Social, Cultural and Educational Legacies - ER - NASA

Social,Cultural, andEducationalLegaciesNASA Reflects America’sChanging Opportunities;NASA Impacts US CultureEducation: InspiringStudents as Only NASA CanSocial, Cultural, and Educational Legacies459

NASA ReflectsAmerica’sChangingOpportunities;NASA ImpactsUS CultureJennifer Ross-NazzalShannon LucidHelen LaneThe Space Shuttle, which began flying in 1981 and ushered in an entirelynew human spaceflight program, was a watershed for cultural diversitywithin NASA and had substantial cultural impact outside the realm ofspaceflight. In the 1950s and 1960s, opportunities for American womenand minorities were limited as they were often segregated into pinkcollar and menial jobs. NASA’s female and minority employees facedsimilar obstacles. The Space Shuttle Program opened up opportunitiesfor these groups—opportunities that did not exist during ProjectsMercury and Gemini or the Apollo and Skylab Programs. NASA’stransformation was a direct consequence of a convergence of eventsthat happened in the 1960s and 1970s and continued through thefollowing 3 decades. These included: public policy changes institutedon the national level; the development of a spacecraft whose physicalcapabilities departed radically from the capsule concept; and anincrease in the number of women and minorities holding degrees inthe fields of science and engineering, making them attractive candidatesfor the space agency’s workforce. Over the course of the program,the agency’s demographics reflected this transformation: women andminorities were incorporated into the Astronaut Corps and otherprominent technical and administrative positions.The impact of NASA’s longest-running program extends beyond thesedramatic changes. Today, the shuttle—the crown jewel of NASA’sspaceflight programs—symbolizes human spaceflight and is featured inadvertisements, television programs, and movies. Its image exemplifiesAmerica’s scientific and economic power and encourages dreamers.460Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Social Impact—NASAReflects America’sChanging OpportunitiesBefore the Space Shuttle wasconceived, the aerospace industry,NASA employees, and universityresearchers worked furiously on earlyhuman spaceflight programs to achievePresident John Kennedy’s goal oflanding a man on the moon by the endof the 1960s. Although these programsemployed thousands of personnelacross the United States, White menoverwhelmingly composed theaerospace field at that time, and veryfew women and minorities worked asengineers or scientists on this project.When they did work at one of NASA’scenters, women overwhelmingly servedin clerical positions and minoritiesaccepted low-paying, menial jobs.Few held management or professionalpositions, and none were in theAstronaut Corps, even though fourwomen had applied for the 1965astronaut class. By the end of thedecade, NASA offered few positionsto qualified minorities and women.Only eight Blacks at Marshall SpaceFlight Center in Alabama heldprofessional-rated positions whilethe Manned Spacecraft Center(currently known as Johnson SpaceCenter) in Texas had 21, and KennedySpace Center in Florida had only five.Signs of change appeared on thehorizon as federal legislation addressedmany of the inequalities faced bywomen and minorities in the workplace.During the Kennedy years, the presidentordered the chairman of the US CivilService Commission to ensure thefederal government offered positionsnot on the basis of sex but, rather, onmerit. Later, he signed into law theEqual Pay Act of 1963, making itillegal for employers to pay womenlower wages than those paid to men fordoing the same work. President LyndonJohnson signed the Civil Rights Act of1964, which prohibited employmentdiscrimination (hiring, promoting, orfiring) on the basis of race, sex, color,religion, or national origin. Title VIIof the Act established the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission,which executed the law. The EqualEmployment Opportunity Act of 1972strengthened the commission andexpanded its jurisdiction to local, state,and federal governments duringPresident Richard Nixon’sadministration. The law also requiredfederal agencies to implementaffirmative action programs to addressissues of inequality in hiring andpromotion practices.One year earlier, NASA appointedRuth Bates Harris as director of EqualEmployment Opportunity. In the fallChanging Faces of the Astronauts From 1985 Through 2010In 1985, STS-51F—Center: Story Musgrave, MD, mission specialist,medical doctor. To Musgrave’s right, and going clockwise: AnthonyEngland, PhD, mission specialist, geophysicist; Karl Henize, PhD,mission specialist, astronomer; Roy Bridges, pilot, US Air Force (USAF);Loren Acton, PhD, industry payload specialist; John-David Bartoe, PhD,Navy payload specialist; Gordon Fullerton, commander, USAF.In 2010, STS-131 and International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 23—Clockwise from lower right: Stephanie Wilson, mission specialist,aerospace engineer; Tracy Caldwell Dyson, PhD, ISS Expedition 23flight engineer, chemist; Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, missionspecialist, high school science teacher and coach; Naoko Yamazaki,Japanese astronaut, aerospace engineer.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies461

Guion Bluford, PhDColonel, US Air Force (retired).Astronaut on STS-8 (1983),STS-61A (1985),STS-39 (1991), andSTS-53 (1992).In 1983, Colonel Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly in space.He earned a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from PennsylvaniaState University, followed by flight school and military service as a jet pilotin Vietnam, which included missions over North Vietnam. He went on to earna Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in aerospace engineering with aminor in laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He also earneda Master of Business Administration after joining NASA. Prior to joining NASAas a US Air Force astronaut, he completed research with several publications.Since leaving NASA, he has held many leadership positions.As a NASA astronaut, he flew on four missions: two on Challenger (1983, 1985)and two on Discovery (1991, 1992).Dr. Bluford has said, “I was very proud to have served in the astronaut programand to have participated on four very successful Space Shuttle flights. I alsofelt very privileged to have been a role model for many youngsters, includingAfrican American kids, who aspired to be scientists, engineers, and astronautsin this country. For me, being a NASA astronaut was a great experience thatI will always cherish.”of 1973, Harris proclaimed NASA’sequal employment opportunityprogram “a near-total failure.”Among other things, the agency’srecord on recruiting and hiringwomen and minorities was inadequate.In October, NASA AdministratorJames Fletcher fired Harris andCongress held hearings to investigatethe agency’s affirmative actionprograms. Legislators concluded thatNASA had a pattern of discriminatingAstronaut Guion Bluford conducting research on STS-53.against women and minorities.Eventually, a resolution was reached,with Fletcher reinstating Harris asNASA’s deputy assistant administratorfor community and human relations.From 1974 through 1992, Dr. HarriettJenkins, the new chief of affirmativeaction at NASA, began the process ofslowly diversifying NASA’s workforceand increasing the number of femaleand minority candidates.Though few in number, women andminorities made important contributionsto the Space Shuttle Program asNASA struggled with issues of raceand sex. Dottie Lee, one of the fewwomen engineers at Johnson SpaceCenter and the subsystem manager foraerothermodynamics, encouragedengineers to use a French curve designfor the spacecraft’s nose, which is nowaffectionately called “Dottie’s nose.”NASA named Isaac Gillam as head ofShuttle Operations at the Dryden FlightResearch Center, where he coordinatedthe Approach and Landing Tests.In 1978, he became the first AfricanAmerican to lead a NASA center.JoAnn Morgan of Kennedy SpaceCenter served as the deputy projectmanager over the Space ShuttleLaunch Processing Systems CentralData Subsystems used for Columbia’sfirst launch in 1981.Astronaut CorpsForced to diversify its workforce in the1970s, NASA encouraged women andminorities to apply for the first classof Space Shuttle astronauts in 1976.When NASA announced the names inJanuary 1978, the list included sixwomen, three African Americans, andone Japanese American, all of whomheld advanced degrees. Two of thewomen were medical doctors, anotherheld a PhD in engineering, and theothers held PhDs in the sciences.Two of the three African Americanshad earned doctorates, while the third,Frederick Gregory, held a master’sdegree. The only Asian member of theirclass, Ellison Onizuka, had completeda master’s degree in aerospaceengineering. This was the most diversegroup of astronauts NASA had everselected and it illustrated the sea changebrought about within the AstronautCorps by 1978. From then on, all462Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

astronaut classes that NASA selectedincluded either women or minorities.In fact, the next class included both aswell as the first naturalized citizenastronaut candidate, Dr. FranklinChang-Diaz, a Costa Rican by birth.Admitting women into the AstronautCorps did require some change inthe NASA culture, recalled CarolynHuntoon, a member of the 1978astronaut selection board and mentorto the first six female astronauts.“Attitude was the biggest thing wehad to [work on],” she said.Astronaut Richard Mullane, who wasselected as an astronaut candidatein 1978, had never worked withprofessional women before comingto NASA. Looking back on those firstfew years, he remembered that “thewomen had to endure a lot because”so many of the astronauts came frommilitary backgrounds and “had neverworked with women and were kindof struggling to come to grips onworking professionally with women.”When “everyone saw they could holdtheir own, they were technically good,they were physically fit, they woulddo the job, people sort of relaxed alittle bit and started accepting them,”explained Huntoon.Sally Ride, one of the first six femaleastronauts selected, rememberedthe first few years a bit differently.The Gemini and Apollo-era astronautsin the office in 1978 were not usedto working with women as peers.“But, they knew that this was coming,”she said, “and they’d known it wascoming for a couple of years.” By 1978,the remaining astronauts “had adaptedto the idea.” As a sign of the changingculture within NASA, she could notrecall any issues the women of her classencountered. This visible changesignaled a dramatic shift within theagency’s macho culture.The 1978 group was unique in otherways. Several of the men and womencame from the civilian world and theirexperiences differed greatly from thoseof their classmates who had comefrom the military. Previously, test pilotshad comprised the majority of theoffice. Many of the PhDs were young,with less life experience, according toMullane, than many of the military testpilots and flight test engineers who hadcompleted tours in Vietnam.The shuttle concept brought about othermeasurable changes. The versatilityof the Space Shuttle, when comparedwith the first generation of spacecraft,provided greater opportunities for moreparticipants. The shuttle was a muchmore flexible vehicle than the capsulesof the past, when astronauts had to be6 feet tall or under to fit into thespacecraft. (The Mercury astronautscould be no more than 5 feet 11 inchesin height.) The capabilities of theshuttle were so unusual that astronautsof all sizes could participate; evenJames van Hoften—one of the tallestastronauts ever selected at 6 feet4 inches—could fit inside the vehicle.Eventually, flight crews, which hadpreviously consisted of one, two, orthree American test pilots, expandedin size and the shuttle flew astronautsfrom across the globe, just as Nixonhad hoped when he approved theshuttle in 1972. Indeed, the shuttlebecame the vehicle by which everyone,regardless of protected classes—sex,race, ethnicity, or national origin—could participate.After the first four flights, the shuttlecrews expanded to include missionspecialists (a new category ofastronauts that would perform researchin space, deploy satellites in orbit,and conduct spacewalks). In additionto these scientists and engineers, theshuttle allowed room for a differentcategory—the payload specialist.These individuals were not membersof the Astronaut Corps. They wereselected by companies or countriesflying a payload on board the shuttle.Over the years, payload specialistsfrom Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada,West Germany, France, Belgium, theUkraine, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,and Sweden flew on the shuttle as didtwo members of Congress: US SenatorInternational Participation in the Space Shuttle ProgramAmerican astronauts flew with representatives from 15 other countries.BelgiumCanadaFranceGermanyIsraelItalyJapanMexicoNetherlandsRussiaSaudi ArabiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraineSocial, Cultural, and Educational Legacies463

Diversity SucceedsIn 2005, NASA selected a new class offlight directors, one of the most diverseever selected, which included the firstAfrican American (Kwatsi Alibaruho)and the first two Hispanics (GingerKerrick and Richard Jones). At the timeof their selection, only 58 people hadserved in the position. All three begantheir careers with NASA as studentsand then rose through the ranks. SinceA diverse workforce.their selection, Kerrick and Alibaruhohave guided shifts in Russia and in the International Space Station flight control room,while Jones has supervised shuttle flights. In all, the class of 2005 dramatically changedthe look of shuttle and station flight directors.Jake Garn of Utah and CongressmanBill Nelson of Florida. Industry alsoflew its own researchers, who managedtheir commercial payloads, withthe first being McDonnell Douglas’Charles Walker. In 1972, NASADeputy Administrator George Lowremembered that this was one of thethings Nixon liked about the program:“the fact that ordinary people,” not justtest pilots “would be able to fly in theshuttle, and that the only requirementfor a flight would be that there is amission to be performed.”Over the years, women and minoritiesalso made their way into the pilotseat on board the shuttle and eventuallywent on to direct their own missions,with Eileen Collins serving as the firstfemale pilot and commander. SpaceTransportation System (STS)-33 (1989)featured the first African Americancommander, Frederick Gregory, wholater became NASA’s deputyadministrator. An example of NASA’sdiverse workforce, African Americanformer Space Shuttle CommanderCharles Bolden became NASAadministrator in the summer of 2009.In all, 48 women flew on the shuttleover the course of the programbetween 1981 and 2010.The female and minority shuttleastronauts quickly became heroesin the United States and abroad forbreaking through barriers that hadprevented their participation in the1960s and 1970s. Millions celebratedthe launches of Sally Ride, GuionBluford, John Herrington, and MaeJemison: first American woman,African American, Native American,and African American woman,respectively, in space.When the crews of STS-51L (1986) andSTS-107 (2003) perished, Americansgrieved. Lost in two separate-but-tragicaccidents, the astronauts immediatelybecame America’s heroes. In honor oftheir sacrifice, two separate memorialswere erected at Arlington NationalCemetery to the crews of the Challengerand Columbia accidents, and numerousother tributes (coins and songs, forinstance) were made to the fallenastronauts. Naturally, national interestin the Return to Flight missions ofSTS-26 (1988) and STS-114 (2005)was high, with a great deal of attentionshowered on America’s newest idols.Richard Covey, pilot of the STS-26flight, recalled, “it was unprecedented,the attention that we got.” The crews ofthe Return to Flight missions after theaccidents also symbolized the changeswithin the Astronaut Corps. For Returnto Flight after the Challenger accident,the crew members were all male. By2005, the Return to Flight missionfollowing the Columbia accident had afemale commander.Johnson Space Center,Texas, ChangesAs the definition of the term “astronaut”became more fluid over time, America’sidea of what constituted a flight directoror flight controller also evolved. InNASA’s heyday, all flight directors andnearly all flight controllers were men,with the exception of Frances Northcutt.She blazed the trail during the ApolloProgram, becoming the first woman towork in the Mission Control Center.The number of women expanded overthe years as the agency prepared forthe orbital test flights. Opportunitiesto work in the cathedral of spaceflight(Mission Control) also expanded forother underrepresented groups, likeAfrican Americans. Angie Johnson, thefirst African American female flightcontroller in the control center in 1982,served as payloads officer for STS-2.Over the years, the number ofwomen working in mission operationsincreased dramatically. But, ingeneral, NASA was slow to promotewomen into the coveted position offlight director, with the first selected464Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

