Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                      June 29, 1989


RELEASE:  89-104

NASA SELECTS SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR SPACE STATION FREEDOM

     NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications today 
announced the selection of 27 flight experiments, or concept 
studies leading to experiments, that will fly aboard the Space 
Station Freedom.

     The selections fall into two categories.  The flight 
category is for attached scientific experiments that can be 
mounted aboard elements of Freedom's structure during its 
assembly and outfitting phase.  The 14 investigations selected in 
this category will be the first performed aboard Freedom.  Flight 
proposals were solicited that would be limited in weight and make 
only modest demands on station resources, such as power, cooling 
and crew availability, during the busy assembly phase.

     The concept study category is for studies that may lead to 
flight experiments after the assembly phase.  These proposals 
were solicited for more advanced ideas that could be implemented 
after station assembly when additional resources, such as higher 
power and data-handling capabilities, will be available.

     Some of the 14 flight experiments and 13 concept studies 
call upon two facilities the Office of Space Science and 
Applications has indicated would be built for Freedom.  These are 
Astromag, a cryogenically-cooled superconducting electromagnet to 
measure cosmic rays, and the Cosmic Dust Collection Facility, 
which will capture and record the direction and velocity of 
cosmic dust particles for further analysis.

     The 27 selections were made from responses to two NASA 
announcements of opportunity issued in 1988.  The first, issued 
in January, was for the Earth Observing System (EOS) and 
solicited proposals for both the unmanned NASA Polar Orbiting 
Platform and the permanently manned Space Station Freedom.  The 
second was issued in July and was specifically for scientific and 
technological payloads in other scientific disciplines to be 
attached to Freedom.  Eight of the nine Earth science 
investigations selected as attached payloads involve copies of 
EOS Polar Platform instruments.

     The investigations include participants from about 50 
organizations representing NASA and other government and private 
research centers, U.S. universities and five foreign countries.  
The selected experiments and concepts represent a wide range of 
scientific disciplines including space physics, solar and 
planetary physics, exobiology, astrophysics, Earth and 
environmental science and communications technology.  They 
involve nearly 130 scientists.

     Selection of the flight experiments was predicated on their 
ability to meet a timetable for the design, development and 
assembly of Freedom elements.  The earliest expected flight date 
for any of the experiments is 1996.  The Freedom Station will 
provide physical attachment points, power, cooling, data 
communications and pointing for certain instruments.

     The Attached Payload Program is managed by the Office of 
Space Science and Applications, Flight Systems Division.  Program 
manager is Dr. Philip J. Cressy, and program scientist is Dr. 
Stanley C. Freden, both at NASA Headquarters.

     The following individuals have been selected for funding for 
experiments and concept studies in response to the January 1988 
announcement:

Dr. Robert M. Walker, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, 
Washington University, St. Louis, Cosmic Dust Experiment, flight 
experiment.

Dr. Michael Fitzmaurice, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 
Md., Laser Communications Transceiver, flight experiment.

Dr. Paul Gorenstein, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 
Cambridge, Mass., Large Area Modular Array of Reflectors/High 
Throughput X-Ray Astronomy Instrument, flight experiment.

Dr. Thomas A. Parnell, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, 
Ala., Spectra, Composition and Interactions of Nuclei above 10 
TeV, Astromag experiment, flight experiment.

Dr. Jonathan F. Ormes, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 
Md., Large Isotope Spectrometer for Astromag, flight experiment.

Dr. Glenn C. Carle, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 
Exobiology Intact Capture Experiment, flight experiment.

Dr. Siegfried Auer, Applied Research Corporation, Landover, Md., 
Cosmic Dust Orbit and Capture Experiment, flight experiment.

Dr. Robert L. Golden, Particle Astrophysics Laboratory, New 
Mexico State University, Las Cruces, Measurement of Cosmic Rays 
including Anti-protons, Positrons, Anti-nuclei and a Search for 
Primordial Antimatter, Astromag experiment, flight experiment.

Dr. Arthur B. Walker, Jr., Center for Space Science and 
Astrophysics, Stanford University, Calif., Ultra-High Resolution 
XUV Spectroheliograph, flight experiment.

Dr. W. T. Sanders, Space Science and Engineering Center, 
University of Wisconsin at Madison, X-ray Background Survey 
Spectrometer, flight experiment.

Dr. Peter B. Price, Space Science Laboratory, University of 
California at Berkeley, Heavy Nucleus Collector, flight 
experiment.

Dr. Peter M. Banks, STAR Laboratory, Department of Electrical 
Engineering, Stanford University, Calif., Plasma Interactions 
Experiment, concept study.

Dr. Michael Shao, Optical Sciences and Applications Section, Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Orbiting Stellar 
Interferometer, concept study.

Dr. Robert D. Reasenberg, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 
Cambridge, Mass., Precision Optical Interferometry in Space 
Study, concept study.

Dr. Jonathan E. Grindlay, Harvard College Observatory, Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., Energetic 
X-ray Observatory for Space Station, concept study.

Dr. Robert L. Brown, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 
Charlottesville, Va., High-Resolution Imaging Spectroscopy at 
Tera Hertz Frequencies, concept study.

Dr. Hugh S. Hudson, Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 
University of California, San Diego, Pinhole/Occulter Facility, 
concept study.

Dr. Guy Fogleman, SETI Institute, Ames Research Center, Moffett 
Field, Calif., Study to Develop an Active Collector of Cosmic 
Dust, concept study.


The following investigators were selected from responses to the 
July 1988 announcement:

Dr. M. Patrick McCormick, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., 
Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III, flight experiment.

Dr. Hugh Christian, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, 
Ala., Lightning Imaging Sensor, flight experiment.

Dr. Bruce Barkstrom, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., 
Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System, flight experiment.

Dr. William L. Barnes, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 
Md., Tropical Region Imaging Spectrometer, concept study.

Dr. Michael H. Freilach, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 
Calif., Advanced Scatterometer for Studies in Meteorology and 
Oceanography, concept study.

Dr. Tiruvalam Krishnamurti, Florida State University, 
Tallahassee, an experiment similar to the Laser Atmospheric Wind 
Sounder, one of six facility instruments included in the Polar 
Platform proposal, concept study.

Dr. William G. Melbourne, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 
Calif., Global Positioning System Geoscience Instrument, concept 
study.

Dr. Gerald R. North, Texas A&M University, College Station, 
Tropical Rain Mapping Radar, concept study.

Dr. Roy Spencer, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., 
Tropical Geophysical Information Retrieval with a High Resolution 
Microwave Spectrometer Sounder, concept study.