Interaction: STS-114 Return to Space

Myers: Hello, and welcome once again to Kennedy Space Centre and another special edition of Interaction. We are here, but Discovery is not; her seven person crew finally lifted off at 14:39 UTC on TUE 26 JUL 2005 and is currently docked to the International Space Station. STS-114 is the first Space Shuttle mission since the loss of Columbia and her crew of seven on SAT 01 FEB 2003. This mission, though, has been dampened by the news that at least one relatively large piece of insulating foam broke off the external tank during this week's launch. Will that keep any more missions from flying this year? And will a recently discovered lubrication problem with one of the ISS's gyroscopes cause more trouble? We'll be talking about these and other issues today, but first let's have the Interaction IQ, the Initial Question. Today it's from Ana in Hamburg, Germany. She asks when the ISS will be back up to three crewmembers. We'll go first to the space correspondent at Ka-Ching TV North America, Ms Gaby Queensland.

Queensland: Well, if they can't stop shedding foam, maybe never.

Myers: A professor of space travel at the University of East West Virginia, Ms Anne Randall.

Randall: Well, we have to ask whether it's really necessary to have three crewmembers on there. Two seem to be able to handle everything okay, and it means if they want to armwrestle, nobody's left out. It also means they can play one on one basketball in microgravity without leaving out anyone, and it means that there's always one of each nationality, American and Russian. It also means that when they get into a disagreement about whether to have the tortillas or the tortillas with dinner, they can settle things with a nice civilised round of tic tac toe rather than... what was I talking about?

Myers: The author of several books about science, including the recent bestseller The Real Mr Neutron, Mr Gerard O'Nully.

O'Nully: I'm not sure when the ISS will have three crewmembers again. It may not be until the CEV is finished, if it is ever finished.

Myers: And the editor of space charity magazine Athena, Mr Wilson Smartley.

Smartley: I hope they can return to three person crews. That means more student experiments.

Myers: And I'm Debbie Myers. I don't know when, and I don't feel comfortable guessing with insufficient information. Well, Wilson, you brought up student experiments, which have been a large part of many previous Space Shuttle missions, including STS-107 two and a half years ago. There are none on board Discovery at the moment, is that right?

Smartley: That's true, Debbie. There are none on board this mission, as the crew is so busy with the supplies for the Station, the TPS inspections, and everything else.

Myers: Do you expect more opportunities for student experiments on future Space Shuttle missions?

Smartley: Not necessarily on the Shuttle, but on the Station, definitely. We're hoping that when we do return to three person crews, one of them will have the time to operate student experiments. As I understand, Professor Randall has a class that is working on one such experiment.

Randall: Yes, one of my classes is preparing a human physiology experiment.

Myers: What does that entail?

Randall: The experiment is about whether listening to Céline Dion in space makes you vomit as it does on Earth. The astronaut will listen to a selection of Dion's albums on Earth before liftoff, and then again during the mission, and we'll note any differences. Currently the students are selecting which of her albums to include in the experiment. They're considering The French Album, Let's Talk About Love, These Are Special Times, One Heart, none of which I've heard, and they've invited me to listen to them many times, but I steadfastly refuse because I don't want to bias their results, nor do I want to listen to them in the first place, since I much prefer Tori Amos, who... what was I talking about?

Myers: You'll get no help from me there. Well, remember that we'll continue to talk about STS-114 for two more weeks, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to get your questions in to us. You can call in, text message, E-mail, fax, snail mail, telegraph, or shout your question to us. So now we'll go to a question by shout, and it's from Vanessa in Rome, NY, USA. Vanessa, are you there?

Vanessa in Rome: [shouting] YES, I'M HERE! HI!

Myers: Hello Vanessa. What is your question?

Vanessa in Rome: WELL, I'M VERY INTERESTED IN SHOUTING, AND I WAS CURIOUS TO KNOW WHETHER –

Someone in Rome: [shouting] HEY, WHAT ARE YOU YELLING ABOUT?

Vanessa in Rome: HEY, PIPE DOWN, LAPATRICE! I'M JUST CALLING IN TO INTERACTION WITH A QUESTION ABOUT THE SPACE SHUTTLE!

LaPatrice in Rome: INTERACTION? IS THAT ON NOW?

Vanessa in Rome: YEAH! I'M ON RIGHT NOW!

LaPatrice in Rome: COOL! WHAT CHANNEL?

Vanessa in Rome: ONE EIGHTY EIGHT!