to “Astronauts Young, [Robert]Crippen, and all the people of NASAfor their inspiration and cooperation.”When First Lady Hillary RodhamClinton announced that a womanwould command a mission for thefirst time in NASA’s 40-year history,the NASA Arts Program asked JudyCollins to write a song to commemoratethe occasion. She agreed and composed“Beyond the Sky” for that historicflight. The song describes the dreamof a young girl to fly beyond the skyand heavens. The girl eventuallyachieves her goal and instills hopein those with similar aspirations.This is foreshadowed in the fifth verse.She had led the waybeyond darknessFor other dreamers whowould dare the skyShe has led us to believein dreamingGiven us the hope thatwe can tryAuthored for NASA as part of the NASA Arts Program.InspirationThe shuttle inspired so many peoplein such different ways. Much as theflag came to symbolize Americanpride, so too did the launch andlanding of the shuttle. As an example,William Parsons, Kennedy SpaceCenter’s former director, witnessedhis first launch at age 28 and recalled,“When I saw that shuttle take off atdusk, it was the most unbelievableexperience. I got tears in my eyes;my heart pounded. I was proud to bean American, to see that we could dosomething that awesome.”Film and TelevisionIMAX ® films built on the thrill ofspaceflight by capturing the excitementand exhilaration of NASA’s on-orbitoperations. Shuttle astronauts weretrained to use the camera and recordedsome of the program’s most notableevents as the events unfolded in orbit,like the spacewalk of Kathryn Sullivan,America’s first woman spacewalker.Marketed as “the next best thing tobeing there,” the film The Dream isAlive documented living and workingin space on board shuttle. Destinyin Space featured shots from thedramatic first Hubble Space Telescopeservicing mission in 1993, whichboasted a record-breaking fivespacewalks. Other feature films likeMission to Mir took audiences to theRussian space station, where Americanastronauts and cosmonauts performedscientific research.The excitement inspired by the SpaceShuttle and the technological abilities—both real and imagined—did notescape screenwriters and Hollywooddirectors. In fact, the shuttle appearedas a “character” in numerous films,and several major motion picturesfeatured a few of NASA’s properties.These films attracted audiences acrossthe world and sold millions of dollarsin tickets based on two basic themes:NASA’s can-do spirit in the face ofinsurmountable challenges, and theflexibility of the shuttle. They includeMoonraker, Space Camp, Armageddon,and Space Cowboys.Television programs also could notescape the pull of the Space Shuttle. In1994, the crew of Space TransportationSystem (STS)-61 (1993), the firstHubble servicing mission, appeared onABC’s Home Improvement. Six of theseven crew members flew to Californiafor the taping, where they starred asguests of Tool Time—the fictionalhome improvement program—andshowed off some of the tools theyused to work on the telescope in space.Following this episode, astronauts fromthe US Microgravity Laboratory-2,STS-73 (1995), appeared on HomeImprovement. Astronaut KennethBowersox, who was pilot for oneflight and commander of two flights,made three appearances on the show.Bowersox once brought AstronautSteven Hawley, who also flew onSTS-82 (1997).The Space Shuttle and its space flierswere also the subject of the televisiondrama The Cape. Based on the astronautexperience, the short-lived seriescaptured the drama and excitementassociated with training and flyingshuttle missions. Set and filmed atKennedy Space Center, the series ranfor one season in the mid 1990s.Consumer CultureThe enduring popularity of the SpaceShuttle extended beyond film andtelevision into consumer culture.During the shuttle era, millions ofpeople purchased goods that boreimages of shuttle mission insigniasand the NASA logo—pins, patches,T-shirts, polos, mugs, pens, stuffedanimals, toys, and other mementos.The shuttle, a cultural icon of the spaceprogram associated with America’sprogress in space, was also prominentlyfeatured on wares. Flight and launchand re-entry suits, worn by theastronauts, were particularly popularwith younger children who had hopesof one day flying in space. Peoplestill bid on thousands of photos andposters signed by shuttle astronauts onInternet selling and trading sites.Photos of the shuttle, its crews,astronaut portraits, and images ofnotable events in space are ubiquitous.466Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Chiaki Mukai, MD, PhDJapanese astronaut.Payload specialist on STS-65 (1994) and STS-95 (1998).Deputy mission scientist for STS-107 (2003).My Space Shuttle Memory“From the mid 1980s to 2003, I worked for the spaceprogram as a Japanese astronaut. This was the goldentime of Space Shuttle utilization for science. Spacelabmissions, which supported diverse fields of research,were consecutively scheduled and conducted. The sciencecommunities were so busy and excited. I flew two times(STS-65/IML [International Microgravity Laboratory]-2 andSTS-95) and worked as an alternate crew member for twoother science missions (STS-47 and STS-90). On my lastassignment, I was a deputy mission scientist for the STS-107science mission on board the Space Shuttle Columbia. I reallyenjoyed working with many motivated people for thosemissions. I treasure these memories. Among the manyphotographs taken during my time as an astronaut, I have onefavorite sentimental picture. The picture was taken from theground showing STS-65, Columbia, making its final approachto Kennedy Space Center. The classic line of the shuttle isclearly illuminated by the full moon softly glowing in thedawn’s early light. When I see this photo, I cannot believe that Iwas actually on board the Columbia at that moment. It makesme feel like everything that happened to me was in a dream.The Space Shuttle Program enabled me to leave the Earth andto expand my professional activities into space. My dream of‘Living and working in space’ has been truly realized. Thanksto the enormous capacity of human and cargo transportationmade by the Space Shuttles between Earth and space, peoplecan now feel that ‘Space is reachable and that it is ours.’I want to thank the dedicated people responsible for makingthis successful program happen. The spirit of the Space Shuttlewill surely live on, inspiring future generations to continueusing the International Space Station and to go beyond.”© 1998, Toru Fukudu. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.They can be found in books, magazines,calendars, catalogs, on televisionnews broadcasts, and on numerousnon-NASA Web sites. They adorn thewalls of offices and homes acrossthe world. One of the most famousimages captures the historic spacewalkof Astronaut Bruce McCandless inthe Manned Maneuvering Unit setagainst the blackness of space. Anotherwell-known photo, taken by the crewof STS-107 (2003), features the moon ina haze of blue.TourismThe Space Shuttle attracted vacationingtravelers from the beginning of theprogram. Tourists from across thecountry and globe flocked to Florida towitness the launch and landing of theshuttle, and also drove to California,where the shuttle sometimes landed.Kennedy Space Center’s VisitorComplex in Florida and the US Spaceand Rocket Center in Alabama welcomemillions of sightseers each year—peoplewho hope to learn more about thenation’s human spaceflight program.Visitors at Kennedy Space Center haveSocial, Cultural, and Educational Legacies467

the unique opportunity to experience thethrill of a simulated launch on theShuttle Launch Experience, with veteranshuttle Astronaut Bolden walking ridersthrough the launch sequence. Othersvisit Space Center Houston in Texas andthe Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Centerin Virginia, the latter of which includesthe Enterprise, the first Space ShuttleOrbiter rolled out in 1976.One need only visit the areassurrounding the space centers to see theties that bind NASA’s longest-runningprogram with their local and statecommunities. In the Clear Lake area(Texas), McDonald’s restaurantattracted visitors by placing alarger-than-life astronaut model donnedin a shuttle-era spacesuit on top of theroof. A mock Space Shuttle sits on thelawn of Cape Canaveral’s city hall.Proud of its ties to the space program,Florida featured the shuttle on the statequarter released by the US Mint in2004; Texas, by contrast, included theSpace Shuttle on its state license plates.SummaryFor nearly 30 years, longer than theflights of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo,and Skylab combined, the SpaceShuttle—the world’s most complexspacecraft at the time—had atremendous influence on all aspects ofAmerican culture. Television programsand motion pictures featured real-lifeand imaginary Space Shuttle astronauts;children, entertained by these programsand films, dreamed of a future atNASA. Twenty-five years after SallyRide’s first flight, thousands ofgirls—who were not even born at thetime of her launch—joined Sally Ride’sScience Club, inspired by her career asthe first American woman in space.Brewster ShawColonel, US Air Force (retired).Pilot on STS-9 (1983).Commander on STS-61B (1985)and STS-28 (1989).Space Is For Everyone“I was on STS-9 and we had waved off several revs before landing in California.My wife joined me after the postflight conference. I asked her what shethought. She replied that I said ‘Space is for everyone.’ I have reflected on that.I remember looking out the back window of the shuttle and looking at Earth asit passed by very quickly. I marveled at the fact the human brain has developedthe capability to lift 250,000 pounds of mass into orbit and is flying around atthe orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour—what an accomplishment ofmankind! Looking at Earth from that vantage point made me realize that thereare a lot of people on Earth who would give their arm and a leg to be whereI am! Here I was a 30-something macho test pilot and I was humbled!“Suddenly it occurred to me how privileged I was to be here in space! It wasa revelation. I had no more right than any other human being to be here—I was just luckier than they were. There I realized that space is for everyone!I decided to dedicate my career to helping as many humans as possibleexperience what I was experiencing.”An Expansive LegacyThe Space Shuttle became an “icon”not only for the capabilities andtechnological beauty of the vehicles,but also for the positive changesNASA ultimately embraced andfurther championed. Through theefforts of those who recognized theneed for diversity in the workplace,the Space Shuttle Program wasultimately weaved into the fabricof our nation—on both a social anda cultural level. The expansion ofopportunities for women, minorities,industry, and international partnersin the exploration of the universe notonly benefitted those individuals whohad the most to gain; the expansionalso made the program an even greatersuccess because of each individual’sunique and highly qualifiedcontributions. No longer regardedas a “manned” spaceflight in the mostliteral sense of the term, the shuttleushered in a new era of “human”spaceflight that is here to stay.468Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Copyright Notice**SPACE COWBOYS © WV Films LLC. Licensed By: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies469

Education:InspiringStudents asOnly NASA CanIntroductionHelen LaneKamlesh LullaThe Challenger CenterJune Scobee RodgersThe Michael P. AndersonEngineering Outreach ProjectMarilyn LewisLong-distance Calls from SpaceCynthia McArthurProject StarshineGilbert MooreEarth Knowledge Acquired byMiddle School StudentsSally RideKamlesh LullaToys in SpaceCarolyn SumnersHelen LaneKamlesh LullaFlight ExperimentsDan CaronJohn VellingerSpaceflight Science andthe ClassroomJeffery CrossTeachers Learn AboutHuman SpaceflightSusan WhiteCollege EducationUndergraduate Engineering EducationAaron CohenGraduate Student Science EducationIwan AlexanderNASA’s commitment to education is played out with the SpaceShuttle, but why?“And to this end nothing inspires young would-be scientistsand engineers like space and dinosaurs—and we are noticeablyshort of the latter.”– Norman Augustine, former president and CEO of Lockheed Martin CorporationEvery Space Shuttle mission was an education mission as astronautsalways took the time, while in orbit, to engage students in some kindof education activity. In fact, the shuttle served as a classroom inorbit on many missions.Of the more than 130 flights, 59 included planned student activities.Students, usually as part of a classroom, participated in downlinksthrough ham radio (early in the program) to video links, and interactedwith flight crews. Students asked lots of questions about living andworking in space, and also about sleep and food, astronomy, Earthobservations, planetary science, and beyond. Some insightful questionsincluded: Do stars sparkle in space? Why do you exercise in space?Through student involvement programs such as Get Away Specials,housed in the shuttle payload bay, individual students and classesproposed research. If selected, their research flew on the shuttle as apayload. Students also used the astronaut handheld and digital-cameraphotos for various research projects such as geology, weather, andenvironmental sciences in a program called KidSat (later renamedEarth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students [EarthKAM]).Teacher materials supported classroom EarthKAM projects. Conceptsof physics were brought to life during Toys in Space payload flights.Playing with various common toys demonstrated basic physicsconcepts, and teacher materials for classroom activities were providedalong with the video from spaceflight. Not all education projects werethis specific, however. Starshine—a satellite partially built by middleschool students and launched from the shuttle payload—provided datafor scientific analysis completed by students from all over the world.In fact, most of the scientific missions contained student components.Students usually learned about research from the principalinvestigators, and some of the classrooms had parallel ground-basedexperiments. Teacher workshops provided instruction on how to usethe space program for classrooms.470Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Astronaut Michael Anderson (Lieutenant Colonel,US Air Force) flew on STS-89 (1998) and then onthe ill-fated Columbia (STS-107 [2003]).The objectives are to inspire studentsto prepare for college by taking moreadvanced mathematics courses alongwith improved problem-solvingskills, and by learning more aboutthe field of engineering. Parents areinvolved in helping plan theirchild’s academic career in science,mathematics, or engineering.Students participate in a 3-week trainingprogram each summer. Alabama A&MSchool of Engineering faculty andNASA employees serve as students’leaders and mentors. At the end, thestudents present their engineering andmathematics projects. The curriculumand management design aredisseminated from these activities toother minority-serving institutions.Long-distance Calls from SpaceStudents and teachers have friends inhigh places, and they often chat withthem during shuttle missions. InNovember 1983, Astronaut OwenGarriott carried a handheld ham radioaboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Theham radio contacts evolved into theSpace Shuttle Amateur RadioExperiment, which provided studentswith the opportunity to talk withshuttle astronauts while the astonautsorbited the Earth. Ham radio contactsmoved from shuttle to the InternationalSpace Station, and this activity hasAstronauts Speak to Students Through Direct Downlinktransitioned to amateur radio onboard the International Space Station.In addition to ham radio contacts,students and teachers participated inlive in-flight education downlinks thatincluded live video of the astronauts onorbit. The 20-minute downlinksprovided a unique learning opportunityfor students to exchange ideas withastronauts and watch demonstrations ina microgravity environment. Hamradio contacts and in-flight educationdownlinks allowed more than 6 millionstudents to experience a personalconnection with space exploration.The STS-118 (2007)crew answering astudent's question.Elementary school student askingthe crew a question.Michael P. Anderson Project students AleceaKendall, a tenth-grade New Century Technologystudent, and Hilton Crenshaw, a tenth-gradeLee High student, work as a team to assembletheir LEGO NXT Mindstorm robot.Student watching thedownlink for STS-118.Students participated in in-flight education downlinks that included live video of the astronautson orbit. Students asked questions and exchanged ideas with astronauts.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies473

