TSS-1R/USMP-3 Public Affairs Status Report #18
6:00 a.m. CST, March 5, 1996
11/15:42 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center


Along with yesterday's decision to extend the third United States 
Microgravity Laboratory (USMP-3) mission by one day to enhance 
science return, the space science network also expanded with an 
historic first for microgravity science.  "This is the first time 
a principal investigator has commanded a microgravity science 
instrument on the Space Shuttle from his home institution -- a 
U.S. college campus," USMP-3 Program Scientist Dr. Steve Davison 
reported, referring to the remote commanding of the Isothermal 
Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE).

Dr. Martin Glicksman, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
(RPI) in Troy, N.Y., has the distinction of being that principal 
investigator.  Around 9:10 a.m. CST, one of Dr. Glicksman's team 
members, who joined him from the NASA Lewis Research Center, sent 
a command to their experiment in Columbia's cargo bay.  That step 
began a third science phase for the dendrites research team, to 
continue studying how metal alloys solidify free from the 
convective flows caused by Earth's gravity.

Throughout the mission, the Rensselaer Operations Control Center 
crew has been working hand-in-hand with their counterparts at the 
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Spacelab Mission Operations 
Control to analyze data produced by the IDGE experiment.  Now, 
with RPI in the driver's seat, the results of their first growth 
cycle became clear, as the first dendrite of this operational 
phase emerged in record time.  The characteristics of these 
microscopic crystals help determine the strength and flexibility 
of products such as automobile engine blocks and jet engine 
turbine blades. The ultimate goal of the IDGE investigation is to 
improve ground-based materials processing for metals ranging from 
aluminum to steel.

Another collaborative effort between NASA centers is the Advanced 
Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (AADSF) 
investigation.  AADSF brings together a sophisticated Marshall-
developed furnace for growing semiconductor materials and a 
science team under the direction of Principal Investigator Dr. 
Archie Fripp of NASA's Langley Research Center.

The three delicate lead-tin-telluride crystals that have been 
successfully grown by AADSF during this mission are slated for 
microscopic study when the samples are returned to Earth.  
Referring to the detailed science support provided by the Spacelab 
Mission Operations Control cadre, Dr. Fripp commented that his 
experiment performed "flawlessly."  "The pilot and crew put the 
Shuttle in the proper attitudes required for sample processing and 
held them there," Fripp said.  Monday afternoon, the high-
temperature AADSF furnace was cooled and prepared for landing on 
Friday.

The Critical Fluid Light Scattering Experiment, known as Zeno, 
also shows the value of cooperation between NASA, academia and 
industry.  Under the direction of Dr. Robert Gammon of the 
University of Maryland in College Park, the Zeno team includes 
members of NASA's Lewis Research Center and Ball Aerospace.  As 
his research team moves to within millionths of a degree of the 
point where the xenon sample will exist simultaneously as a liquid 
and a gas, known as the critical point, Dr. Gammon also 
complimented the work of the Spacelab Mission Operations Control 
cadre.  This special operations team works with the orbiter crew 
to put the Shuttle in the best possible position for the USMP-3 
microgravity experiments.  The basic science questions that the 
Zeno investigation seeks to answer could improve chemical 
engineering processes ranging from applying special paints to 
handling toxic waste.

The MEPHISTO investigation brings together nations working toward 
a common goal, with their French Space Agency center in Toulouse, 
France, and their NASA teams at the Marshall Center and the 
University of Alabama in Huntsville all gathering data about 
crystal solidification.  "Most of the materials we use are formed 
by solidification," explained MEPHISTO principal investigator Dr. 
Jean-Jacques Favier.  "This is true for semiconductors as well as 
high-strength alloys."  The Information Age has linked people from 
around the world, and research conducted by the international 
MEPHISTO team could lead to faster computers and more versatile 
metals.

In the next 24 hours, combustion experiments in the Middeck 
Glovebox will continue gathering more science than originally 
planned, as crew members burn additional samples for the Radiative 
Ignition and Transition to Spread Investigation.  The Marshall-
managed Glovebox experiments are contributed by NASA's Lewis 
Research Center and the National Institute for Standards and 
Testing.  Meanwhile, the MEPHISTO team plans to speed up one of 
their furnace's solidification cycles to coincide with a Shuttle 
thruster firing to monitor its effect on their sample.

Status reports are issued from Marshall Space Flight Center's Spacelab Mission 
Operations Control at 
6 a.m.; and from Johnson Space Center's Mission Control at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.  
For additional information, see the USMP-3 payload Internet homepage at 
http://liftoff.msfc. nasa.gov/sts-75/usmp-3/usmp-3.html,  the TSS-1R 
payload Internet homepage at http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/sts-75/tss-
1r/tss-1r.html and the STS-75 Shuttle Mission Internet homepage at 
http://www.ksc.nasa. gov/shuttle/missions/sts-75/mission-sts-
75.html or at http://shuttle.nasa.gov.  Tethered satellite sighting 
opportunities may be found at: 
http://shuttle.nasa.gov/sts75/orbit/orbiter/ 
sighting/shuttle.html#tss.