Tag: ULA

OA-6 Regolith and Saffire Payload Experiments

Regolith and Saffire Payload Experiments

The regolith experiment called Strata-1 onboard the OA-6 Cygnus Spaceship will run for a year on the International Space Station and will examine how particles behave in space. We often imagine a big comet or asteroid as being a solid chunk of rock or ice, however that may be not the case. Several tubes of materials that might simulate particles on a low gravity celestial body (like an asteroid, comet, or small moon like Phobos) will be allowed to interact, clump, settle, break apart, and generally respond to the microgravity and acceleration/deceleration of the International Space Station. Personally I think this is one of the most important experiments of this mission because landing on or deflecting an Earth bound asteroid depends on understanding how it will interact with a spaceship from Earth. We don’t have to go back to the time of the dinosaurs to discuss impacts in our solar system. On Earth the recent Feb 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, the 1908 Tunguska Event, and the July 1994 Jovian impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 act as warnings that we may someday need to visit and deflect a comet or asteroid in deep space.

An asteroid might look “solid” in a radar image but in reality it might be millions or billions of individual particles held loosely together. A spacecraft attempting to land on it might stir up the surface regolith particles and create a beehive like mess. Strat-1 will help us better understand how those particles might settle or interact with an approaching spacecraft.

University of Central Florida picture of Strata-1
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This experiment also links the Swamp Works visit in that if we are mining regolith to make pavers or heat shields on Phobos or some other celestial body, we had better understand how the dust the mining robots kick up will behave.

For more information visit:

http://physics.cos.ucf.edu/microgravity/flight-projects/strata-1/

The only OA-6 Mission Experiment that will take place entirely on the S.S. Rick Husband Cygnus Spacecraft is the Saffire Experiment and will be the largest man made fire in space. After the spaceship is undocked it will maneuver away (unmanned) from the International Space Station and then conduct the fire experiment. After the experiment is complete it will reenter the atmosphere and harmlessly break up over the Pacific. Fire in space is something that immediately strikes emotions because of the Apollo 1 disaster that killed three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Although small fire experiments have been conducted in the past, this experiment will use a much larger piece of material. Hopefully Saffire will provide a better understanding on how a space fire will propagate, how the gases and particulates will behave, and develop better safety procedures on the ISS. The experiment was designed to stay on board Cygnus Spacecraft to not only minimize danger to the ISS but to also eliminate the need to “clean up” after the experiment is over. Below is a picture of the Saffire experimental box and a short video on burning droplets of fuel in space.

Figure of the Saffire Experiment from Space.com
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NASA Johnson liquid fuel fire in space video:

Gecko Grippers and Biological Diversity on NASA Grounds

Gecko inspired OA-6 Mission Experiment and Biological Diversity on Kennedy Space Center Grounds:

Last week I was invited by NASA to get a behind the scenes look at current NASA projects and watch the March 22nd launch of the OA-6 spacecraft and rocket to the International Space Station. One of the payloads on board the OA-6 Cygnus spacecraft was a relatively new invention/concept called a Gecko Gripper. In space astronauts often use Velcro to stick instruments and items to surfaces, however these have several limitations. Velcro can release small inhalable dust particles (dust is always a problem in the microgravity of space) and you also need to have a mating surface application. The Gecko Grippers create directional stickiness where adhesion can be turned on and off without leaving a residue or mating surface and do not create any dust particles. Aaron Parness of NASA’s JPL lab explained that gecko’s fingers are not sticky but they use microscopic hairs that have a tremendous surface area when pressed against a smooth surface. Van der Waals forces then allow the gecko to walk up a wall and appear to “stick” to a ceiling. Van der Waals forces are very weak, but because there are so many tiny hairs, the addition of all those individual weak forces add up and provide pretty impressive sticking power. The Gecko Grippers attempt to recreate this amazing tool for adhesion that mother nature has made through millions of years of evolution. In addition to allowing astronauts to move and easily mount objects in microgravity, Aaron Parness hopes this technology will allow small robots to walk or stick to the outside of the space station and perform continuous inspections evaluating micrometeorite damage and structure anomalies.

This technology can also be used in many products on Earth, for example you could mount a flat screen tv to a wall just by pressing it onto the position you want it. If you want to move it later no problem, just unstick it and there will be no residue on the wall. I wish my cell phone case had this as my cats would have a much more difficult time lopping it off of a table. Picture frames, lights, blinds, curtains, the possibilities are endless! Gecko Grippers have limitations as they work best on smooth surfaces, researchers at NASA’s JPL facility are also working on devices that use microscopic hooks, spines and claws to scale or adhere to rougher surfaces.

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Aaron Parness with Grippers

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Microscope view of gecko foot hairs.

For more information visit this site below and watch Aaron Parness discuss and demonstrate this amazing gecko inspired technology.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4688

I found it fitting that a payload bound for the International Space Station had such a clear link between biology and cutting edge science because of the coexistence of the space industry and nature has on the Kennedy Space Center grounds. Because I arrived a day early I was able to explore the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge which surrounds the Kennedy Space Center. I was amazed by the biological diversity and healthy ecosystems I was easily able to observe. During my tours of the NASA facilities they explained how they take ecosystem preservation very seriously. We even saw areas that just last week were subjected to controlled burns to help Florida’s Scrub Jay population. Scrub Jays need areas of oak trees adjacent to more open areas. Fire prevention over decades has caused the open areas to regrow which in turn hurts the Jay populations. By controlled burning portions of the Cape it helps preserve the natural ecosystem in which the Scrub Jay populations rely on. I was fascinated by the wildlife and was able to take the following pictures in just a few hours of exploring around the Kennedy Space Center grounds. The relationship NASA has with nature is truly a model that all industry should strive to attain.

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