Project StarshineProject Starshine engaged approximately120,000 students in more than 4,000schools in 43 countries.NASA deployed reflective sphericalstudent satellites from two separateshuttle missions—STS-96 (1999) andSTS-108 (2001). NASA had flown athird satellite on an expendable launchvehicle mission, and a fourth satellitewas manifested on a shuttle mission butlater cancelled following the Columbiaaccident (STS-107 [2003]). A coalitionof volunteer organizations andindividuals in the United States andCanada built the satellites. Each satellitewas covered by approximately 1,000small front-surface aluminum mirrorsthat were machined by technologystudents in Utah and polished by tensof thousands of students in schools andother participating organizations aroundthe world. During the orbital lifetimeof the satellites, faint sunlight flashesfrom their student-polished mirrorswere visible to the naked eye duringcertain morning and evening twilightperiods. The student observersStudents in the Young Astronauts/AstronomyClub at Weber Middle School in Port Washington,New York, proudly display a set of mirrorsdestined for Starshine.measured the satellites’ right ascensionand declination by reference to knownstars, and they recorded the precisetiming of their observations throughthe use of stopwatches synchronizedwith Internet time signals. They usedglobal positioning satellite receivers orUS Geological Survey 7.5-minutequadrangle maps, or their equivalents inother countries, to measure the latitude,longitude, and altitude of theirobserving sites. They posted theirobservations and station locations onthe Starshine Web site.Launching Starshine satellite from Endeavour’s payload bay during STS-108 (2001).© Gilbert Moore.Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.As an example of Project Starshine,children in the Young Astronauts/Astronomy Club at Weber MiddleSchool in Port Washington, New York,contributed to the project.“The club members arrived at schoolat 7:30 a.m. every day to make surethe project would be completed on time.They worked diligently and followedinstructions to the letter,” said theirscience teacher, Cheryl Dodes.Earth Knowledge Acquired byMiddle School StudentsHow does one inspire school students topursue science and engineering? Imaginecreating an opportunity for students toparticipate in space operations duringreal Space Shuttle flights.The brainchild of Dr. Sally Ride—first American woman in space—the Earth Knowledge Acquired byMiddle School Students (EarthKAM)education program, sponsored byNASA, gives students “hands-on”experience in space operations. Duringthe Space Shuttle Program, NASA’sEarthKAM was the next best thing tobeing on board for junior scientists.The idea is as simple as it is elegant:by installing a NASA camera on boarda spacecraft, middle school studentsacross the United States and abroadhad front-row seats on a space mission.They used images to study Earthscience and other science disciplinesby examining river deltas, deforestation,and agriculture. The hardware consistedof an electronic still camera and alaptop that was set up by an astronautand then operated remotely from theground with imaging requests comingdirectly from the students.While this hands-on, science-immersivelearning was cool for kids, the high-techappeal was based on proper science474Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Students as Virtual AstronautsEarthKAMEarthKAMOperationsCenterSTARTJohnson Space CenterMission Control CenterStudent requestsEarth imagery.EarthKAMImage Server atJet PropulsionLaboratoryFINISHStudent receivesrequested Earthimagery.Students on Earth obtained photos from orbit by using computers to request images of specific locations from the Earth Knowledge Acquired byMiddle School Students (EarthKAM) on the Space Shuttle.methods. Students prepared a solidresearch proposal outlining the topicthey wanted to study. The programwas similar to a time-share facility.Schools were to take a certain numberof photographs. During the SpaceShuttle Program, students set up a24-hour classroom Mission Controloperation to track the shuttle’s orbit.By calculating latitude and longitude,they followed the shuttle’s route andmonitored weather conditions. Afterchoosing photo targets, students relayedthose instructions over the Internet toUniversity of California at San Diegooperations unit. Undergraduatevolunteers wrote the code that instructedthe camera when to acquire imagery.The students received their photoimages back through the Web site andbegan analyzing their data.Since its first launch in 1996, EarthKAMflew on six shuttle missions and nowcontinues operations on the InternationalSpace Station. To date, more than73,000 students from 1,200 schools in17 countries have participated in theprogram. This exciting adventure ofEarth exploration from space is a greathit at schools all over the globe. Whileyoungsters can learn latitude, longitude,and geography from a textbook, whentheir lesson comes first-hand from theSpace Shuttle, they really pay attention.“In 20 years of teaching,” says SierraVista Middle School (California)teacher Mark Sontag, “EarthKAM is byfar the most valuable experience I’veever done with kids.”Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies475

Toys in Space: InnovativeWays to Teach the Mechanicsof Motion in MicrogravityToys are the technology of childhood.They are tools designed to be engagingand fun, yet their behaviors on Earthand on orbit can illustrate science,engineering, and technology conceptsfor children of all ages. The STS-51D(1985) crew carried the first 11 toysinto orbit. The STS-54 mission (1993)returned with some of those toys andadded 29 more. The STS-77 (1996)mission crew returned with 10 of theSTS-54 toys that had not been tested inspace. For all these missions, crews alsocarried along the questions of curiouschildren, teachers, and parents who hadsuggested toy experiments and predictedpossible results. A few dozen toys and afew hours of the crew members’ freetime brought the experience of free falland an understanding of gravity's pullto students of all ages.Toys included acrobats (showing thepositive and negative roles of gravity inearthbound gymnastics)—toy planes,helicopters, cars, and submarines(action-reaction in action), spinningtops, yo-yos, and boomerangs (allconserving angular momentum),magnetic marbles and coiled-springjumpers (conserving energy), and thecomplex interplay of friction andNewton’s Laws in sports, frombasketball and soccer to horseshoes,darts, jacks, Lacrosse, and jump rope.Toys are familiar, friendly, and fun—three adjectives rarely associated withphysics lessons. Toys are also subject togravity’s downward pull, which oftenstops their most interesting behaviors.Crew members volunteered to performtoy experiments on orbit where gravity’stug would no longer affect toy activities.Toy behaviors on Earth and in spaceToys in Space on Discovery, STS-51D (1985)could then be compared to show howgravity shapes the motions of toysand of all other moving objects held tothe Earth’s surface.The toys were housed at the HoustonMuseum of Natural Science afterflights. A paper airplane toy usedduring the flight of US SenatorJake Garn (shuttle payload specialist)was displayed at the SmithsonianAir and Space Museum in WashingtonDC. McGraw-Hill published twobooks for teachers on using the Toysin Space Program in the classroom.NASA created a DVD on theInternational Toys in Space Programwith the other Toys in Space videosincluded. The DVD also providedcurriculum guides for all of the toysthat traveled into space.The Toys in Space Program integratedscience, engineering, and technology.Astronauts Jeffrey Hoffman and RheaSeddon worked with a coiled spring.The spring demonstrated wave actionin microgravity.Astronaut Donald Williams playswith a paddleball. He could stick the ballat any angle because very little gravitypulled the ball.The National Science EducationStandards recognized that scientistsand engineers often work in teams ona project. With this program, studentswere technicians and engineers as theyconstructed and evaluated toys. Theybecame scientists as they experimentedwith toys and predicted toy behaviorsin space. Finally, they returned to anengineering perspective as theythought about modifying toys to workbetter in space or about designing newtoys for space. Designing for spacetaught students that technical designshave constraints (such as the shuttle’spacking requirements) and that perfectsolutions are often not realistic. Spacetoys, like space tools, had to work in anew and unfamiliar environment.Ultimately, however, Toys in Spacewas about discovering how thingswork on Spaceship Earth.476Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Flight Experiments: StudentsFly Research Projects inPayload BayThe Space Shuttle provided the perfectvehicle for students and teachers to flyexperiments in microgravity. Students,from elementary to college, participatedin the Self-Contained PayloadProgram—popularly named Get AwaySpecials—and the Space ExperimentModules Program. These studentsexperienced the wonders of space.Get Away SpecialsGet Away Specials were well suited tocolleges and universities that wished fortheir students to work through theengineering process to design and buildthe hardware necessary to meet criteriaand safety standards required to flyaboard the shuttle. Students, along withtheir schools, proposed research projectsthat met NASA-imposed standards,such as requiring that the experiment fitin the standard container, which couldbe no heavier than 91 kg (200 pounds),have scientific intent, and be safe.For biological experiments, onlyinsects that could survive 60 to 90 dayswere allowed. The payload had to beself-contained, require no more than sixcrew operations, and be self-powered(not relying on the Orbiter’selectricity). The payload bay was inthe vacuum andthermal conditionsof spaceflight, someeting these goalswas difficult.DuVal High School(Lanham, Maryland)students look insidea Get Away Specialcanister to see whetherany of the roachessurvived spaceflight.DuVal High School in Lanham,Maryland, however, did experiencesuccess with their experiment—Get Away Special 238, which flewon STS-95 (1998). The NationalCapital Section of the AmericanInstitute of Aeronautics andAstronautics, a professional society,and the school district (throughfund-raisers) financed this project.From day one, the students wishedto fly a biological experiment anddebated whether to select termites orcockroaches since both could survivein a dark, damp environment. Once adecision was made, DuVal’s projectbecame known as the Roach MOTEL—an acronym for MicrogravityOpportunity To Enhance Learning.The insects included three adults,three nymphs, and three egg casessealed in separate compartments ofa habitat inside a Get Away Specialcan that had sufficient life supportsystems for a journey into space andback—a journey lasting no longer than6 months. The students expected theroaches to carry out all life functions(including reproduction) and returnalive. The project stretched on formore than 7 years while students andteachers entered and left the program.The two factors that finally brought theproject to completion were a team ofadministrators and teachers that wasdetermined to see it through andNASA’s relaxation of the drynitrogen/dry air purge of the canister.The ability to seal the Get AwaySpecial can with ambient air was thekey to success for this experiment.Over the course of 7 years, 75 adultsfrom 16 companies and organizationsassisted with the project. Seventy-sevenstudents were directly involved withengineering solutions to the manyproblems, while hundreds of otherstudents were exposed to the project.Two roaches survived, and the eggcases never hatched.Nelson Columbano, one of the students,described the experience as follows:“I was involved with the Get AwaySpecials Program at DuVal HighSchool in Lanham, Maryland, in1996/97. Our project involveddesigning a habitat for insects (roaches)to survive in orbit for several days.I can’t say the actual experiment issomething I’m particularly proud of,but the indirect experiences and sideprojects associated with planning,designing, and building such a complexhabitat were easily the most enrichingpart of my high school experience.The Get Away Specials Programintroduced me to many aerospaceindustry consultants who volunteeredto work with the class. It also presentedme with real-world challenges likecalling vendors for quotes, interviewingexperts in person and over the phone,evaluating mechanical and electricaldevices for the project and otheractivities that gave me a glimpse ofwhat it’s like to interface with industryprofessionals. At the end of theschool year, some of the consultantscame back to interview studentsfor summer internships. I was luckyto receive an offer with ComputerSocial, Cultural, and Educational Legacies477

