I
hello and welcome to volume 6 of NASA
report to education I'm Lynn Bondurant
the crew aboard the STS 28 went about
their business but unseen and unheard by
all but ground controllers because the
STS 28 flight was a classified military
mission a virtual news blackout was in
effect on launch day the five men all
military crew mission commander Brewster
Shah pilot dick Richards and mission
specialist David Lisa James Adamson and
Mark Brown were up well before dawn
dressed in the bright orange pressurized
flight suits they made their way to the
astro van for the ride to the launch pad
once onboard the orbiter they had to
wait out a slightly hazy sky over the
Kennedy Space Center for the orbiter
Columbia NASA's oldest Space Shuttle it
would mark its first flight since
January 12 1986 during the three and a
half years since its last flight
Columbia underwent more than 250
modifications to bring it up to par with
the other two orbiters discovery and
Atlantis finally at eight thirty seven
a.m. it was time liftoff liftoff on
Columbia and its return to flight the
space shuttle Columbia completed its
mission with a smooth landing at edwards
air force base in california on August
thirteenth but because it was a
classified Department of Defense mission
the public was not permitted on the base
as Columbia glided in for a landing at
nine thirty seven a.m. eastern daylight
time after a five-day flight a super
team and a great machine welcome home
columbia capsule communicator Frank
Culbertson radioed the crew from Houston
as the orbiter rolled to a halt about an
hour after touchdown the crew emerged
from the orbiter greeted by NASA
Administrator Admiral Richard truly and
other NASA officials they made the
traditional inspection of the spacecraft
officials say it appears that only three
of
lumby as heat protection tiles will have
to be replaced a thruster in the
reaction control system was shut down in
flight by the crew because of
indications of a leak officials also
report that pilot dick Richards seat
jerked backwards about one inch when the
shuttle lifted off the launch pad
Richards used a motor control to move
the seat forward to its normal position
and Montgomery the orbiter flow director
said that workers will examine about 20
other minor problems that develop just
before or during Columbia's flight 20
years after the Apollo moon landing
technologies which enabled manned
spaceflight continued to improve our
daily lives in the areas of health
safety comfort and enjoyment some
specific examples of technology
spin-offs from the Apollo era include
the lunar roving vehicle that allowed
astronauts to travel miles away from
their lunar base the rover was the
source of a Eunice ticks controller now
used by handicapped people to accelerate
brake and steer automobiles scratch
resistant sunglass lenses were derived
from a highly abrasion resistant coating
developed to protect from harsh
environments further hundreds of lives
have been saved through a widely used
commercial raft that will not capsized
in heavy seas the raft employs a NASA
patented water ballast stabilization
system used in rafts developed for the
returning Apollo astronauts after their
splashdown a 3m designed meal heating
unit developed for the Apollo spacecraft
crews served as a basis for an
electronic food warming system used in
hospitals these are just a few of the
hundreds of spin-offs which have
resulted from the research carried out
during the Apollo program American and
Soviet physicians are just past the
halfway point in a four-month-long
telemedicine space bridge it's been set
up to provide medical assistance to the
victims of the earthquake that
devastated parts of the Soviet republic
of armenia
last December linked by a satellite
hookup physicians in Armenia have access
to audio-visual communication
capabilities with us doctors at NASA
headquarters and medical facilities in
Maryland Texas in Utah the satellite
conferences are held for four hours each
morning Monday through Friday this
session dealt with different
psychological problems suffered by some
thirty seven thousand children who were
victims of the earthquake more than
1,000 the children were orphaned NASA
announced that the space bridge with
armenia has been so successful then it
will be extended to Moscow in the Soviet
city utha to assist the victims of two
trains which were recently destroyed by
a gas explosion scientists at Lois have
produced the first high-speed electronic
circuit using high-temperature
superconductivity research the circuit
can operate at 30 32 37 gigahertz a
frequency range three times higher than
that attainable with existing circuits
according to cool bhasin a space
electronics researcher at lewis the high
speed circuit could become part of
future generations of satellites that
operate at ultra-high frequencies called
k-band these frequencies would let
satellites process data at much faster
rates and handle many more customers
than conventional satellites further the
circuit might be used in radar imaging
satellites to reduce the size of space
antennas Dennis Connelly deputy chief of
Applied Research of the space
electronics division at Lewis said the
circuits should eventually help in the
development of faster computers because
