Over the weekend, the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Center in
Huntsville, Ala., successfully began sending files to the primary and
secondary payload computers on the International Space Station that will
allow science experiments to be controlled on board.
These commands are basically the equivalent of what takes place when a home
computer is "booted up" when first turned on. This will allow the computers
to operate experiments as well as receive, store and transmit science data
throughout the life of the Station.
Two experiments that gave hundreds of students on Earth an opportunity to
participate in research aboard the Station are returning when Space Shuttle
Discovery lands this week.
Expedition One Commander Bill Shepard today activated the last of 21
containers of seeds that will be distributed to fourth through ninth
graders. The Space Exposed Experiment Development, or SEEDS, experiment will
enable students to compare plants grown from space-germinated seeds to
plants grown from seeds that they germinated in their classrooms.
Through the SEEDS program, more than 60,000 tomato seed kits have been
distributed by NASA's Education and Life Sciences Outreach programs to
students around the world. For Expedition One, Shepard also germinated
soybean and corn seeds.
In addition to seeds, Discovery is bringing home hundreds of biological
crystals grown during the last month on the Station. Many of the solutions
used to grow these crystals were prepared by more than 200 students and
teachers from 89 schools in six states: Alabama, California, Florida,
Michigan, Tennessee and Texas.
Since the program began in 1999, students and teachers from 450 schools
across the country have attended workshops where they grew crystals and
learned about biological substances that carry out many important functions
for humans, animals and plants. This hands-on education program is sponsored
by the Biotechnology Program at the Marshall Center.
"We are eager to see our results from this flight to the Space Station,"
said Dr. Alex McPherson, a biochemist at the University of California at
Irvine and the lead scientist for the experiment. "We have some very
important science samples as well as a number of samples prepared by
students. We look forward to analyzing the crystals and are hoping for some
exciting results."
Students will use the Internet to follow McPherson's analysis of their
crystals and compare them to crystals grown in their classrooms. This is the
second flight of the student crystal experiment, and more student crystal
experiments are planned for future delivery to the Station.
One of the main goals of Expedition One was to bring space to the public
through educational programs that reached into the classroom. This is
continuing during Expedition Two with the Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle
School experiment, a remote sensing experiment known as EarthKAM.
Students will use the Internet to control a special digital camera mounted
on the Space Station window. Thousands of students will be photographing
Earth's coastlines, mountains and other geographic features from the unique
vantage points of space.
The EarthKAM team at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and at the
University of California, San Diego, plans to post the photos on a Web site
for viewing by the public.
Editor's Note: The Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages all science research experiments aboard
the International Space Station. The center is also home for coordination of
the mission-planning work of a variety of international sources, all science
payload deliveries and retrieval, and payload training and payload safety
programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.
