tell me a little about it because

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it's talking about how plants grow and

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how we can basically re-engineer a

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plant's

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basic genetics yes on how it grows we

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can tell it how we want it to grow and

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that's just amazing we're redesigning

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evolution almost so we do that on the

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ground actually but um in the

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microgravity uh environment researchers

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are looking at the molecular mechanisms

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that plants use to respond to the

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changes in the environment and as you

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said that helps them design plants or

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really select plants that would

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withstand long duration space flight and

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the microgravity environment yeah and so

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when i'm thinking about those science

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fair projects that we had back in the

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day

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the one i always remember because

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everyone did it the one that they did it

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the night before you know those plants

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with

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because they wanted to see which way the

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the plants grew toward the light or that

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sort of thing but so

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with the environment in space it's not

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necessarily looking at light it's

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looking at other things like

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yeah so

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what we don't understand how plants grow

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on the ground or we kind of take it for

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granted is that the roots because of

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gravity grow down so that's the sensing

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to go down in the downward vector right

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and then the leaves go up towards the

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light in microgravity of course we don't

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have we don't have the gravity

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um so

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you know researchers are looking at

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different stimulus um that would allow

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the plants to grow and of course plants

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are great food source for long duration

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space flights it's it's a really

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critical uh investigation sure very

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important and so the material science

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research work i understand that that is

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a component that will be coming down

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along with these science experiments yes

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that is one um the materials science

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research rack is a facility that

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facilitates

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aluminum

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metal

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processing on board the space station

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and what they look at is melting it and

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then solidifying it so those material

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samples are actually coming down and

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researchers are excited to look at the

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recrystallization patterns that happen

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as an as a result of microgravity and so

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that's some of the hardware and samples

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that will be coming back on the dragon

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capsule and what that is looking at is

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also or the benefits of that

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particular research is to improve you

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know to have improvements on alloying

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materials here on earth exactly alloy

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materials being things like brass or

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silver exactly so that's very it's

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fascinating it's just amazing i'm always

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amazed you know sometimes we just see

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them out there they're you know kind of

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floating around but they actually are

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doing work that is beneficial to us not

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only to get us further into space but

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also back here on earth that has an

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impact on life on earth sure and any

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other

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part

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yes

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there are some other hardware components

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coming back from the combustion

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integrated rack which is a re research

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facility that facilitates combustion

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research we also have some double coal

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bags coming back um so it's

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it's a very exciting time for

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researchers so that they can get their

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research back on the ground and and

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continue the analysis of all these

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investigations great well thank you so

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much for all the information this is

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very exciting news we are looking

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forward to that spacex launch and

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hopefully it'll it'll get up there it'll

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dock and then it'll return all that good

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00:09:59,269 --> 00:09:57,120
stuff back to us and um here on earth

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and you guys will have lots to look into