they would reduce the amount of waste
heat generated by existing circuits
superconductors conduct electricity with
no resistance and therefore with no loss
of power scientists at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center believe they have
solved a mystery that may help in the
design of new and improved
disease-fighting drugs using a technique
known as x-ray crystallography a team of
scientists and technicians
from Marshall Space Science Laboratory
have determined the three-dimensional
structure of human serum albumin the
most abundant plasma protein in the
human circulatory system the scientists
have mapped and confirmed the structure
of the protein to a resolution which
provides an image with enough detail to
extract data about individual molecules
the scientists next step will be to
further refine the resolution using
space grown crystals human serum albumin
crystals have been grown twice in space
most recently during shuttle mission
sts-27 buraz part of a protein crystal
growth experiment knowing the molecular
structure may allow pharmaceutical
companies to design new drugs or alter
existing drugs to allow them to be more
efficiently carried by the protein
molecule through the body it's called
NASA space link and people from all over
the world are logging on to this special
NASA computer system here's a report
from the Marshall Space Flight Center
who was the first American in space and
see if you can tell me when raise your
hand now I think it was Adam do Shepard
and 1961 how many people have actually
walked on the moon that's what people
want them where was the first space
shuttle launch and what was the name of
it first space show was Columbia and it
was launched in 1981 here's another
question why did the students in this
classroom know so much about the space
program the answer because the space
program has made its way into this
classroom a computer system called NASA
space link connects these students with
such things as space agency background
information daily updates and news
releases even lesson plans and other
resources for teachers like Margaret
Milton unless you use newspapers or
current periodicals or something like
space link there's no way for kids to
have the correct information science and
technology of changing everything so
quickly NASA hopes this program will
address a growing national concern when
these youngsters enter the workforce
will there be enough trained scientists
and engineers to meet an expanding need
we are really faced
crisis former teacher Bill Anderson
manages the space link program which is
based at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville Alabama he believes
that linking the space program with
classrooms today will pay off big in the
years ahead third fourth and fifth
grades middle school high school
encourage them to continue studying math
and science to show them how important
it is and really how exciting it is
that's why we feel like with the program
is exciting as the space program we we
have an advantage and encouraging
children to be interested in math and
science and we feel like we need to do
our part although primarily meant for
schools the system is open to anyone
interested in the space program all it
takes is a personal computer a modem and
a phone call to the marshall center when
your computer connects with NASA's Space
link user-friendly instructions will
appear on your screen to help you
register and use the system NASA space
link is free but you'll owe your
telephone company for any long distance
calls recently President Bush traveled
to the foothills of Virginia to address
the 1989 national boy scout jamboree mr.
Bush used the Jamboree theme of space
exploration to talk about his goals for
the space program for generation will
have a broader greater opportunity to
live in space to travel to establish an
outpost on the moon and explore the
mysteries of Mars and this is the
challenge of the next century your
century your challenge and today is
before subtended and trying voices
caution us against the danger of the
hardship and expense and perhaps they
shoulda seen didn't steal birds
extravaganza or perhaps they should
listen to Ray Bradbury a writer who once
said that space will make children of us
all amen that the strange beauty and
mystery of space will teach even the
most cynical and world-weary among us to
rediscover the wonders of their first
glimpse of the night sky and tonight
when you're lying around the campfire
surrounded by dark cars looking up at
the stars of the night sky I want you to
consider something perhaps you or your
kids or as hard as it is for you to
imagine your grandchildren well one day
look up at the night sky before going to
sleep and see the earth as a thang
twinkling blue star it is this spirit a
spirit of wonder of discovery adventure
it is surely drawing us to a new destiny
a new and far distant worlds you are
privileged to be the generation the
witness the first large movement of men
and women in his face and is as this
happens I know that the Boy Scouts of
today will be in the lead over 50,000
Boy Scouts attending the Jamboree
learned about nasa and its many programs
as we see in this report Quinn tens of
thousands of Boy Scouts from all over
the globe get together every four years
