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>> And wrap up his work on
the BATH experiment for today,

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while the team on the ground
does some troubleshooting.

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So now we're going to head to
Marshall's Space Flight Center

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in Hanceville, Alabama,
where Lori Meggs is standing

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by to find out more

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about solving a fundamental
astrophysics mystery.

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[ Silence ]

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>> They're really hot.

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The BASS experiment.

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We're talking about
something really cool today.

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Ice cream.

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But it may not be the ice
cream you're thinking of.

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This is an upcoming ISS
investigation that is

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out of the University
of Maryland.

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And here's the principal
investigator

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to talk a little bit more
about what this mystery

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and this study may unravel.

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[ Silence ]

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>> They call this
experiment ice cream.

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It started as IS CREAM.

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And pronounce it as ice cream.

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And so this experiment,
as name indicates,

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we do cosmic ray physics.

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Cosmic rays, you know
what they are, right?

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Is the energetic
particles from outer space.

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They are bombarding on us.

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And they are the
providing this sample.

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I left a sample of marrow

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from outer space
outside solar system.

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And as this particles enter
this atmosphere, they interact

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with the atmosphere
nuclea [phonetic]

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and it produce showers
of particles,

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and this particles
observed on the ground

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with various particle detectors,
experiment like Ojay [phonetic],

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HiRes, Fly's Eye, and so on.

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This technique has
great advantage

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of very logic collecting
tower, but the limitation is

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that you cannot tell what
initiated the showers at the top

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of atmosphere, so by flying
our instrument in space,

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we can measure these
particles before they interact

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with atmosphere.

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So directly measuring
this cosmic phrase.

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What we call primary
cosmic phrase.

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The ground-based measurement
have already shown this

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particles can have energies as
high as 10 to 20 electron volts.

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This is a humongous energy.

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This is beyond and above any
energy that can be generated

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with man-made accelerators.

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And how this particles achieve
this so high energies and,

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in other words, how do
cosmic accelerators work,

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and is the main question.

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One of them is mysteries
in astrophysics standard.

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That's what we are
trying to understand.

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>> Why is ISS now an easy
progression from the balloons

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in an ideal place to
conduct this research?

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00:03:00,886 --> 00:03:02,306
>> Yes. That's a good question

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because then cosmic
rays flux decreases

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so rapidly as energy increases.

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The higher the energy
you want to measure,

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the peptor [phonetic]
has to be larger,

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and longer exposure
time is needed.

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And this space station
provides merely ideal platform

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for this very high energy
cosmic rays more [inaudible].

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So every day on station
will reduce our statistical

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uncertainties, and extend our
measurements to higher energies

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than previously possible.

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IS CREAM data would be much
superior to any existing data

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at this high energies.

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>> And so, let's talk about,
your from the University

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of Maryland, you've gotten
this research to NASA,

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tell us about your
student involvement

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00:03:56,726 --> 00:04:00,136
and how you guys really
got this going with NASA.

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00:04:00,816 --> 00:04:07,456
>> Oh. Students are involved
in all aspects of our mission.

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00:04:08,986 --> 00:04:14,646
From the development of
instrument via assembly,

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00:04:15,096 --> 00:04:21,246
testing, integration, data,
taking data off, analysis,

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as well as flight operations.

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CREAM, as a balloon
experiment which,

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despite of it [inaudible],
and produced more

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than 10 Ph.D. degrees by
now, and at the moment,

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00:04:40,156 --> 00:04:42,596
in my lab at Maryland,

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00:04:43,406 --> 00:04:51,936
I have more about 15 students
CREAM provides really valuable

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hands-on training and
experience to both graduate

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00:04:58,856 --> 00:05:00,466
and undergraduate students,

84
00:05:01,496 --> 00:05:06,106
beyond and above
what can be offered

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00:05:06,106 --> 00:05:10,386
from the classrooms
or textbooks.

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00:05:11,236 --> 00:05:12,686
>> Well I'm an astrophysicist
now

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and now I think I
need some ice cream.

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But the CREAM study will be
held over the next three years,

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00:05:18,756 --> 00:05:20,196
so if you want to find
out more about that,

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00:05:20,196 --> 00:05:24,016
there will be a story coming out
next week on nasa.gov/station.

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00:05:24,366 --> 00:05:25,086
You can check that out.

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In the meantime,
let's take a live look

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00:05:26,486 --> 00:05:29,076
into the Payload Operations
Integration Control Center.

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As you mentioned this
morning, they have been working

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on the BASS experiment,
working with the crew members

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00:05:34,476 --> 00:05:35,536
to get that conducted.

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That is what they do
there in that room.

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And that is a backup control
room as we've mentioned.

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They're getting some upgrades
to their full-time rooms,

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00:05:42,716 --> 00:05:45,606
so they will be getting
back in there, hopefully,

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in the next month or so, and
we will be back over there.

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That will do it for us from the
Payload Operations Integration

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Center at the Marshall
Space Flight Center.