page_title: STS-62
section_title: Day 3
hierarchical_section_title: STS-62 / Mission highlights / Day 3
caption_attribution_description: English: Atomic oxygen lights up the tail of Columbia, STS-62.
context_page_description: STS-62 was a Space Shuttle program mission flown aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The primary payloads were the USMP-02 microgravity experiments package and the OAST-2 engineering and technology payload, both in the orbiter's cargo bay. The two-week mission also featured a number of biomedical experiments focusing on the effects of long duration spaceflight. The landing was chronicled by the 1994 Discovery Channel special about the Space Shuttle program and served as the show's opening. A C.F. Martin backpacker guitar was also flown aboard Columbia during the mission.
context_section_description: On Flight Day Three (Sunday, March 6), following a morning of medical studies, the crew spent the last half of the day exercising and continuing to study the behavior of a space station truss model in weightlessness. Pilot Allen and mission specialists Ivins and Gemar each took a turn on a stationary bicycle mounted in Columbia's middeck. The stationary bike had long been a staple of shuttle flights to allow exercise that countered the effect of weightlessness on the muscles. The bike aboard Columbia, however, featured a new mounting system of shock-absorbing springs that was evaluated as a method of keeping vibrations from exercise, which could disturb sensitive experiments, to a minimum.
  Also, Gemar set up a model of a scaffold-like truss structure that could be applied to a future space station design in the lower deck. The model, linked to sensitive recorders in a shuttle locker, was used to determine the characteristics of such structures in orbit. The model and its reactions were studied in several different configurations during the day.
  Other activities for the crew included photography of the glow created as the orbiter's outer skin interacted with atomic oxygen in orbit, and continued monitoring of protein crystal growth experiments in the cabin.
  Although not highly visible except to the Earth-bound scientists watching over them, Columbia's wide assortment of external payloads continued their investigations throughout the day. The second United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-2) experiments continued to produce a wealth of data for scientists on the ground.
  The Critical Fluid Light Scattering Experiment, or ZENO, science team reported that they expected to locate the critical temperature of xenon at "any time." Team members closely watched computer data traces which indicate their experiment was very near the critical temperature—the goal of a lengthy, methodical "sensitive" search process. This was a more precise search for the critical temperature after its location had been determined within a narrow band. Once the temperature was located, the team spent nearly 24 hours taking a good look at the phenomenon they waited years to see. They studied the properties of xenon at its critical point, taking subtle optical measurements in the region surrounding it. A fluid's "critical point" occurs at a condition of temperature and pressure where the fluid is simultaneously a gas and a liquid. By understanding how matter behaves at the critical point, scientists hope to gain a better insight into a variety of physics problems ranging from phase changes in fluids to changes in the composition and magnetic properties of solids.
  The Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) continued to measure the microgravity environment on the USMP-2 carrier in support of the four other experiments on board. The SAMS team began sending results of their data collection during various orbiter activities to the crew, as they were interested in how they could minimize their influence on the microgravity environment. Measurements were made with the system at specific times when microgravity disturbances were caused by events such as crew exercise and movement of the orbiter's Kᵤ-band antenna. Such observations also collected "signatures" which the team were able to easily identify in future data.
  A related system, the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), was managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center. It was useful on missions such as USMP-2 where it was important to accurately characterize a wide variety of disturbances in the microgravity environment. Working closely with SAMS, the OARE recorded any low-frequency activity such as the orbiter's friction with the rarefied upper atmosphere. SAMS was most suitable for recording higher-frequency activity such as crew exercise.
  The Isothermal Dendritic Growth Experiment (IDGE) continued to assemble data to test theories concerning the effect of gravity-driven fluid flows on dendritic solidification of molten materials. Upon completion of its first phase of pre-programmed operations
caption: Shuttle glow phenomena lights up the orbiter's tail.
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