Sciences Corporation,11 years laterbecoming the proud IT Project Manager.I often think about how different mycareer path may have been without theGet Away Specials Program and all ofthe doors it opened for me.”The Get Away Specials Program wassuccessful for both high school anduniversity students. Over the years, itchanged to the Space ExperimentModule Program, which simplified theprocess for students and teachers.Space Experiment ModulesTo reduce costs to get more studentsinvolved, NASA developed the SpaceExperiment Module Program sincemuch of the engineering to power andcontrol experiments was done for thestudents. Space Experiment Moduleexperiments, packaged 10 modules to apayload canister, varied from active(requiring power) to passive (nopower). Since no cost was involved,students in kindergarten as well ascollege students proposed projects.During the mid 1990s, 50 teachers fromthe northeastern United States,participating in the NASA EducationalWorkshops at Goddard Space FlightCenter and Wallops Flight Facility,designed Space Experiment Moduleswith activities for their students.During this 2-week workshop, teacherslearned about the engineering designprocess and designed module hardware,completed the activities with theirstudents, and submitted theirexperiment for consideration. One ofthe Get Away Special cans on STS-88(1998) contained a number of SpaceExperiment Module experimentsfrom NASA Educational Workshopsparticipants. Students and teachersattended integration and de-integrationactivities as well as the launch.Martin Crapnell, a retired technologyeducation teacher who attended oneof the NASA Educational Workshopsessions, explained.“Experiencing the tours, briefings,and launch were once-in-a-lifetimeexperiences. I tried to convey thatexcitement to my students. The SpaceExperiment Modules and NASAEducational Workshops experienceallowed me to share many things withmy students, such as the physics ofthe thrust at launch and the ‘twang’of the shuttle, long-term space traveland the need for food (SpaceExperiment Modules/Mars Lunchbox),spin-offs that became life-savingdiagnostics and treatments (especiallymine), job opportunities, andmanufacturing and equipment that wassimilar to our Technology Lab.“Even though delays in receiving allof the Space Experiment Modulesmaterials affected the successfulcompletion we desired, I believe I wasable to share the experience and createmore excitement and understandingamong the students as a result of theattempt. The Space Experiment Modulesand NASA Educational Workshopsexperiences allowed relevant transfer tolab and life experiences.”A Nutty Experiment of InterestOne of the many experiments conductedby students during the Space ShuttleProgram was to determine the effects ofmicrogravity and temperature extremeson various brands of peanut butter.Students microscopically examined thepeanut butters, measured their viscosity,and conducted qualitative visual,spreadability, and aroma tests on thesamples before and after flight. Thestudents from Tuttle Middle School,South Burlington, Vermont, and TheGilbert School, Winsted, Connecticut,called this research “a nutty idea.”Students Go On to Careersin EngineeringJohn Vellinger, executive vice presidentand chief operating officer of Techshot,Inc. (Greenville, Indiana), is anexample of how one participatingstudent secured a career in engineering.As an eighth-grade student in Lafayette,Indiana, Vellinger had an idea for ascience project—to send chicken eggsinto space to study the effects ofmicrogravity on embryo development.Vellinger entered his project in ascience competition called the ShuttleStudent Involvement Program,sponsored by NASA and the NationalScience Teachers Association.In 1985, after Vellinger’s freshman yearat Purdue University, NASA pairedhim with Techshot, Inc. co-founderMark Deuser who was working as anengineer at Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC). Through a grant from KFC,Deuser and Vellinger set out to developa flight-ready egg incubator.By early 1986, their completed“Chix in Space” hardware waslaunched aboard Space ShuttleChallenger on its ill-fated STS-51L(1986) mission. Regrouping after thetragic loss of the shuttle, its crew, andthe Chix in Space incubator, Deuserand Vellinger continued to developthe payload for a subsequent flight.Together, the pair designed, fabricated,478Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

and integrated the flight hardware,coordinated the project with NASA,and assisted the scientific team.More than 3 years after theChallenger accident, Chix in Spacesuccessfully reached orbit aboardSpace Shuttle Discovery on missionSTS-29 (1989). The results of theexperiment were so significant thatthe project received worldwideinterest from gravitational andspace biologists, and it establisheda strong reputation for Techshot, Inc.as an innovative developer ofnew technologies.Spaceflight Science andthe ClassroomCan students learn from Space Shuttlescience? You bet they can. To prove thispoint, life sciences researchers tooktheir space research to the classroom.Bone ExperimentSTS-58 (1993), a mission dedicatedto life science research, had anexperiment to evaluate the role ofmicrogravity on calcium-essentialelement for health. With the assistanceof Lead Scientist Dr. Emily Holton,three sixth-grade classes from theSan Francisco Bay Area in Californiaconducted parallel experiments toHolton’s spaceflight experiment.Research staff members traveled to theschools 10 days prior to the launchdate. They discussed the process ofdeveloping the experiment andassembling the flight hardware andreviewed what was needed to includethe experiment on the shuttle flight.The students conducted experiments oncucumber, lettuce, and soybean plantsJapanese Astronaut Mamoru Mohri talks to Japanese students from the aft flight deck of theSpace Shuttle Endeavour during the STS-47 (1992) Spacelab-J mission.using hydroponics—the growing ofplants in nutrient solutions with orwithout an inert medium to providemechanical support. Half the plantswere fed a nutritionally complete foodsolution while the other half wasfed a solution deficient in calcium.During the 2 weeks of the mission,students measured each plant’sheight and growth pattern and thenrecorded the data. Several of thestudents traveled to Edwards AirForce Base, California, to witnessthe landing of STS-58. The studentsanalyzed their data and recordedtheir conclusions. The classes thenvisited NASA Ames Research Center,where they toured the life sciencelabs and participated in a debriefingof their experiment with researchersand Astronaut Rhea Seddon.Fruit Flies—How Does TheirImmune System Change in Space?Fruit flies have long been used forresearch by scientists worldwidebecause their genome has beencompletely mapped, their short lifecycle enables multiple generations tobe studied in a short amount of time,and they have many analogousprocesses to humans. The fruit flyexperiment flew on STS-121 (2006).Its goal was to characterize theeffects of space travel (includingweightlessness and radiation exposure)on fruit flies’ immune systems.Middle school students (grades 5-8)were directed to a Web site to followthis experiment. The Web site providedinformation about current NASA spacebiology research, the scientific method,fruit flies, and the immune system.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies479

Using documentation on the special site,teachers and their students conductedhands-on activities relating to thisexperiment. Students communicatedwith expert fly researchers, madepredictions about the results, and askedquestions of the scientists.Frogs in Space—How Does theTadpole Change?In the United States and Japan’squest to learn how life responds tothe rigors of the space environment,NASA launched STS-47 (1992)—a Japanese-sponsored life sciencemission. The question to be answeredby this mission was: How wouldspace affect the African clawed frog’slife cycle? The life cycle of thisparticular frog fit nicely into thistime period. Fertilized eggs werepackaged in small grids, each housedin specially designed plastic cases.Some of these samples were allowedto experience microgravity duringthe mission, while others were placedin small centrifuges and kept atvarious simulated gravities betweenmicrogravity and Earth environment.The education portion of theexperiment allowed student groupsand teachers to learn about the frogembryology experiment by studyingthe adaptive development of frogsto the microgravity environment.NASA produced an educationpackage and educational CD-ROMfrom this experiment.Teachers Learn AboutHuman Spaceflight“Reach for your dreams, the sky is nolimit,” exclaimed Educator AstronautBarbara Morgan while encouragingteachers to facilitate their students’discovery, learning, and sharing abouthuman spaceflight.The excitement of spectacularshuttle launches and on-orbit scienceenriched students’ learning. For30 years, the Space Shuttle Programprovided teachers around the nationan unparalleled opportunity toparticipate in professional developmentworkshops—promoting students toget hooked on science, technology,engineering, and mathematics careers.Historically, NASA has focused onteachers because of their profoundimpact on students. The main objectiveof NASA teacher programs wasprofessional development whileproviding numerous classroom andcurriculum resources.Exciting educator workshops withthemes such as “Blastoff into Learning”or “Ready, Set, and Launch” focusedon the Space Shuttle as a classroomin space. Teachers respondedenthusiastically to these initiatives.Damien Simmons, an advancedplacement physics teacher at an Illinoishigh school, said it best after attendinga Network of Educator AstronautTeachers workshop at the NASAGlenn Research Center in Cleveland,Ohio. “I’m taking home lessons andexamples that you can’t find intextbooks. When my students see thereal-world applications of physics,I hope it will lead them to pursuecareers in engineering.”Melanie Brink, another teacherhonored by the Challenger Center, said,“Embracing the fundamentals ofscience has always been at the coreof my curriculum. Preparing studentsto be successful young adults in the ageof technology, math, and science is anexciting challenge.”NASA continues to provide teachersopportunities to use spaceflight in theirclassrooms to promote education.City of Bellflower, California, luncheon “Reaching for the Stars/Growing Together” honored teacherPam Leestma’s second- and third-grade students for their spaceflight learning activities.Back row (left to right): Kaylin Townsend, Jerron Raye, Brendan Mire, Payton Kooi, and Rylee Winters.Front row: Julianne Bassett and teacher Pam Leestma.480Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

Barbara MorganEducator astronaut on STS-118 (2007).Idaho teacher.“Inspiring and educating future scientists and engineers aremajor accomplishments of the Space Shuttle Program. Muchof this began with the Teacher in Space Program, despite thetragic 1986 loss of Space Shuttle Challenger and her crew.“Before Challenger, American teachers were stinging froma report, titled ‘A Nation at Risk,’ that condemned the Americaneducation system and appeared to tar all teachers with thesame broad brush. Even the noble call to teaching wasdismissed, by many, with the saying, ‘Those that can, do.Those who can’t, teach.’“But NASA was the first federal agency to start to turn thataround, by making a school teacher the first ‘citizen’spaceflight participant. NASA selected a stellar representativein New Hampshire social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe,who showed what great teachers all over the country do.I was fortunate to train as Christa’s backup. Barely a daywent by without NASA employees coming up to us to tell usabout those teachers who had made a difference for them.We felt that Teacher in Space was more than just a nationalrecognition of good teaching; it was also a display of gratitudeby hundreds of NASA employees.“Thousands of teachers gathered their students to watchChrista launch on board Challenger. The tragic accident shookall of us to the core. But for me, the pain was partly salvedby what I saw in the reactions of many to the tragedy.Instead of defeatism and gloom, I heard many people saythat they’d fly on the next Space Shuttle ‘in a heartbeat.’Others told me how Challenger had inspired them to takebold risks in their own lives—to go back to college or to gointo teaching. Also, 112 Teacher in Space finalists madelasting contributions to aerospace education in this country.And the families of the Challenger crew created thesuperlative Challenger Center for Space Science Education.“After Challenger, NASA’s education program grew in manyways, including establishing the Teaching From Space officewithin the Astronaut Office, and producing many astronauttaughtlessons from orbit to school children around the world.I returned to teaching in Idaho, and continued working withNASA, half-time, until I became an astronaut candidate in1998. I am proud that NASA later selected three more teachersto be educator astronauts. It marked the first time since thescientist astronauts were selected for Apollo that NASA hadmade a major change in its astronaut selection criteria.“So, certainly, the Space Shuttle Program has made a majorimpact on American education and on the way teachers areseen by the public. And this brings me back to that oldcomment of ‘Those who can’t, teach.’ It reminds me of how, topay tribute to those who went before, engineers and scientistsare fond of quoting Sir Isaac Newton. He said, ‘I stand on theshoulders of giants.’ We teachers have a similar sense oftradition. We think of teachers who teach future teachers,who then teach their students, who go on to change the world.For example, Socrates taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, whotaught Alexander the Great. So I’d like to end this little letterwith a quote that far predates ‘Those who can’t, teach.’ Twomillennia ago, in about 350 BC, Aristotle wrote, ‘Those whoknow, do. Those who understand, teach.’ Aristotle understood.“I want to thank the Space Shuttle Program for helpingteachers teach. Explore, discover, learn, and share. It is whatNASA and teachers do.”Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies481

College EducationUndergraduateEngineering EducationA legacy of building the shuttleis strengthening the teaching ofsystems engineering to undergraduatestudents, especially in design courses.The shuttle could not have beendesigned without using specificprinciples. Understanding theprinciples of how systems engineeringwas used on the shuttle and thenapplying those principles to manyother design projects greatly advancedengineering education.Engineering science in all fields ofengineering was advanced in designingthe shuttle. In the fields of avionics,flight control, aerodynamics, structuralanalysis, materials, thermal control,and environmental control, manyadvances had to be made by engineersworking on the Space Shuttle—advances that, in turn, were used inteaching engineering sciences andsystems engineering in universities.The basic philosophy underlying theteaching approach is that the designmust be a system approach, and theentire project must be consideredas a whole rather than the collectionof components and subsystems.Furthermore, the life-cycle orientationaddresses all phases of the system,encouraging innovative thinking fromthe beginning.The use of large, complicated designprojects rather than smaller, moreeasily completed ones forces studentsto think of the entire system and useadvanced engineering sciencetechniques. This was based on thefact that the shuttle itself had to useKatie GilbertInspired by NASA to become an aerospace engineer.“In the school year of 2000, NASA releasedan educational project for elementary-agedstudents. Of course, this project reached the ears of my fun-seekingfourth-grade science teacher, Mrs. Maloney. For extra credit, we were to groupourselves up and answer the critical question: What product could be sent upto space on the shuttle to make our astronauts’ lives easier?“For weeks, our fourth-grade selves spent hours of time creating anexperiment that would answer this question. My group tested cough drops;would they still have the same effectiveness after being in zero gravity forextended periods of time? We sent it in, and months later we received a letter.Four of our school’s projects were to be sent up on the Space ShuttleEndeavour. Our projects were going to space!“When the time finally came, we all flew down to Florida to watch Endeavourblast off with our experiments on board. This all gave me the opportunity tovisit the Kennedy Space Center, see a real Space Shuttle, and talk to actualastronauts. The entire experience was one of the most memorable of my life.With all of the excitement and fascination of the world outside of ours, I knewright then that I wanted to be an astronaut and I made it my life goal to followmy cough drops into space.“As it turns out, cough drops are not at all affected by zero gravity or extremetemperatures. The experiment itself didn’t bring back alien life forms ormagically transform our everyday home supplies into toxic space objects, but itwasn’t a complete waste. The simple experiment opened my eyes to the outsideworld and the possibilities that exist within it. It captivated my interest andheld it for over 8 years, and the life goals I made way back then were the leadingfactor in choosing Purdue University to study Aerospace Engineering.”advanced techniques during the1970s. The emphasis on hierarchicallevels provides an appreciation forthe relationship among the variousfunctions of a system, numerousinterface and integrating problems,and how the design options areessentially countless when one482Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies

considers all the alternatives forsatisfying various functions andcombinations of functions.Also, learning to design a very complexsystem provides the skills to transferthis understanding to the design of anysystem, whereas designing a smallproject does not easily transfer to largesystems. In addition, this approachprovides traceability of the finalsystem design as well as the individualcomponents and subsystems back tothe top-level need, and lowers theprobability of overlooking an importantelement or elements of the design.For designing systems engineeringeducational courses, general topicsare addressed: the general systematictop-down design process; analysis fordesign; and systems engineeringproject management. Specific topicsare: establishment and analysis of thetop-level need with attention tocustomer desires; functionaldecomposition; development of ahierarchical arranged functionstructure; determination of functionaland performance requirements;identification of interfaces and designparameters; development of conceptualdesigns using brainstorming andparameter analysis; selection of criteriafor the evaluation of designs; tradestudies and down-selection of bestconcept; parametric analysis; andpreliminary and detailed designs.Application of engineering analysisincludes the depth and detail requiredat various phases during the designprocess. Systems engineeringmanagement procedures—such asfailure modes and effects analysis,interface control documents, workbreakdown structures, safety andrisk analysis, cost analysis, and totalquality management—are discussedand illustrated with reference tostudent projects.In summary, due to NASA’s efforts insystems engineering, these principleswere transferred to undergraduateengineering courses.Graduate StudentScience EducationThe Space Shuttle’s impact on scienceand engineering is well documented.For scientists, the shuttle enabledthe microgravity environment to beused as a tool to study fundamentalprocesses and phenomena rangingfrom combustion science tobiotechnology. The impact of themicrogravity life and physical scienceresearch programs on graduateeducation should not be overlooked.Many graduate students were involvedin the thousands of experimentsconducted in space and on theground. A comparable number ofundergraduates were exposed to theprogram. Perusal of task books formicrogravity and life science programsreveals that, between 1995 and 2003,flight and microgravity research inthe life and physical sciences involvedan average of 744 graduate studentsper year. Thus, the shuttle providedthousands of young scientists with theopportunity to contribute to the designand implementation of experimentsin the unique laboratory environmentprovided by a spacecraft in low-Earthorbit. Such experiments requirednot only an appreciation of a specificscientific discipline, but also anappreciation of the nature of themicrogravity and how weightlessnessinfluences phenomena or processesunder investigation.In addition to mainstream investigations,shuttle flight opportunities such as theself-contained payloads program—Get Away Specials—benefited studentsand proved to be an excellentmechanism for engineering collegesand private corporations to join togetherin programs oriented toward thedevelopment of spaceflight hardware.All shuttle science programssignificantly enhanced graduateeducation in the physical and lifesciences and trained students to workin interdisciplinary teams, thuscontributing to US leadership inspace science, space engineering,and space health-related disciplines.Social, Cultural, and Educational Legacies483

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Industriesand Spin-offsIndustriesAerospace IndustryJennifer Ross-NazzalHelen LaneCommercial UsersCharles WalkerSmall BusinessesGlen CurtisSpin-offsNASA Helps Strengthenthe “Bridge for Heart Transplants”Jennifer FogartyMaking Oxygen Systems SafeJoel StoltzfusSteve PeraltaSarah SmithPreventing Land Mine Explosions—Saving Lives with Rocket PowerBrad CragunLifeShear Cutters to the Rescue—Powerful Jaws MoveLife-threatening ConcreteJim ButlerThe Ultimate Test Cable Testing DevicePedro MedeliusKeeping Stored Water Safe to Drink—Microbial Check ValveRichard Sauer“Green” Lubricant—An Environmentally FriendlyOption for Shuttle TransportCarole-Sue FeaganPerry BeckerDaniel DrakeIn the late 1960s, many of America’s aerospace companies were on thebrink of economic disaster. The problems stemmed from cutbacks inthe space agency’s budget and significant declines in military andcommercial orders for aircraft. President Richard Nixon’s approvalof the Space Shuttle Program came along just in time for an industrywhose future depended on securing lucrative NASA contracts.The competition for a piece of the new program was fierce. For theSpace Shuttle Main Engines, the agency selected North AmericanRockwell’s Rocketdyne Division. The biggest financial contract of theprogram, estimated at $2.6 billion, also went to North American RockwellCorporation to build the Orbiter. The announcement was one brightspot in a depressed economy, and California-based Rockwell allocatedwork to rivals in other parts of the country. Grumman of Long Island,New York, which had built the Lunar Module, constructed the Orbiter’swings. Fairchild Industries in Germantown, Maryland, manufacturedthe vertical tail fin. NASA chose Martin Marietta of Denver, Colorado,to build the External Tank, which would be manufactured at the MichoudAssembly Facility in Louisiana. Thiokol Chemical Corporation, basedin Utah, won the Solid Rocket Motor contract. In addition to these giants,smaller aerospace companies played a role. Over the next 2 decades,NASA placed an increased emphasis on awarding contracts to smalland minority-owned businesses, such as Cimarron Software Services Inc.(Houston, Texas), a woman-owned business.Shuttle engineering and science sparked numerous innovations thathave become commercial products called spin-offs. This section offersseven examples of such technological innovations that have beencommercialized and that benefit many people. Shuttle-derivedtechnologies, ranging from medical to industrial applications, areused by a variety of companies and institutions.486Industries and Spin-offs

IndustriesAerospace IndustryConcurrent with the emphasis placedon reduced costs, policy makersbegan studying the issue of privatizingthe shuttle and turning over routineoperations to the private sector.Complete and total privatization ofthe shuttle failed to come to fruition,but economic studies suggested thatcontract consolidation would simplifyoversight and save funds. In 1980,NASA decided to consolidate KennedySpace Center (KSC) contracts, and 3years later, KSC awarded the ShuttleProcessing Contract. Johnson SpaceCenter followed KSC’s lead in 1985by awarding the Space TransportationSystem Operations Contract, whichconsolidated mission operationswork. Industry giants Lockheed andRockwell won these plums.Space Shuttle Program Active Flight Hardware Suppliers Distribution by State—12/30/00 to 12/30/04Qualified (Active Flight)Supplier Count DistributionNo suppliers1-18 suppliers19-36 suppliers37-54 suppliers55-72 suppliers72+ suppliersNumber of Supplier Companiesper Major ComponentOrbiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817Main Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147Solid Rocket Boosters . . . . . . . 119Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147External Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,541Space Shuttle Program by Contractor—Fiscal Year 2007 – $2.932 Billion9%11%15%11%54%United Space Alliance—SpaceProgram Operations ContractLockheed Martin—External Tank andMissions Operations ContractAlliant Techsystems/Thiokol—Solid Rocket Booster Motor ContractPratt & Whitney Rocketdyne—Shuttle Main Engine ContractOther Contracts—Jacobs Technology;InDyne, Inc.; Computer SciencesCorporation; and SGSIndustries and Spin-offs487

companies were inspired by earlierwork in American space projects,a few had ideas for the use of spaceentirely founded in the uniquecharacteristics of orbital spaceflight.These included launchingcommercial-use satellites, such astwo communications satellites—Anik C-2 and Palapa Bl—launchedfrom Space Transportation System(STS)-7 (1983). The shuttle phased outlaunching commercial satellites afterthe Challenger accident in 1986.Wyle Laboratories, Inc. works with scientists for the payloads on Neurolab (STS-90 [1998]).The experiment shown is the kinematic, eye tracking, vertical ground reaction force study inMarch 2002. In the foreground are test operators Chris Miller (left) and Ann Marshburn. The testsubject in the harness is Jason Richards and the spotter is Jeremy House.NASA introduced a host of newprivatization contracts in the 1990sto further increase efficiency inoperations and decrease costs.Over the years, companies providedthe day-to-day engineering for theshuttle and its science payloads.For instance, Hamilton Sundstrandand ILC Dover were instrumentalcompanies for spacesuit design andmaintenance. Lockheed Martin andJacobs Engineering provided much ofthe engineering needed to routinely flythe shuttle. Both Lockheed Martin andWyle Laboratories, Inc. are examplesof companies that assured the sciencepayloads operations were successful.Commercial UsersUS industry, aerospace, and othersfound ways to participate in the SpaceShuttle project. Hundreds of largeand small companies provided NASAwith hardware, software, services,and supplies. Industry also providedtechnical, management, and financialassistance to academia pursuinggovernment-granted science andtechnology research in Earth orbit.Yet, a basic drive of industry is todevelop new, profitable business.Beginning in the late 1970s, NASAencouraged American businessesto develop profitable uses of space.This meant conceiving of privatelyfunded, perhaps unique, productsfor both government and commercialcustomers—termed “dual use”—as well as for purely commercialconsumers. While several aerospaceNon-aerospace firms, such aspharmaceutical manufacturers, alsobecame interested in developingprofitable uses for space. Comparedto those of previous spacecraft, thecapabilities of the shuttle providednew opportunities for innovationand entrepreneurship. Private capitalwas invested because of theseprospects: regular transport to orbit;lengthy periods of flight; and, ifneeded, frequent human-tendedresearch and development. Evenbefore the first flight of the shuttle,US private sector businesses wereinquiring about the vehicle’savailability for industrial research,manufacturing, and more, in space.During the 30-year Space ShuttleProgram, companies interested inmicrogravity sciences providedcommercial payloads, such as a latexreactor experiment performed onSTS-3 (1982). These industry-fundedpayloads continued into theInternational Space Station Program.Although the shuttle did not proveto be the best vehicle to enhancecommercial research efforts, it wasthe stepping-stone for commercial useof spacecraft.488Industries and Spin-offs

Small BusinessesProvided Critical Servicesfor the Space ShuttleAs of 2010, government statisticsindicated that almost 85% of Americanswere employed by businesses with250 employees or fewer. Such “smallbusinesses” are the backbone of theUnited States. They also play animportant role in America’s spaceprogram, and were instrumental duringthe shuttle era. For example, themanufacture and refurbishment ofSolid Rocket Motors required thededication and commitment of manycommercial suppliers. Small businessprovided nearly a fourth of the totaldollar value of those contracts. Twoexamples include: Kyzen Corporation,Nashville, Tennessee; and PTTechnologies, Tucker, Georgia.Kyzen Corporation enabled NASA’sgoal to eliminate ozone-depletingchemicals by providing a cleaningsolvent. This solvent, designed forprecision cleaning for the electronicsindustry, was ideal for dissolvingsolid rocket propellant from themanufacturing cleaning tooling.The company instituted the rigidcontrols necessary to ensure productintegrity and eliminate contamination.PT Technologies manufacturedprecision-cleaning solvent withnon-ozone-depleting chemicals. Thissolvent was designed for use in thetelephone and electrical supply industryto clean cables. It also proved toperform well in the production ofSolid Rocket Motors.Small business enterprises areadaptive, creative, and supportive,and their partnerships with NASAhave helped our nation achieve itssuccess in space.© Kyzen Corporation. All rights reserved.Spin-offsNASA Helps Strengthen the“Bridge for Heart Transplants”Innovation can occur for many reasons.It can arise from the most unlikelyplaces at the most unlikely times, suchas at the margins of disciplines, andit can occur because the right personwas at the right place at the right time.The story of David Saucier illustratesall of these points.Dave Saucier sought medical care forhis failing heart and received a hearttransplant in 1984 from Drs. DeBakeyand Noon at the DeBakey HeartCenter at Baylor College of Medicine,Houston, Texas. After his transplant,Dave felt compelled to use hisengineering expertise and theexpertise of other engineers at JohnsonSpace Center (JSC) to contributeto the development of a ventricularassist device (VAD)—a project ofDr. DeBakey, Dr. Noon, and colleagues.A VAD is a device that is implanted inthe body and helps propel blood fromthe heart throughout the body. Thedevice was intended to be a bridge totransplant. This successful collaborationalso brought in computational expertisefrom NASA Advanced SupercomputingDivision at Ames Research Center(Moffett Field, California).This far-reaching collaboration of someunlikely partners resulted in an efficient,lightweight VAD. VAD had successfulclinical testing and is implemented inEurope for children and adults. In theUnited States, VAD is used in childrenand is being tested for adults.A mixing tank used to produce the cleaning solvent for dissolving solid rocket propellant at KyzenCorporation. This solvent was free of ozone-depleting chemicals.Industries and Spin-offs489

The DeBakey VAD ® functions as a “bridge toheart transplant” by pumping blood throughoutthe body to keep critically ill patients alive until adonor heart is available.These illustrations show a visual comparison ofthe original ventricular assist device (top) and theunit after modifications by NASA researchers(center and bottom). Adding the NASAimprovements to the MicroMed DeBakey VAD ®eliminated the dangerous backflow of blood byincreasing pressure and making flow morecontinuous. The highest pressure around theblade tips are shown in magenta. The blue/greencolors illustrate lower pressures.So, what was it that Dave Saucier andthe other engineers at JSC thought theyknew that could help make a VAD workbetter, be smaller, and help thousandsof people seriously ill with heart failureand waiting for a transplant? Well,these folks had worked on andoptimized the turbopumps for theshuttle main engines that happen tohave requirements in common withVAD. The turbopumps needed tomanage high flow rates, minimizeturbulence, and eliminate air bubbles.These are also requirements demandedof a VAD by the blood and body.In the beginning, VADs had problemssuch as damaging red blood cells andhaving stagnant areas leading to theincreased likelihood of blood clotdevelopment. Red blood cells areessential for carrying oxygen to thetissues of the body. Clots can preventblood from getting to a tissue, resultingin lack of oxygenation and buildup oftoxic waste products that lead to tissuedeath. Once engineers resolved theVAD-induced damage to red blood cellsand clot formation, the device couldenter a new realm of clinical application.In 1996 and 1999, engineers from JSCand NASA Ames Research Center andmedical colleagues from the BaylorCollege of Medicine were awarded USpatents for a method to reduce pumpingdamage to red blood cells and for thedesign of a continuous flow heart pump,respectively. Both of these wereexclusively licensed to MicroMedCardiovascular, Inc. (Houston, Texas)for the further development of the small,implantable DeBakey VAD ® .MicroMed successfully implanted thefirst DeBakey VAD ® in 1998 in Europeand, to date, has implanted 440 VADs.MicroMed’s HeartAssist5 ® (the 2009version of the DeBakey VAD ® )weighs less than 100 grams (3.5 oz),is implanted in the chest cavity inthe pericardial space, which reducessurgical complications such asinfections, and can operate for as manyas 9 hours on battery power, therebyresulting in greater patient freedom.This device not only acts as a bridgeto transplant, allowing patients to livelonger and better lives while waitingfor a donor heart, it is now a destinationtherapy. People are living out theirlives with the implanted device andsome are even experiencing recovery,which means they can have the deviceexplanted and not require a transplant.Making Oxygen Systems SafeHospitals, ambulances, industrialcomplexes, and NASA all use 100%oxygen and all have experienced tragicfires in oxygen-enriched atmospheres.Such fires demonstrated the needfor knowledge related to the use ofmaterials in oxygen-enrichedatmospheres. In fact, on April 18, 1980,an extravehicular mobility unit plannedfor use in the Space Shuttle Programwas destroyed in a dramatic fireduring acceptance testing. In responseto these fire events, NASA developeda test method and procedures thatsignificantly reduced the danger.The method and procedures are nownational and international industrialstandards. NASA White Sands TestFacility (WSTF) also offered courseson oxygen safety to industry andgovernment agencies.During the shuttle era, NASA madesignificant advances in testing andselecting materials for use inhigh-pressure, oxygen-enrichedatmospheres. Early in the shuttle era,engineers became concerned that smallmetal particles could lead to ignitionif the particles were entrained in the277°C (530°F) oxygen that flowedthrough the shuttle’s Main PropulsionSystem gaseous oxygen flow controlvalve. After developing a particleimpact test, NASA determined that thestainless-steel valve was vulnerable toparticle impact ignition. Later testingrevealed that a second gaseous oxygenflow control valve, fabricated from analloy with nickel chromium, Inconel ®718, was also vulnerable to particleimpact ignition. Finally, engineersshowed that an alloy with nickel-copper,Monel ® , was invulnerable to ignition byparticle impact and consequently wasflown in the Main Propulsion Systemfrom the mid 1980s onward.490Industries and Spin-offs

The original shuttle extravehicular mobility unit with an aluminum secondary oxygen pack isolationvalve and first-stage regulator ignited and burned during acceptance ground testing on an unoccupiedunit in 1980 (left). The redesigned unit with a nickel-copper alloy secondary oxygen pack isolationvalve and first-stage regulator is being used with much success (right).NASA’s activities led to a combustiontest patent (US Patent Number4990312) that demonstrated thesuperior burn resistance of anickel-copper alloy used in theredesigned, high-pressure oxygensupply system. Member companiesof the American Society for Testingand Materials (ASTM) CommitteeG-4 pooled their resources andrequested that NASA use thepromoted combustion test method todetermine the relative flammability ofalloys being used in industry oxygensystems. Ultimately, this test methodwas standardized as ASTM G124.NASA developed an oxygencompatibility assessment protocol toassist engineers in applying test data tothe oxygen component and systemdesigns. This protocol was codified inASTM’s Manual 36 and in the NationalFire Protection Association FireProtection Handbook, and has gainedinternational acceptance.Pretest.Ignition by particle impact.This gaseous oxygen valve was found to be vulnerable to ignition when small metal particles wereingested into the valve. The test method developed for this is being used today by the aerospace andindustrial oxygen communities.Another significant technology transferfrom the Space Shuttle Program toother industries is related to fires inmedical oxygen systems. From 1995through 2000, more than 70 firesoccurred in pressure-regulating valveson oxygen cylinders used byfirefighters, emergency medicalresponders, nurses, and therapeuticoxygenpatients. The Food and DrugAdministration approached NASA andrequested that a test be developed toensure that only the most ignition- andburn-resistant, pressure-regulatingvalves be allowed for use in thesemedical systems. With the help of aforensic engineering firm in Las Cruces,New Mexico, the WSTF teamdeveloped ASTM G175, entitledStandard Test Method for Evaluating theIgnition Sensitivity and Fault Toleranceof Oxygen Regulators Used for Medicaland Emergency Applications. Since thedevelopment and application of this testmethod, the occurrence of these fireshas diminished dramatically.This spin-off was a significantdevelopment of the technology andprocesses to control fire hazards inpressurized oxygen systems. OxygenSystem Consultants, Inc., in Tulsa,Oklahoma, OXYCHECK Pty Ltdin Australia, and the Oxygen SafetyEngineering division at Wendell Hull& Associates, Inc., in Las Cruces,New Mexico, are examples ofcompanies that performed materialsand component tests related topressurized oxygen systems. Thesebusinesses are prime examples ofsuccessful technology transfer fromthe shuttle activities. Those involvedin the oxygen production, distribution,and user community worldwiderecognized that particle impact ignitionof metal alloys in pressurized oxygensystems was a significant ignition threat.Industries and Spin-offs491

Preventing Land MineExplosions—Saving Liveswith Rocket PowerEvery month, approximately 500people—including civilians andchildren—are killed or maimed byaccidental contact with land mines.Estimates indicate as many as 60to 120 million active land mines arescattered across more than 70 countries,including areas where hostilitieshave ceased. Worldwide, many of themore than 473,000 surviving victimsrequire lifelong care.In 1990, the US Army solicited existingor short-term solutions to in-field mineneutralization with the ideal solutionidentified as a device that was effective,versatile, inexpensive, easy to carry,and easy to use, but not easily convertedto a military weapon.Rocket Science—An Intelligent SolutionThe idea of using leftover shuttlepropellant to address this humanitariancrisis can be traced back to late 1998when shuttle contractor Thiokol(Utah) suggested that a flare, loadedwith propellant, could do the job.To validate the concept, engineerstested their idea on small motors.These miniature rocket motors, nolarger than a D-size battery, were usedin research and development effortsfor ballistics characterization. Withsome refinements, by late 1999, theflare evolved into a de-mining devicethat measures 133 mm (5 in.) in lengthby 26 mm (1 in.) in diameter, weighsonly 90 grams (3.2 oz), and burns forapproximately 60 seconds. NASAand Thiokol defined an agreement touse the excess propellant.The Thiokol de-mining flare used excess shuttlepropellant resulting from Solid Rocket Motorcasting operations to burn through land minecasings and safely ignite the explosives containedwithin. The flares were activated with an electricmatch or a pyrotechnic fuse.Ignition Without Detonation—How It WorksThe de-mining flare device is ignited byan electric match or a pyrotechnic fuse;it neutralizes mines by quickly burningthrough the casing and igniting theexplosive fill without detonation.The benefit of this process includesminimizing the destructive effect ofdemolition, thereby preventing shrapnelfrom forming out of metallic andthick-cased targets. The flares are simpleand safe to use, and require minimaltraining. The flare tube can be mountedon a three-legged stand for betterpositioning against the target case.These de-mining flares weretested against a variety of mines atvarious installations. These trialswent well and generated much interest.Thiokol funded further developmentto improve production methods andease deployment.All branches of the US armed serviceshave purchased the flare. It has beensuccessfully used in Kosovo, Lebanon,Jordan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti,Nicaragua, Iraq, and Afghanistan, andhas been shown to be highly effective.LifeShear Cutters to theRescue—Powerful Jaws MoveLife-threatening ConcreteHi-Shear Technology Corporation ofTorrance, California, used NASAderivedtechnology to develop apyrotechnic-driven cutting tool thatneutralized a potentially life-threateningsituation in the bombed Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building in Oklahoma City,Oklahoma, in April 1995. Using Jawsof Life heavy-duty rescue cutters, afirefighter from the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency Task Force teamsliced through steel reinforcing cablesthat suspended an 1,814.4-kg (2-ton)slab of concrete, dropping the slab sixstories. It took only 30 seconds to set upand use the cutters.The shuttle used pyrotechnic chargesto release the vehicle from itshold-down posts on the launch pad,the Solid Rocket Boosters from theExternal Tank after their solid fuel wasspent, and the tank from the shuttlejust prior to orbit. This type ofpyrotechnical separation technologywas applied in the early 1990s to thedevelopment of a new generation oflightweight portable emergency rescuecutters for freeing accident victimsfrom wreckage. Known as LifeShearcutters, they were developed under acooperative agreement that teamedNASA and Hi-Shear TechnologyCorporation. Hi-Shear incorporated thispyrotechnic feature into their Jaws ofLife heavy-duty rescue cutters. Thedevelopment project was undertakento meet the need of some 40,000 USfire departments for modern, low-costemergency cutting equipment.Hi-Shear Technology Corporationdeveloped, manufactured, and suppliedpyrotechnically actuated thrusters,492Industries and Spin-offs

explosive bolts, pin pullers, andcutters, and supplied such equipmentfor a number of NASA deep-spacemissions plus the Apollo/Saturn,Skylab, and shuttle.The key technology for the LifeShearcutter is a tailored power cartridge—a miniature version of the cartridgesthat actuated pyrotechnic separationdevices aboard the shuttle. Standardcutting equipment employs expensivegasoline-powered hydraulic pumps,hoses, and cutters for use in accidentextraction. The Jaws of Life rescuetool requires no pumps or hoses,and takes only about 30 seconds toready for use. It can sever automotiveclutch and brake pedals or cut quicklythrough roof posts and pillars toremove the roof of an automobile.Firefighters can clear an egress routethrough a building by cutting throughreinforcement cable and bars in acollapsed structure situation.NASA-developed tool, licensed under the name“LifeShear,” used at the bombed Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building (1995), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.The Ultimate Test CableTesting DeviceIt’s hard to imagine, when looking at amassive launch vehicle or aircraft, thata problem with one tiny wire couldparalyze performance. Faults in wiringare a serious concern for the aerospaceand aeronautic (commercial, military,and civil) industries. The shuttle hadcircuits go down because of faultyinsulation on wiring. STS-93 (1999)experienced a loss of power when oneengine experienced a primary powercircuit failure and a second engine hada backup power circuit fault. A numberof accidents occurred as a result offaulty wiring creating shorts or opens,causing the loss of control of theaircraft or arcing and leading to firesand explosions. Some of thoseaccidents resulted in loss of lives,such as in the highly publicized TWAFlight 800 accident in 1996.With the portable Standing WaveReflectometer cable tester, it waspossible to accurately pinpointmalfunctions within cables and wires toreliably verify conditions of electricalpower and signal distribution. Thisincluded locating problems insideshuttle. One of its first applications atKennedy Space Center (KSC) was toKennedySpace Centerengineersconduct wirefault testingusing portableStanding WaveReflectometer.From leftto right:Ken Hosterman;John Jones; andPedro Medelius(inventor).detect intermittent wire failures in acable used in the Solid Rocket Boosters.The Standing Wave Reflectometercable tester checked a cable withminimal disruption to the system undertest. Personnel frequently had tode-mate both ends of cables whentroubleshooting a potential instrumentproblem to verify that the cable wasnot the source of the problem. Once acable was de-mated, all systems thathad a wire passing through theconnector had to be retested when thecable was reconnected. This resulted inmany labor-hours of revalidationtesting on systems that were unrelatedto the original problem. The cost wasexorbitant for retesting procedures. Thesame is true for aeronautical systems,where airplanes have to be checkedfrequently for faulty cables and sensors.The most useful method and advantageof the Standing Wave Reflectometertechnology over other existent types oftechnologies is the ability to measurefrom one end of a cable, and to docomparative-type testing withcomponents and avionics still installed.Eclypse International Corporation,Corona, California, licensed andmarketed two commercial versions ofthe Standing Wave ReflectometersIndustries and Spin-offs493

ased on the prototype designed andpatented by KSC. One called ESPprovided technicians with a simple,plain-English response as to where theelectrical fault was located from thepoint at which the technicians weretesting. A second product, ESP+,provided added memory and softwarefor looking at reflections from theaircraft, which was useful indetermining some level of “soft fault”—faults that are not open or shorted wires.The technology was evaluated by theUS Navy, US Marines, and US AirForce to test for its ruggedness fordeployment in Afghanistan. Thecountry was known for a fine gradeof sand and dusty conditions—ataxing combination rarely found in theUnited States. The model underwentoperational evaluation by the US Navy,US Marines, and US Air Force, and theUS Army put these instruments into thebattle damage and repair kits that wentto Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts ofthe world where helicopter support isrequired. This innovation has proved tobe versatile in saving time and lives.The Ultimate TestIn Bagram, Afghanistan, October 2004,one particular Northrop GrummanEA-6B Prowler aircraft was exhibitingintermittent problems on a criticalcockpit display panel. To make mattersworse, these problems were seldom seenduring troubleshooting but occurredmultiple times on nearly every flight.It was a major safety problem,especially when flying at night in a warzone in mountainous terrain. Squadronmaintainers had been troubleshootingfor weeks, changing all associatedremovable components and performingwire checks with no discernable success.After approximately 60 hours oftroubleshooting, which included phoneconsultation with engineering and themanufacturer of the electronic systemthat was providing intermittentsymptoms, the Naval Air TechnicalData & Engineering Service Commanddecided to try the Standing WaveReflectometer and immediatelyobserved a measured change ofconductor length as compared withsimilar paths on the same aircraft.Technicians were able to isolate theproblem and replace the faulty wire.Keeping Stored WaterSafe to Drink—MicrobialCheck ValveThe Space Shuttle system for purifyingwater has helped the world’s need forsafe water, especially for disastersituations, backpackers, and remotewater systems where power and activemonitoring were limited. Thiswell-tested system, called the MicrobialCheck Valve, is also used on theInternational Space Station. This valveis ideal for such applications since itcan be stored for a long period of timeand is easily activated.The licensee and co-inventor, withNASA, of the Microbial Check Valvewas Umpqua Research Company(Myrtle Creek, Oregon). The systemwas used on all shuttle flights toprevent growth of pathogens in thecrew drinking water supply. The valveis a flow-through cartridge containingan iodinated polymer, which providesa rapid contact microbial kill and alsoimparts a small quantity of dissolvediodine into the effluent stream. Thisprevents further microbial growth andmaintains water safety.The Microbial Check Valve—measuring 5.1 cm(2 in.) in diameter, 12.7 cm (5 in.) in length—is a stainless-steel cylinder with connections onits ends that facilitated its installation in theshuttle water system line. The cylinder is packedwith iodinated ion exchange resin (the baseresin is Dowex SBR ® ). A perforated plate backedby a spring presses against the resin and keepsit compacted to prevent short-circuiting of thewater as it flows through the resin.Treatment of uncontrolled microbialgrowth in stored water was essentialin the shuttle because water wasproduced through the fuel cells ofoxygen and hydrogen, and theresultant water was stored in largetanks. The shuttle was reused and,therefore, some residual water alwaysremained in the tanks betweenlaunches. Iodine, like chlorine,prevents microbial growth, is easy toadminister, and has long-lifeeffectiveness as it is much less volatilethan chlorine.The innovation was a long-shelf-lifeiodinated resin. When water passedthrough the resin, iodine was releasedto produce acceptable drinking water.This system inactivated seven bacteria,yeasts and molds and three differentviruses, including polio. The costswere also very reasonable.494Industries and Spin-offs

The volume of the resin in the valvewas selected to treat five 30-day shuttleequivalent missions (3,000 L [793 gal]:based on 2.8 L [0.7 gal]/day/person userate for a seven-person crew) for themaximum shuttle fuel cell waterproduction rate of 120 L (31.7 gal)/hr.All in-flight-produced water flowedthrough the microbial check valveto impart a small iodine residual toprevent microbial growth duringstorage and back contaminations,further contributing to the safety andpurification of drinking water duringshuttle missions.“Green” Lubricant—An Environmentally FriendlyOption for Shuttle TransportIn the mid 1990s, NASA uncoveredan environmental problem withthe material used to lubricate thesystem used to transport the shuttle.The agency initiated an effort toidentify an environmentally friendlylubricant as a replacement.The Mobile Launcher Platform atKSC provided a transportable launchbase for the shuttle. NASA useda vehicle called a “crawler” with amassive track system to transport theplatform and a shuttle. Duringtransport, lubricants had to withstandpressures as high as 5,443 metrictons (6,000 tons). Lubrication reducedwear and noise, lengthened componentlife, and provided protection fromcorrosive sand and heat.NASA personnel injected low-viscositylubricant on the pins that structurallylinked 57 individual track “shoes”together to form an individual treadbelt. Periodic application duringtransport minimized crankshafting ofindividual pins inside the shoe lugholes, thus reducing the risk ofstructural damage and/or failure of thetread belt system. The performanceparameters of the original lubricantresulted in a need for operators tospray the pins approximately everymile the transporter traveled.Lockheed Martin Space Operations,NASA’s contractor for launchoperations at KSC, turned to Sun CoastChemicals of Daytona, Inc. (DaytonaBeach, Florida) for assistance withco-developing a biodegradable,nontoxic lubricant that would meet allEnvironmental Protection Agency andNASA requirements while providingsuperior lubricating qualities. Sun CoastChemicals of Daytona, Inc. assembleda team of researchers, productionpersonnel, and consultants who metwith NASA personnel and contractors.This team produced a novel formulationthat was tested and certified for trial,then tested directly on the crawler.The new lubricant—Crawler TrackLube—had a longer service lifethan previous lubricants, and wasinjected at longer intervals as thetransporter was being operated.Additionally, the product was not anattractive food source to wildlife.Success with its initial product andthe Crawler Track Lube led to anindustrial product line of 19 separatespecialty lubricants.The Mobile Launch Platform transported the shuttle to the launch pad. Inset photo shows the dispenserthat injects the lubricant on the pins, which are necessary for the treadbelt.Industries and Spin-offs495

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The ShuttleContinuum,Role of HumanSpaceflightThe Shuttle Continuum497

The ShuttleContinuum,Role of HumanSpaceflightPresident George H.W. BushPam Leestma and Neme AlpersteinElementary school teachersNorman AugustineFormer president and CEO ofLockheed Martin CorporationThe theme of this book is the scientific and engineering accomplishmentsof the Space Shuttle Program. The end of this longest-running humanspaceflight program marks the end of an era for our nation. At thisjuncture, it is natural to ask: Why human spaceflight? What is the futureof human spaceflight? What space exploration initiatives should weengage in, in the future?The editor in chief of this publication invited some noted leaders fromthe government and industry, educators, students, and others to sharetheir views and thoughts on these questions. Each contributor providedhis or her own unique perspective. The editors are pleased and gratefulfor their contribution.John LogsdonFormer director of Space Policy InstituteThe George Washington UniversityCanadian Space AgencyGeneral John DaileyDirector of Smithsonian NationalAir and Space MuseumLeah JamiesonDean of the College of EngineeringPurdue UniversityMichael GriffinFormer NASA administrator498The Shuttle Continuum

© 2009, George H. W. Bush. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.The Shuttle Continuum499

Inspiring Students Through Human SpaceflightPam Leestma and Neme AlpersteinPam Leestma taught elementary school for 30 years at Valley Christian Elementary School,Bellflower, California. She won the 2008 National American Star Teaching Award.Neme Alperstein taught for 22 years at the Harry Eichler School, a New York City public school.She was the New York City Teacher of the Year in 2000.Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” changedthe course of history in our quest to explore space. “Failure is not an option” was theApollo Program’s vision to inspire the nation and is the space agency’s legacy forthe next generation.Today we are a global community with international space partners exploring a newfrontier filled with imagination and innovation. Scientific discoveries, human spaceflight,space tourism, moon colonies, and the exploration of Mars and beyond will be thevehicles that will continue to find common ground for transcending borders throughunderstanding, respect, friendship, and peace.NASA’s education programs have provided the powerful resources to engage youngminds. Their essential 21st century tools have brought our youth closer to those on thefrontier of exploration through numerous multimedia interactive technologies. Someways that we, as educators, have been able to get our students “up close and personal”with NASA include speaking with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station inreal time (a downlink), using the facilities of a local California city hall and a New YorkCity community center for a NASA first coast-to-coast downlink, videoconferencingwith NASA’s Digital Learning Network experts and astronauts living and trainingunder water off the Florida coast (NASA’s Extreme Environment Missions Operations),growing basil seeds flown in space with astronaut and educator Barbara Morgan,participating in NASA’s live webcasts, watching NASA TV during coverage of SpaceShuttle launches and landings, and organizing stargazing family nights for the schoolcommunity. The impact of these extraordinary experiences has been life changing.The unimaginable has become the world of infinite possibilities in science, technology,engineering, and mathematics. Human spaceflight missions reflect the diversity ofour global community and the best that such collaboration offers mankind. This diversityreaches out to all students who see increased opportunities for participation. They seethe potential to create the next generation of “spinoffs” that will improve daily life© 2009, Pam Leestma and Neme Alperstein. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owners. All rights reserved.500The Shuttle Continuum

as a result of NASA research and development. They include medical breakthroughs,the development of robotics in exploration and in everyday life, materials sciencein the creation of materials with new properties (i.e., spacesuits), researching theeffect of extreme environments, and the quest for cures and developing new medicinesin microgravity.NASA continues to support teachers through its professional development, conferences,workshops, content across the curriculum, and its willingness to provide access to itsscientific community and experts. We never cease to be amazed by NASA’s generosity ofspirit ever present at the Space Exploration Educators Conference we always attend.Teachers return to their classrooms inspired. It’s a ripple effect.NASA’s vision has provided the spark that ignites the excitement and wonder ofexploration and discovery. Our students see themselves as the next explorers of this newfrontier. It is an imperative that we continue human spaceflight if for no other reason thanto improve life here on Earth and foster cooperation within the global community. Spaceexploration offers our children hope for the future.The Shuttle Continuum501

What’s Next for Human Spaceflight?Norman AugustineFormer president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation and recipient of many honorsfor his national defense, homeland security, and science policy accomplishments.Parachuting an instrument package onto the summit of Mt. Everest would, without question,have been a significant and exciting scientific contribution. But would it have had the broadimpact of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay standing atop the 29,035 ft peak?There are many important missions that can and should be accomplished with roboticspacecraft, but when it comes to inspiring a nation, motivating young would-be scientists andengineers and adaptively exploring new frontiers, there is nothing like a human presence.But humans best serve a nation’s space goals when employed not as truck drivers but ratherwhen they have the opportunity to exploit that marvelous human trait: flexibility. A primeexample is the on-orbit repair of the Hubble Space Telescope using the shuttle. Without thatcapability for in situ human intervention, Hubble, itself a monumental accomplishment,would have been judged a failure. Indeed, there are important missions for both humans androbots in space—but each is at its best when it does not try to invade the other’s territory.So what is next for human spaceflight? There is a whole spectrum of interesting possibilitiesthat range from exploring Mars, Demos, or Phoebus, to establishing a station on the moonor at a neutral gravity point. It would seem that the 1990 recommendations of the WhiteHouse/NASA commission on the Future of the U.S. Space Program still make a lot of sense.These include designating Mars as the primary long-term objective of the human spaceprogram, most likely with the moon as a scientific base and stepping-off point, and gettingon with developing a new heavy-lift launch capability (probably based on the shuttle’sExternal Tank).The cost of space transportation was, and is today, the most intransigent impediment to humanspace travel. The mission traffic models are sparse; the development costs large; the hazard ofinfant mortality of new vehicles daunting; and the arithmetic of discounted cost accountingand amortization intimidating. Thus, at least in my opinion, the true breakthrough in humanspaceflight will occur only when space tourism becomes a reality. Yes, space tourism. Thereis a close parallel to the circumstance when World War II solved the chicken and egg problemof commercial air travel.By space tourism I do not refer to a few wealthy individuals experiencing a few momentsof exposure to high altitudes and zero g’s. Rather, I mean a day or two on orbit for largenumbers of people, peering through telescopes, taking photographs, eating, and exercising.There are, of course, those who would dismiss any such notion as fantasy—but what mightthe Wright Brothers have said if told that within the century the entire population of Houstonwould each day climb aboard an airplane somewhere in the US and complain that they hadalready seen the movie? Or Scott and Amundsen if informed that 14,000 people would visit© 2009, Norman Augustine. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.502The Shuttle Continuum

Antarctica each summer and 50 would live at the South Pole? Or James Wesley Powell ifadvised that 15,000 people would raft the Grand Canyon each year? Or Sir Edmund Hillaryif told that 40 people would stand on top of Mount Everest one morning? In short, to be humanis to be curious, and to be curious is to explore. And if there is any one thing we have learnedabout space pursuits, it is that they are a lot like heart surgery…if you are going to do any of it,it is wise to do a lot of it.We have of course learned many other important things from the Space Shuttle Program.Those include how to integrate extraordinarily complex systems so as to operate in veryunforgiving environments; that high traffic rates can and must be satisfied with reusability; thatsubsystems intended to be redundant are redundant only when they are independent; thatlong-term exposure to space can be tolerable for humans, at least in near-Earth orbit; and thatthe problems you expect (read tiles) can be overcome, while the problems you don’t expect canovercome you (read seals and high-velocity, low-density fragment impacts). These and otherlessons from the Space Shuttle human space programs have had a major effect on engineeringdiscipline throughout the aerospace industry and much of the electronics industry as well.There is a noteworthy parallel between the situation in which America found itself just afterthe Sputnik wake-up call and the circumstance that exists today just after the toxic mortgagewake-up call. In the former instance, much attention was turned to our nation’s shortcomingsin education, in producing future scientists and engineers, and in underinvestment in basicresearch. After Sputnik, the human space program became the centerpiece in an effort to reversethe above situation and helped underpin several decades of unparalleled prosperity. Today, thenation once again suffers these same ailments and once again is in need of “centerpieces” tofocus our attention and efforts. And to this end nothing inspires young would-be scientists andengineers like space and dinosaurs—and we are noticeably short of the latter.As for me, nothing other than the birth of my children and grandchildren has seemed moreexciting than standing at the Cape and watching friends climb aboard those early shuttles,atop several hundred thousand gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and then fly offinto space.My mother lived to be 105 and had friends who crossed the prairies in covered wagons.She also met friends of mine who had walked on the moon. Given those genes I may stillhave a shot at buying a round-trip ticket to take my grandchildren to Earth orbit insteadof going to Disney World. And the Space Shuttle Program provided important parts of thegroundwork for that adventure. All I need is enough “runway” remaining.The Shuttle Continuum503

Global Community Through Space ExplorationJohn Logsdon, PhDFormer director of Space Policy Institute and professor, The George Washington University,and member of major space boards and advisory committees including the NASA ColumbiaAccident Investigation Board.The Space Shuttle has been a remarkable machine. It has demonstrated the many benefitsof operations in low-Earth orbit, most notably the ability to carry large pieces of equipmentinto space and assemble them into the International Space Station (ISS). Past researchaboard the shuttle and especially future research on the ISS could have significant benefitsfor people on Earth. But research in low-Earth orbit is not exploration. In my view, it is pasttime for humans once again to leave low-Earth orbit and restart exploration of the moon,Mars, and beyond. President George W. Bush’s January 2004 call for a return to the moonand then a journey to Mars and other deep space destinations is the policy that should guideUS government human spaceflight activities in the years to come.The 2004 exploration policy announced by President Bush also called for internationalparticipation in the US exploration initiative. The experience of the ISS shows thevalue of international partnerships in large-scale space undertakings. While the specificsof the ISS partnership are probably not appropriate for an open-ended explorationpartnership, the spirit and experience of 16 countries working together for many yearsand through difficult challenges certainly is a positive harbinger of how future spaceexploration activities can be organized.Since 2006, 14 national space agencies have been working together to chart that future.While the United States is so far the only country formally committed to humanexploration, other space agencies are working hard to convince their governments tofollow the US lead and join with the United States in a multinational exploration effort.One product of the cooperation to date is a “Global Exploration Strategy” document thatwas approved by all 14 agency heads and issued in May 2007. That document reflectson the current situation with words that I resonate with: “Opportunities like this comerarely. The human migration into space is still in its infancy. For the most part, we haveremained just a few kilometers above the Earth’s surface—not much more than campingout in the backyard.”It is indeed time to go beyond the “camping out” phase of human space activity, whichhas kept us in low-Earth orbit for 35 years. Certainly the United States should capitalize onits large investment in the ISS and carry out a broadly based program of research on thisorbiting laboratory. But I agree with the conclusions of a recent White Paper prepared by© 2009, John Logsdon. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.504The Shuttle Continuum

the Space, Policy, and Society Research Group at MIT: “A primary objective of humanspaceflight has been, and should be, exploration.” The Group argues that “Exploration isan expansion of human experience, bringing people into new places, situations, andenvironments, expanding and redefining what it means to be human.” It is exploration, sodefined, that provides the compelling rationale for continuing a government-fundedprogram of human spaceflight.I believe that the new exploration phase of human spaceflight should begin with a return tothe moon. I think the reasons to go back to the moon are both that it is the closest place togo and it is an interesting place in its own right. We are not technologically ready forhuman missions to Mars, and the moon is a more understandable destination than justflying to a libration point in space or to a near-Earth object. The moon is like an offshoreisland of the planet Earth, and it only takes 3 days to get there. During the Apollo Program,the United States went to the surface of the moon six times between 1969 and 1972; thelunar crews explored only the equatorial region of the moon on the side that always facesthe Earth. So we have never visited 85 to 90 percent of the moon’s surface, and there arelots of areas yet to explore. The far side of the moon may be the best place in the solarsystem for radio astronomy. Most people who are looking at the issue now think that oneof the poles of the moon, probably the South Pole, is a very interesting place scientifically,and that there may be resources there that can be developed for use in further spaceexploration. So the moon is an interesting object to study, and to do science from, andperhaps as a place to carry out economically productive activity.The Space Shuttle has left us a legacy of exciting and valuable exploits in low-Earth orbit.But it is now time to go explore.The Shuttle Continuum505