LaPatrice in Rome: I DON'T GET THAT CHANNEL!

Vanessa in Rome: YOU WANNA COME UP HERE AND WATCH IT WITH ME?

LaPatrice in Rome: SURE! HANG ON A SEC, LET ME GET REGGIE!

Vanessa in Rome: OH YEAH, YOUR SCREAMING LEMUR! I LIKE HIM!

LaPatrice in Rome: YEAH, BUT HE'S BEEN FEELING BAD LATELY! THE OTHER DAY HE TOOK A SHIT ALL OVER MY LIMP BIZKIT CDS!

Vanessa in Rome: SEE, I TOLD YOU YOU SHOULDA RIPPED THEM ALL TO MP3S!

LaPatrice in Rome: YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I'M GOING TO DO WITH ALL THE ONES THAT ARE STILL CLEAN! THE OTHERS ARE A MESS THOUGH! I SWEAR, THEY SMELL LIKE THAT LANDFILL DOWN THE STREET! NO, WAIT, THAT'S NOT COMPLETELY ACCURATE! THEY SMELL MORE LIKE THE PORTABLE TOILETS OUT IN FRONT OF IT! YOU KNOW THE ONES, RIGHT?

Vanessa in Rome: YEAH, THOSE THINGS ARE NASTY! AND USUALLY YOU CAN TELL WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN EATING, TOO! THE OTHER DAY I WENT PAST ONE OF THEM, AND I SWEAR, IT SMELLED JUST LIKE THOSE ROTTEN BURRITOS THAT THEY THREW OUT AFTER –

Myers: Umm... I think we've... um, we've lost our connection with Vanessa there. Yeah, we lost it. But we heard her question. It was, you wanna come up here and watch it with me? Gerard?

O'Nully: Not if that lemur's going to be there.

Myers: All right then. Let's move on to our next question. It's by E-mail from Aki in Niigata, Japan, and she asks if today's tile repair tests were successful. Gaby, how did the spacewalkers, Stephen Robinson and Soichi Noguchi, do today?

Queensland: Hey, you did it again!

Myers: Did what?

Queensland: You think I don't know Robinson and Noguchi's names? You think I have to be clued in every time you talk about the astronauts who are doing EVAs on this mission? Well guess what, I don't! That's right, I'm not as short as I am stupid! Or is it the other way around? I think it's the other way around. I'm not as stupid as I am short. Yeah, that's more like it. So what do you think about that?

[Pause.]

Myers: How about you, Anne?

Randall: What was she talking about?

Myers: Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. Noguchi and Robinson today –

Smartley: My head's pretty too.

Myers: You wish. Noguchi and Robinson applied a couple of different substances to sample heat tiles in Discovery's payload bay, and the samples will be returned to Earth where they'll be examined to see if they can withstand heat as well as undamaged tiles. So we may not know whether they work for some time now. In the meantime, we have time for one last question, and it's an E-mail from Lars in Lexington, KY, USA. Lars wants to know what the highlight of the next week on STS-114 will be. Gerard, on Monday Noguchi and Robinson will be installing the new gyroscope on the Station. Is that the most critical event of next week?

O'Nully: I'd say so. The ISS really needs that new gyroscope, and they'll be installing it on that second EVA.

Smartley: Well, more important than that are the inspections that are still ongoing with the OBSS. Apparently there are still a few trouble spots that they're looking at.

Queensland: Well, don't forget about the supplies that they're loading onto the ISS from the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. They need that stuff.

Randall: The lamp batteries? Come on. That's not anywhere near as important as the gyroscope. Without that gyroscope, they won't be able to maintain their orientation, they won't be able to see what they want, they won't get enough sunlight on the solar arrays, they'll get too much sunlight on the radiators, they'll lose track of which way Earth is, they'll lose their train of thought, just like I just did. What was I talking about?

Smartley: I'm forgetful too.

Myers: That may be, but we won't have time to find out. Thanks to Mr Wilson Smartley, Mr Gerard O'Nully, Ms Anne Randall, and Ms Gaby Queensland for joining us on Interaction this week. We'll meet again here at KSC next week to talk about the progress of STS-114, including efforts to replace the Space Station gyroscopes that we were talking about earlier, the tile inspections, and of course the supply transfer to the ISS. We'll have with us two space columnists, a high school physics teacher, and a cook who makes space food. Till then, good night from Cape Canaveral.

Queensland: And what was with that thing about the lemur? Did they think I don't know what lemur shit smells like?

Smartley: I know the smell of lemur shit too.