STS-107 MCC Status Report #09; Thursday, January 23, 2003 - 5:00 p.m. CST

...Highlighting the investigations today for both the Blue and Red Teams were the SOFBALL (Structures of Flame Balls) and ARMS (Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System) experiments, although both teams continued to support other experiments with a variety of activities.

Mission Specialists Michael Anderson (right) of the Blue Team and Kalpana Chawla of the Red Team initiated runs with the SOFBALL experiment, which is creating tiny ball-shaped flames using hydrogen as the fuel. The tiny flames, which are approaching some of the leanest and longest-lasting ever, are invisible to the human eye but visible to the crew and investigators on the ground through special video equipment. Dr. Paul Ronney of the University of Southern California and his team hope to discover new properties about combustion to improve engine efficiency and fire safety, as well as reduce emissions.

Mission Specialist Dave Brown of the Blue Team and Israeli Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Red Team concentrated on the Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System. The European Space Agency experiment alternated experiments targeting the human lung and circulatory system and the human muscular system as it looked at changes brought on by weightlessness.

Commander Rick Husband (below, with Clark), leader of the Red Team, and Pilot Willie McCool, leader of the Blue Team, adjusted Columbia’s attitude relative to the Earth to support the different requirements of the experiments. They continued to manage the temperature inside the Spacehab Research Double Module in the wake of problems incurred with cooling systems.

Red Team Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, a medical doctor, worked with the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which is growing tissue samples as part of a prostate cancer study. She also beamed down data from the Astroculture experiment growing roses and rice flowers for commercial fragrance development. Clark also worked with bacteria and yeast cultures being grown as part of a Microbial Physiology Flight Experiment that looks at the effect of microgravity on antibiotics.

In honor of the combustion experiments on this flight, the Blue Team’s wake-up call this afternoon was “Burning Down the House,” by the Talking Heads...

STS-107 MCC Status Report #10; Friday, January 24, 2003 -- 5 p.m.

...Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (below) of the Red Team began their workday about 5 a.m. CST, focusing again on work with the SOFBALL (Structures of Flame Balls) experiment and the ARMS (Advanced Respiratory Monitoring System) human physiology experiment. Husband maneuvered Columbia into the proper positions for the various experiments...

The study of spiral moss growth in space completed a set of time-critical fixations on several sets of moss plants, so that their growth rates can be established after the flight. Four more fixations are planned. The Astroculture experiment harvested the last of its six samples of essential oils from rose and rice flowers, which could eventually result in new perfume fragrances. Checks of all of the insects, spiders and animals aboard Columbia showed that all are healthy in their enclosures.

STS-107 MCC Status Report #11; Saturday, January 25, 2003 - 5:00 p.m. CST

Space shuttle Columbia’s astronauts completed an experiment studying the activity of bone cells in microgravity and began final tests with a technology demonstration designed to investigate the behavior of capillary-pumped loops in space as the 16-day international science mission completed Flight Day 10...

Clark completed operations with the OSTEO (Osteoporosis Experiment in Orbit) investigation for STS-107. The experiment studied the activity of bone cells in microgravity by looking at normal activity and activity under the influence of various drugs. Clark also continued work on the Bioreactor Demonstration System, which is using the NASA-developed bioreactor to grow prostate cancer tissues. The objective is to learn how the cancer spreads into bones and aid in the development of future treatment methods. She also worked on a study of how bacteria and yeast develop in space and how microgravity affects their response to antibiotics.

Investigations with the Combined Two-Phase Loop Experiment were begun using a third cooling loop...

FMI: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov