you
at one false step for man one giant leap
for me
a sleek jet aircraft soars through a
clear blue sky a hard-working piece of
agricultural machine replies an ocean of
fertile farmland an airplane a farm
implement as different as each of them
is from the other they share a most
important feature in common each is made
by a company that is committed to the
commercial use of space but along with
that similarity there is a contrast as
well the airplane maker is conducting
microgravity research in an area that is
totally new to it pharmaceuticals on the
other hand the agricultural equipment
company will be using what it learns
from microgravity research to improve a
basic bread and butter manufacturing
process it is used for years producing
cast-iron components for its farm
machinery there's something else worth
noting about these two companies
agricultural products are America's
leading export airplanes are second the
airplane maker and the farm equipment
manufacturer are just two examples of a
small band of forward-looking
forward-thinking and forward doing
companies that are committed to
improving their competitive positions
and their profit pictures through the
commercial use of space they are
companies working in everything from
electronic crystals to internal
combustion engines they are companies
that already have taken the first steps
toward profiting from the commercial use
of space but most companies are not yet
involved in commercial activities in
space many are uncertain as to just what
space commercialization means to assist
individual managers in private companies
to remove that uncertainty as well as to
support america's national space
commercialization goals lewis research
center has formed an office of space
commercial
the purpose of that office is to help a
company uncover and assess the relevance
of commercial space activities to its
operations manager Harvey Schwartz
explains the general field of commercial
space activities can be broken down in
four major areas first space is a
vantage point from which we can
communicate forecast the weather and
from which we can also observe and map
the earth's resources secondly space is
a location to which the private sector
can provide transportation services
third space is also a location where we
require other kinds of services such as
satellite repair which are not done by
the federal government and fourth space
is a unique environment in which we can
conduct microgravity research on new
processes and products the office of
space commercialization here at the NASA
Lewis Research Center Act can act in a
sense as a broker between the needs of
the private sector and the engineering
and research capabilities we have here
in great depth Louis can offer
researchers hands-on help in a host of
scientific and engineering disciplines
communications space power launch
vehicles microgravity Sciences metals
and alloys composites ceramics and
glasses electronic materials fluid
physics and combustion the assistance
that Lois can give might range from
simply answering general questions to
offering expert and experienced counsel
to help answer the one all-important
specific question can I improve my
company's operations by examining the
physical principles on which they are
based in a microgravity environment for
a company to pursue a commercial venture
in space the project must be broken down
from conception through execution into a
series of steps each of which must fit
the duration and
resource requirements of that company's
planning horizons that makes it possible
to review progress periodically and
reassess the commercial potential of a
project before committing more time and
money to it it's a sensible step-by-step
approach that lewis can support with
unique tailor-made facilities
particularly in the area of microgravity
research the first of these facilities
is the microgravity material science
laboratory the purpose of the mm SL is
to give American companies a competitive
edge in their markets by helping them
take the first step toward developing
better products and processes through
microgravity research specifically the
mm SL offers a low-cost low-risk way for
researchers to test new ideas for
material science and process research
before starting formal efforts in their
own laboratories Thomas K Glasgow
manager of the mm SL at lewis elaborates
a company should consider the use of the
microgravity environment if it is
interested in growing more perfect
semiconductors or opto-electronic
crystals the microgravity environment is
also a good laboratory for studying what
are usually convection dominated
processes such as combustion another
reason we're looking at the microgravity
or space flight environment is for
preparation of corrosive glasses such as
those which might interact highly with a
container on earth for these processes
or any other process which would be
dominated by convection or gravity
effects on earth the microgravity
environment of space offers an
appropriate leverage
the mm SL has equipment with functional
capabilities similar to space shuttle
flight hardware major items in the mm SL
are a general-purpose furnace which
simulates one of the three furnace
cavities flown aboard the shuttle an
electromagnetic levitating furnace with
a one-second instrumented drop tube for
container less solidification up to 10
samples a day can be dropped an
isothermal dendrite growth apparatus to
observe the growth and shape of
individual free dendrites in a
transparent supercooled melt a
general-purpose resistance heated high
vacuum furnace to heat treat samples in
a vacuum or an inert gas atmosphere a
single axis acoustic levitator to study
the container less solidification of
reactive and unusual glasses a high
temperature batch melt furnace for
glasses and a hot stage microscope to
observe phase separation in glasses in
addition a visiting researcher will be
supported by Lewis's computer capability
and by the center's micro structural
characterization chemical
characterization and spectrometric
analysis facilities the microgravity
material science laboratory however is
only the first step that can be taken by
a researcher at Lewis a typical project
might begin by establishing 1g baseline
data in the mm SL and then proceeding if
indicated to a drop tower or to a
research aircraft to qualify the project
for spaceflight Lewis has to drop towers
the larger of the two is designed to
provide reduced gravity exposure for
either 5 or
10 second periods experiment packages
fall through a distance of 430 feet
during a five-second drop for a
10-second simulation the experiment
package is propelled by means of a
pneumatic accelerator from the bottom of
the tower to within inches of the top
before falling back reducing the air
pressure inside the shaft makes possible
an experimental drop in which
gravitational force has been reduced to
one 100,000 of its normal earth value
high speed motion picture cameras inside
the experiment vehicle record the
experiment during the period of reduced
gravity statistical data such as
pressure temperature and acceleration
are recorded by onboard instrumentation
and transmitted to the control room a
clean room is available for the
preparation of experiments that are
particularly sensitive to contamination
even from normal atmospheric conditions
an example would be certain fluid
physics studies during testing all
activity in the experiment chamber is
monitored on closed-circuit television
in the control room a cross-sectional
scale model of the test chamber provides
a simple visual explanation of the
system and its capabilities most of the
facility is below ground level inside
the concrete shaft is a 20 foot diameter
steel vacuum chamber in the model a
vehicle containing an experiment is
shown at the top of the chamber ready
for a five-second drop at the end of a
drop the experiment package is brought
to a stop in a container of polystyrene
pellets the experiment stops in
approximately 15 feet and experiences a
force of about 35 GS the package is
designed so that there is no damage to
the experiment or to the recording
equipment during deceleration
another frequently used lewis facility
is a smaller ninety five foot drop tower
which can provide 2.2 seconds of reduced
gravity the small drop tower is open to
the atmosphere reduced gravity
conditions are achieved by enclosing the
experiment packaged in a shield to
isolate it from aerodynamic drag longer
periods of reduced gravity are possible
with research aircraft lewis has a
Learjet model 25 a small passenger jet
with a modified interior that serves as
an airborne reduced gravity laboratory
by flying parabolic trajectories it can
produce variable low gravity conditions
for as long as 20 seconds in
nineteen-sixty-nine when Neil Armstrong
stepped onto the moon mankind took its
first giant leap in space today
commercial potential offers us the
chance to take the second commercial use
of space is a tremendous opportunity for
the researcher with good ideas and for
the manager who wants his company to be
in a unique market position in the years
ahead but it is an opportunity that can
be lost by a wait-and-see attitude the
decision to go forward is being made by
those managers who are focusing on what
is possible and are willing to explore
new approaches to meeting the
competitive and technical challenges
that lie before them to take the first
step requires courage however the
opportunity to discover something
totally new through microgravity
research occurs only once in all of
human history that time is right now