STS-58

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission emblem
Mission emblem STS-58
Mission dates
Mission: STS-58
COSPAR-ID : 1993-065A
Crew: 7th
Begin: October 18, 1993, 14:53:10  UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B
Landing: November 1, 1993, 15:05:42 UTC
Landing place: Edwards Air Force Base , Runway 22
Flight duration: 14d 0h 12m 32s
Earth orbits: 225
Rotation time : 90.3 min
Orbit inclination : 39.0 °
Apogee : 294 km
Perigee : 284 km
Covered track: 9.2 million km
Payload: Spacelab
Team photo
v. l. No. Back: John Blaha, William S. McArthur, Martin Fettman Front: David Wolf, Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Richard Searfoss
v. l. No. Back: John Blaha, William S. McArthur, Martin Fettman
Front: David Wolf, Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Richard Searfoss
◄ Before / After ►
STS-51 STS-61

STS-58 ( english S pace T ransportation S ystem) is a mission designation for the US Space Shuttle Columbia ( OV -102) of NASA . The launch took place on October 18, 1993. It was the 58th space shuttle mission and the 15th flight of the Columbia space shuttle.

team

Main team

replacement

Mission overview

STS-58 was the longest shuttle flight, surpassing the previous year's STS-50 record by more than four and a half hours, and the fourth longest mission in the history of US manned spaceflight (only the three Skylab flights were longer).

The aim of the second SLS ( Spacelab Life Sciences) mission was to investigate the effects of weightlessness on the human body. The focus of the experiments was on the effects on the coronary arteries, the neurovestibular system and the musculoskeletal system of the human body.

In addition to the crew of the Columbia , the experiments were also carried out on test animals. There were 48 male, white laboratory rats on board. Six of the animals were killed during the mission and then tissue samples were taken for the first time during a space flight.

The team members also carried out experiments on bone tissue loss as the effect of weightlessness on the human body. In addition, the space sickness and the associated loss of orientation were examined. The astronauts Lucid and Fettman wore an apparatus on their bodies that continuously recorded every movement of the body during the day.

Together with the data already collected in June 1991 on the SLS-1 mission , the tests during the STS-58 mission produced the most detailed and extensive physiological measurement results since the Skylab program from 1973 and 1974.

Preparations

The space shuttle Columbia last carried out the second German Spacelab mission D-2. The STS-55 ran out after ten days on May 6, 1993 at Edwards Air Force Base , California. A week later, she started her journey home to Florida for several days on the back of a converted Boeing 747 ( Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ). As of May 15, the space shuttle was prepared for STS-58 in the OPF hangar (Orbiter Processing Facility) at the Kennedy Space Center . The transfer to the Vehicle Assembly Building took place on August 11th . There the orbiter was connected to the external tank and the two solid rocket rockets two days later . Just five days after the start of STS-51 , the ferry was transported to launch pad 39B on September 17.

Mission history

At the beginning of 1993, NASA had planned the STS-58 mission for August. Due to the mandatory delays, NASA then targeted September 10th. The postponement of take-off on STS-51, the previous flight, ultimately meant that STS-58 could not begin until October 1993.

Start of Columbia

Due to the failure of a computer that explodes the solid rocket in an emergency, the first attempt at launch had to be canceled on October 14, 1993 after bad weather had already forced the countdown to stop for two hours. The next day, a defective S-band transponder in Columbia caused the start to be aborted. The replacement of the electronics unit and necessary maintenance work on the experiments meant that the next attempt could only be made three days later. The take-off took place on October 18, ten seconds later than planned, because the countdown was stopped at this time when an aircraft passed through the restricted airspace.

The crew not only carried out experiments, but were also involved in some - as "guinea pigs". For example, mission specialist Rhea Seddon and payload expert Martin Fettman (the first veterinarian in space) wore cardiac catheters to monitor the heart's adjustment and pumping performance during the launch phase and the first few hours in orbit. Because the start was postponed for several days, the two medics ran around with the tubes in their veins for days so that they did not have to re-insert the catheters every time. Only at the end of the first day on board did they remove the probes.

On the second day of the flight (October 19), the power supply in an experiment cabinet went out for around twenty minutes. This little incident caused no problems for the rats housed in it. According to the astronauts, all of the rodents felt fine.

On October 20, Bill McArthur and John Blaha donned LBNP "vacuum pants". The Lower Body Negative Pressure Countermeasures used a type of sack into which the astronaut slipped his legs. The sack was closed at the hip and negative pressure was created in it. This resulted in a fluid shift in the body that corresponds to the conditions on the earth's surface. The experiment investigated whether this is a suitable measure in preparation for the stresses during re-entry.