for this Jamboree you'd expect them to
get in plenty of boating fishing and
other outdoor activities but this year
there was something new added to the
agenda space you could see it reflected
in the Jamboree patch in the campsites
name for us spacecraft and in a variety
of activities brought here by NASA the
NASA exhibits really cool i did a report
on the all the Apollo programs in high
school and there's a lot more
information here than I ever got all
dispersed I was great I like it it's
really interesting it gives a kiss a
chant the scouts and parents and
visitors a chance to see really what's
going on in addition to what you read
the newspapers and magazines but to
physically see things like the freedom
Space Station freedom a slice of it what
it's like inside type of
vironment things like that NASA and the
Boy Scouts organization say they have
some important things in common both
think it's vital that young people in
this country get early exposure to
American technology solar wings here
roll out in orbit their flimsy real
flimsy they won't even hold their own
weight up here on earth it's hope that
by meeting NASA scientists and engineers
plus astronauts like Bruce McCandless
these Scouts will take a greater
interest in school subjects like science
and math these scouts brought a world of
questions about space to this Jamboree
NASA brought some of its brightest
people to provide some answers to talk
about the potential of space and to help
Scouts earn a space and Aeronautics
merit badge or two NASA officials here
say this was a learning experience for
them as well they got a glimpse into the
future and a chance to meet perhaps the
next generation of American space
explorers by the way two-thirds of the
United States astronauts were once
members of the Boy Scouts of America
technicians at the Cape recently erected
the first stage of an atlas centaur
launch vehicle in preparation for the
launch of a fleet satellite
communication spacecraft the spacecraft
will be the final expendable launch
vehicle under NASA responsibility for
other Atlas Delta and tighten launches
and NASA's Ames Dryden Flight Research
Facility a new x29 forward swept wing
airplane has started flying in a new
high angle of attack research program
high angle of attack refers to the nose
high altitude of an airplane relative to
its flight path the higher the angle of
attack a plane is capable of the more
maneuverable an airplane can be exceed
the aircraft's angle of attack
capability and the plane can spin and
crash this video shows NASA research
pilot Steve Ishmael deploying a spin
shoot which can help recover the
aircraft if it goes into a spin during
test flights researchers expect the x29
s forward swept wings will be more
capable
of high angle of attack flight than
conventional wings the voyager 2
spacecraft reached its closest encounter
with neptune 3,000 miles above the
planet's surface on August twenty-fourth
the report you're about to see was
released by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory shortly before the encounter
it's been traveling for nearly 12 years
it has already logged more than 4
billion miles in its lifetime it's been
to places humans had once only dreamed
about and on August twenty-fourth 1989
at nine p.m. pacific daylight time
Voyager 2 will make history again
it will become the first spacecraft to
fly by Neptune a planet that orbits the
Sun near the edge of our solar system
launched in 1977 Voyager 1 and 2 have
taken us to Jupiter and Saturn when
Voyager 1 flew past the large moon Titan
and behind Saturn's rings its flight
path was bent northwood and the
spacecraft was sent out of the ecliptic
plane and on toward interstellar space
Voyager 2 is on a flight path it takes
advantage of a rare geometric
positioning of the outer planets this
allows Voyager 2 to use the gravity of
the planets it's encountered to boost it
from one to another without onboard
propulsion Neptune is invisible to the
naked eye even our biggest telescopes
can see only broad features of the
planet early pictures sent back from
Voyager already show cloud features and
a dark band of clouds and circling the
southern pole Neptune's diameter is
about four times the size of Earth it's
blue green color comes from atmospheric
methane which absorbs red light in orbit
around Neptune our ring arcs and one of
the larger and most interesting moons in
the solar system Triton at Voyager tues
closest approach it will pass just 3,000
miles from Neptune's cloud tops that's
closer than Voyager 2 has come to any
other planet a few days before the
spacecraft arrives at Neptune engineers
will fine-tune voyagers flight path over
Neptune's North Pole Voyager will be
able to detect any Neptunian magnetic
field and is likely to pass through the
region where the Northern Lights form
despite Neptune's greater distance from
the Sun its temperature is the same as
that of Uranus for it to be so warm and
yet so far away lept you must generate
some internal heat of its own
another of Neptune's mysteries is it's
moon Triton with a presumed atmosphere
of methane and possibly nitrogen Triton
is expected to be one of the most
fascinating objects and counted in
Voyager tues entire journey because
Neptune is so far away radio data from
Voyager traveling at the speed of light
will take four hours and six minutes to
reach Earth the signals are received
through the Deep Space Network a global
spacecraft tracking and communication
system operated by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA to provide
continuous two-way contact with the
spacecraft DSN antenna stations are
strategically located in California's
Mojave Desert near Madrid Spain and near
Canberra Australia the father away
Voyager goes the more difficult it is to
pick up its weak signal to make up for
this the DSN antennas have been enlarged
and are now able to collect more and
higher quality data from the spacecraft
the Parkes radio Observatory in
Australia and the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array
in New Mexico will join the DSN antennas
to provide for additional receiving
power the asudar tracking station in
japan will help conduct radio science
experiments with the encounter of
Neptune Voyager 2 will complete its
grand tour of the four giant outer
planets and head for its next adventure
the spacecraft is expected to continue
to send back valuable data well into the
21st century as voyager 2 reaches for
the edge of our solar system and enters
interstellar space once there Voyager
will again stretch our imagination as it
discovers for us things we haven't even
anticipated
voyager 2 has nel sail beyond neptune
leaving behind a wealth of information
first review of the data indicates that
a day on neptune lasts about 16 hours
and three minutes atmospheric winds
travel up to 700 miles per hour up to
five rings and a sheet of dust circle
above Neptune's equator there are at
least six icy objects 6 to 12 miles wide
hidden in one of the Rings Triton
Neptune's largest moon has a thin
atmosphere of nitrogen Triton is smaller
than expected about 1,700 miles in
diameter Triton also appears to have
active volcano spewing nitrogen ice
particles and gas up to 20 miles high
and six new moons have been discovered
launch processing work on the over to
Atlantis continues to proceed smoothly
and officials have said October twelfth
as the date for this year's fourth
shuttle launch on mission st s 34
atlantis was moved from the Vehicle
Assembly Building at Kennedy Space
Center to launch pad 39b the primary
goal of the mission is the deployment of
the Galileo probe to Jupiter the most
sophisticated interplanetary spacecraft
ever built Galileo was already on the
launch pad waiting for Atlantis and has
now been transferred into the orbiters
cargo bay once deployed the spacecraft
will take six years to reach Jupiter
using gravity assist it will fly once
past Venus and twice past earth before
reaching the huge planet on december
seven 1995 equipped with a variety of
high-tech sensors Galileo will drop a
probe into Jupiter's atmosphere before
going into orbit for a 20 month tour of
the planet in its larger moons because
Jupiter is about
480 million miles from the Sun huge
solar panels measuring 2,000 square feet
would be needed to provide enough
electricity for Galileo's instruments
and that is not feasible instead the
spacecraft is equipped with a pair of
radioisotope thermoelectric generators
each loaded with about 24 pounds of
plutonium the launch of Atlantis with
the Galileo Jupiter probe marks the
beginning of a new effort by NASA to
explore the solar system and planets dr.
Leonard Fisk associate administrator for
Space Science and applications said
recently this is now the second Golden
Age of space science and if we have our
way it's an age that's not going to end
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt Maryland a new program is
being developed to use technology such
as robotics to help in the on-orbit
assembly of NASA's Space Station freedom
here's the report it's indicated by this
graphic simulation Goddard is
methodically developing the engineering
requirements for freedoms flight tal
robotic servicer the fts this device
will be capable of the precise
manipulations needed in space for the
assembly and servicing of freedom what
some have likened to a giant erector set
in the sky inside Goddard robotics
facility an operator runs a simulated
robot through its paces to demonstrate
how the fts will do its job once in
space but the real action is in the
movements of the floor mounted robots a
gantry robot and so called dextrous
manipulators each has seven
independently operated joints each can
function much as a human arm under
operator control this device is reaching
up and behind a camera which it could
reposition or refocus if needed in fact
with an operator controlling this robe
can even maintain itself for actual
Space Station freedom assembly and
operations the FDS will be attached to
freedoms remote manipulator arm and be
controlled by the space shuttle crew
from the aft flight deck of the orbiter
in the meantime backed by human thought
and imagination the mechanical members
so to speak of Goddard's robotics
facility have been cast in leading roles
for mankind's exploration of space this
is Carter Tov reporting from Goddard
Space Flight Center Greenbelt Maryland
that's all we have for this edition of
NASA report to education I'm Lynn
Bondurant at the NASA Lewis Research
Center in Cleveland Ohio thanks for
watching