TRADUZA

Shuttle crew performs 81 microgravity tests

Richard Seltzer

During the just concluded flight of space shuttle Columbia, astronauts Leroy Chiao and Donald A. Thomas performed experiments in the pressurized International Microgravity Laboratory-2 (IML-2) module. Chiao, 33, who holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, used a centrifuge, while Thomas, 39, who has a doctorate in materials science, prepared samples in a glovebox. Columbia spent almost 15 days in Earth’s orbit, surpassing the previous longevity record for space shuttle flights by about 18 hours. The seven-member international crew, which included a female Japanese physician, carried out 81 experiments on the effects of microgravity - about half in materials science and half in life sciences - designed by some 200 scientists from 13 nations. While still too early for even preliminary results, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration calls it a "very successful mission." Technical glitches meant not all runs could be made for a few experiments, but only one experiment had to be scratched completely: an examination of electrohydrodynamic effects in a suspension of latex particles using continuous-flow electrophoresis. IML-2 also carried a menagerie that included newts, fish, slime mold, jellyfish, sea urchins, fruit flies, frog eggs, and other unicellular and multicellular organisms to test how living organisms react and adapt to reduced gravity. Media headlines focused on the death oftwo newts, but NASA says no experiments were spoiled or lost as a result.

August, 1994, C&EN, p.7