On the way to the sleeping cabins, at the end of the third day of flight (October 20), the crew discovered a minor leak on a filter in the on-board toilet. At first it was thought of a defect in the toilet, but this was not confirmed. Commander Blaha and Mission Specialist McArthur then removed the odor filter and absorbed about a teaspoon of liquid. As a countermeasure, a second water separator was activated to remove additional humidity from the cabin air.

In order to research the human metabolism , the crew members collected urine and saliva samples during the mission and kept records of the exercises they carried out as well as the food and fluid intake. The scientists wanted to gain a better understanding of the body's energy consumption during long-term stays in space.

Another research focus was the equilibrium organ , which is located in vertebrates' inner ear. The researchers wanted to find out how the vestibular apparatus adapts to weightlessness. This is a decisive factor in manned space travel because no other physiological changes have a greater impact on the astronaut's condition at the beginning of a space flight. Part of this experiment was the killing of six rats whose inner ears had been dissected on the ground by Martin Fettman and Rhea Seddon for later examination.

On October 21 (fourth day of flight) the mission specialist Rhea Seddon, who is responsible for payload operations, her colleagues David Wolf and Shannon Lucid and payload specialist Marty Fettman submitted further blood and urine samples for further experiments on human metabolism under weightlessness. The samples complemented the tests on calcium intake from the previous day. Dr. Claude Arnaud from the University of California researched the mineral loss of the body during space flight and investigated the question of how calcium is processed in the metabolism of bone structure. The research results of the SLS-1 mission from 1991 had shown that the bone-degrading cells ( osteoclasts ) are more active in weightlessness than the osteoblasts responsible for their structure . On this flight, Dr. Arnaud know what influence vitamin D and hormones of the parathyroid gland have on calcium loss in bones.

On the fifth Mission Day (October 22) said, Blaha and Searfoss on the SAREX - Amateur radio equipment (Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment) with students of a middle school in Tennessee and an elementary school in Texas . Shuttle pilot Searfoss also tried out the possibility of removing a module from a Spacelab experiment cabinet (standard interface rack) and inserting it in another without outside help.

So that the pilots of a space shuttle on long-term flights do not lose their trained skills to land the ship at the end of the mission, a simulation computer was tested for the first time at STS-58. The PILOT laptop (Pilot Inflight Landing Operations Trainer) was equipped with a joystick that resembled the orbiter's control stick. The software that was installed was the parts relevant for re-entry, which are also used on the shuttle simulator. PILOT should prove to serve as an aid for the commander and pilot when landing the shuttle after a long space flight.

October 23rd was "Rat Day". Four astronauts, led by two medical doctors Martin Fettman and Rhea Seddon, took blood from some of the rodents. The 48 laboratory rats were housed in two RAHF (Research Animal Holding Facility) cabinets developed by the Ames Research Center . Each rack contained twelve cages, each of which offered space for two rats (weighing a maximum of 400 grams each).

As part of the OARE test (Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment), the two shuttle pilots changed the flight position of the space shuttle several times on the tenth day of flight (October 27). OARE determined the aerodynamic loads that act on the orbiter during flight and in the early re-entry phase. The accelerometers used so far were calibrated in laboratories on earth and could therefore lead to inaccurate results. The OARE sensor, which was housed in a small box in the hold, calibrated itself during the flight.

Rhea Seddon set a personal record on October 28th: ​​her husband, then astronaut chief Robert Gibson, had spent a total of 633 hours in orbit with four flights. Seddon surpassed this family best in the course of the eleventh day of flight.

During the flight, the crew was able to rest for a few hours on two days (fifth and eleventh day on board). These leisure activities were therefore built into the tight work plan in order to get clean results. Tired and stressed astronauts make mistakes and can thus negatively affect the series of experiments.

During the last full working day (October 30), Martin Fettman and Rhea Seddon had to kill and dissect at least five rats. Because the two scientists worked very concentrated, they had the time to guillotine a sixth specimen . Six inner ear samples could be taken within seven hours. It was only through the preservation during the flight, which had not been carried out before, that it was possible to determine how the animal's organ of equilibrium had adapted to weightlessness.

Columbia is about to land

On November 1, 1993, Columbia returned to Earth. After the final experiments had been completed, the Spacelab laboratory had been switched off and everything necessary (including over 650 samples) had been stowed away, the two cargo hold doors were closed four hours before landing. The re-entry was initiated with the braking maneuver at 14:05 UTC. Exactly one hour later, after 14 days in Earth orbit, the orbiter touched down on concrete runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California . A week later, the orbiter was transported back to the Kennedy Space Center on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Mission specialist Shannon Lucid had spent a total of 838 hours in orbit on her fourth space flight, longer than any woman before her in a spaceship.

See also

Web links

Commons : STS-58  - album with pictures, videos and audio files