The Legacy of the “Space Shuttle”Views of the Canadian Space AgencyThe Space Transportation System; a.k.a. the “Space Shuttle”; is the vehicle that arguablybrought Canada to maturity as a global space power. Canada was an early advocate inrecognizing the importance that space could play in building the country. Initially, this wasachieved through the development of small indigenous scientific satellites to study the Earth’supper atmosphere, beginning with Alouette, launched by NASA in 1962, which positionedCanada as the third nation, after the Soviet Union and the United States of America, to haveits own satellite successfully operate in the harsh and largely unknown environment of space.The follow-on Alouette-II and ISIS series of satellites (1965 to 1971) built nationalcompetence and expertise and set the foundation for Canada’s major contributions to therapidly developing field of satellite communications (Anik series and Hermes), to usingEarth Observation data to meet national needs, as well as to the development of signaturetechnologies that were the basis of Canada’s space industry (e.g., STEM* deployable systems,antennas). By the mid-1970s, however, Canada’s emerging space program was at acrossroads: space communications were becoming commercialized, Canada was not yetready to commit to the development of an Earth Observation Satellite, and no new scientificsatellites or payloads were approved. This situation changed dramatically in 1974 when theGovernment of Canada approved the development of a robotic arm as a contribution to theSpace Shuttle Program initiated by NASA two years earlier. This Shuttle Remote ManipulatorSystem was designed to deploy and retrieve satellites from and to the Shuttle orbiter’s payloadbay, as well as support and move extra-vehicular astronauts and payloads within the payloadbay. The first “Canadarm” was paid for by Canada and first flew on the second Shuttle flightin November 1981. Originally planned by NASA to be flown only occasionally, Canadarmhas become a semi-permanent fixture due to its versatility and reliability, especially in supportof extra-vehicular activities; i.e., spacewalks; and, more recently, as an essential element inthe construction and servicing of the International Space Station and the detailed remoteinspection of the Shuttle after each launch that is now a mandatory feature of each mission.Canadarm has become an important and very visible global symbol of Canadian technicalcompetence, a fact celebrated in a recent 2008 poll of Canadians that identified the Canadarmas the top defining accomplishment of the country over the last century.Returning to scientific endeavours, the Shuttle’s legacy with respect to the space sciences inCanada was more circuitous. Towards the end of the 1970s, following the successfulAlouette/ISIS series, Canada turned its attention to defining its next indigenous scientificsatellite mission. As the merits of a candidate satellite called Polaire were debated, Canadian*STEM—storage tubular extendible member© 2009, Canadian Space Agency. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.506The Shuttle Continuum

scientists were encouraged to propose experiments in response to an Announcement ofOpportunity released by NASA in 1978 to fly future missions on the Shuttle. This was duringthe heady days when a Shuttle mission was proposed to fly every couple of weeks with rapidchange-out of payloads—the “space truck” concept—and with the possibility to utilize theformidable advantage of the Shuttle to launch and return scientific payloads leading tomultiple mission scenarios for the same experiment or facility. Three Canadian proposals tofly sophisticated, complex experiments in the Shuttle payload bay were accepted byNASA—an Energetic Ion Mass Spectrometer to measure the charged particle environment;an ambitious topside-sounder experiment called Waves In Space Plasmas, a follow-on to theAlouette/ISIS program, to measure the propagation of radio waves through and within theEarth’s atmosphere; and an optical measurement of atmospheric winds from space calledWide Angle Michelson Doppler Imaging Interferometer. Ironically, none of these threeexperiments flew on the Shuttle, all falling to the reality of a technically challenging programwhere missions every few months became the norm rather than every couple of weeks.However, the impetus to the Canadian scientific community of this stimulus through theinfusion of new funds and opportunities enabled the community to flourish that, in turn, ledto the international success of the space science program that is recognized today. Since 1978,Canada has successfully flown well over 100 scientific experiments in space with practicallya 100% success rate based on the metric of useful data returned to investigators. The othercontribution to science that Canada’s partnership in the Shuttle Program provided was thepossibility to develop new fields related to the investigation of how living systems andmaterials and fluids behave in space, especially the understanding of the effects of gravityand exposure to increased radiation. The possibility to fly such experiments on the Shuttlewas reinforced in 1983 when, during the welcoming ceremony for the Shuttle Enterprisein Ottawa, the Administrator of NASA formally and publically invited Canada to fly twoCanadians as payload specialists on future missions and the Minister of Science andTechnology accepted on behalf of the Government of Canada. Canada responded by launchinga nation-wide search for six individuals to join a newly formed Canadian Astronaut Program.In October 1984, now 25 years ago, Marc Garneau successfully flew a suite of six Canadianinvestigations called CANEX* that was put together in approximately 9 months—adevelopment schedule that, today, would be practically impossible. Since that time, Canadianscientists have flown approximately 35 more experiments on the Shuttle, all producingexcellent results for the scientific teams and significantly advancing our understanding of theway that living and physical systems behave in space.*CANEX—Canadian experiments in space science, space technology, and life sciencescontinued on next pageThe Shuttle Continuum507

The Canadian astronaut program has been a remarkable success for Canada, not only inrelation to the excellent support that the outstanding individuals who make up the corps haveprovided to the overall program but also by virtue of the visibility the individuals andmissions have generated, especially within Canada. Canadian astronauts remain inspirationalfigures for Canadians, with every mission being widely covered in the media and appearancescontinuing to draw significant interest. It is a notable fact that after the Soviet Union/Russiaand the USA, more Canadians have flown Shuttle missions than any other single country,fourteen such missions as of 2009.In conclusion, it is fair to say that Canada’s contribution to the Space Shuttle Program hasdramatically changed the way that Canada participates in space activities. Over the past35 years, since Canada initially decided to “throw its hat into the ring” in support of this newand revolutionary concept of a “space plane,” Canada has become a leading player in globalspace endeavours. It can be argued credibly that Canada would not today be at the forefrontof space science activities, space technology leadership, human spaceflight excellence and asa key partner in the International Space Station program if it had not been for the possibilitiesopened up by the Space Shuttle Program. A great debt of gratitude goes to those who sawand delivered on the promise of this program and to NASA for its generosity in believing inCanada’s potential to contribute as a valuable and valued partner. Both gained enormouslyfrom this mutual trust and support and Canada continues to reap the benefits from thisconfidence in our program today. As we finish building and emphasize the scientific andtechnological use of the International Space Station, we look forward collectively to takingour first tentative steps as a species beyond our home planet. As we do so, the Space Shuttlewill be looked upon as the vehicle that made all of this possible. Ad astra!508The Shuttle Continuum

What is the Legacy of the Space Shuttle Program?General John Dailey (USMC, Ret.)DirectorSmithsonian National Air and Space MuseumJohn Young, commander of the first space shuttle mission, pegged the shuttle perfectlyas “a remarkable flying machine.” Arising from the American traditions of ingenuityand innovation, the Space Shuttle expanded the range of human activity in near-Earthspace. Serving as a cargo carrier, satellite deployment and servicing station, researchlaboratory, construction platform, and intermittent space station, the versatile shuttlegave scores of people an opportunity to live and do meaningful work in space. One ofthe most complex technology systems ever developed and the only reusable spacecraftever operated, the shuttle was America’s first attempt to make human spaceflightroutine. For more than 30 years and more than 125 missions, the Space Shuttle kept theUnited States at the forefront of spaceflight and engaged people here and around theworld with its achievements and its tragedies. The experience gained from the SpaceShuttle Program will no doubt infuse future spacecraft design and spaceflight operationsfor years to come.© 2009, John Dailey. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.The Shuttle Continuum509

Inspiring GenerationsLeah Jamieson, PhDDean of the College of EngineeringPurdue UniversityThe space race, set in motion by the 1957 launch of Sputnik and reaching its pinnacle withthe Apollo 11 landing on the moon, is credited with inspiring a generation of engineers. In theUnited States, Congress in 1958 provided funding for college students and improvements inscience, mathematics, and foreign-language instruction at elementary and secondary schools.Math and science curricula flourished. University enrollment in science and engineeringprograms grew dramatically. For over a decade, not only engineers themselves, but policymakers and the public genuinely believed that the future depended on engineers and scientistsand that education would have to inspire young people to pursue those careers.Almost as if they were icing on the cake, innovation and technology directly or indirectlyinspired by the space program began to shape the way we live and work: satellitecommunications, satellite navigation, photovoltaics, robotics, fault-tolerant computing,countless specialty materials, biomedical sensors, and consumer products all advancedthrough the space program.Over the 30-year era of the Space Shuttle, it sometimes seems that we’ve come to take spaceflight for granted. Interest in technology has declined: bachelor’s degrees awarded inengineering in the US peaked in 1985. Reports such as the Rising Above the Gathering Storm(National Academies Press, 2007) urge a massive improvement in K-12 math, science, andtechnology education in order to fuel innovation and ensure future prosperity. Engineeringeducators are looking to the National Academy of Engineering’s “grand challenges”(NAE, 2008) not only to transform the world, but to inspire the next generation of students.Has space exploration lost the ability to inspire? I don’t think so. Over the past five years,I have talked about engineering careers with more than 6,000 first-year engineering studentsat Purdue University, asking them what engineers do and why they are studying engineering.Not a session has gone by without at least one student saying “I’m studying engineeringbecause I want to be an astronaut.” Purdue students come by this ambition honestly: 22 Purduegraduates have become astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on themoon, and Eugene Cernan, the last—or as he prefers to say, “the most recent.” A remarkable18 of the 22 (all except Armstrong, Cernan, Grissom, and Chaffee) have flown Space Shuttlemissions, for a total of 56 missions. Inspiration lives.© 2009, Leah Jamieson. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved.510The Shuttle Continuum

I’ve also talked with hundreds of IEEE* student leaders in Europe, Africa, Latin America, andAsia, asking them, as well as the Purdue undergrads, what their generation’s technologicallegacy might be. In every session on every continent, without exception, students have talkedabout space exploration. Their aspirations range from settlements on the moon to humanmissions to Mars. These students, however, add a layer of intent that goes beyond the simple“we’ll go because it’s there.” They talk about extraterrestrial settlements as part of the solutionto Earth’s grand challenges of population growth, dwindling resources, and growing poverty.More nuanced, perhaps, and more idealistic—but again, evidence of the power to inspire.These students are telling us that space exploration is about dreaming, but it’s also aboutdoing. This isn’t a new message, but it’s one that is worth remembering. It’s unlikely that theinspiration for the next generation of engineers will come from one galvanizing goal, as it didin the Sputnik and Apollo era. Yet, space exploration has the exquisite ability to stretch bothour physical and spiritual horizons, combined with the proven ability to foster life-changingadvances in our daily lives. This combination ensures that human exploration of space willcontinue to be a grand challenge that inspires. As the Space Shuttle era draws to a close, it’s afitting time to celebrate the Space Shuttle Program’s achievements, at the same time that weask today’s students—tomorrow’s engineers—“what’s next?” I believe that we’ll be inspiredby their answers.*The Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersThe Shuttle Continuum511

The Legacy of the Space ShuttleMichael Griffin, PhD*NASA administrator, 2005-2009When I was asked by Wayne Hale to provide an essay on the topic of this paper, I was asnearly speechless as I ever become. Wayne is a former Space Shuttle Program Manager andShuttle Flight Director. In the latter capacity, he holds the record—which cannot now bebroken—for directing shuttle ascents and re-entries, generally the most dynamic portion ofany shuttle mission. His knowledge of the Space Shuttle system and its history, capabilities,and limitations is encyclopedic.In contrast, I didn’t work on the shuttle until, on April 14, 2005, I became responsible for it.Forrest Gump’s mother’s observation that “life is like a box of chocolates; you never knowwhat you’re going to get,” certainly comes to mind in this connection. But more to the point,what could I possibly say that would be of any value to Wayne? But, of course, I amdetermined to try.The first thing I might note is that, whether I worked on it or not, the shuttle has dominatedmy professional life. Some connections are obvious. In my earlier and more productive years,I worked on systems that flew into space aboard shuttle. As I matured—meaning that Ioffered less and less value at higher and higher organizational levels—I acquired higher levelresponsibility for programs and missions flying on shuttle. I first met Mike Coats, directorof the Johnson Space Center, through just such a connection. Mike commanded STS-39,a Strategic Defense Initiative mission for which I was responsible. Later, as NASA ChiefEngineer in the early ‘90s, I led one of the Space Station Freedom redesign teams; the biggestfactor influencing station design and operations was the constraint to fly on shuttle.My professional connections with the Space Shuttle are hopelessly intertwined with morepersonal ones. Many of the engineers closest to me, friends and colleagues I value mosthighly, have worked with shuttle for decades. And, over the years, the roster of shuttleastronauts has included some of the closest friends I have. A hundred others have beenclassmates and professional colleagues, supervisors and subordinates, people I see everyday, or people I see once a year. Speaking a bit tongue-in-cheek, I once told long-time friendJoe Engle that I loved hearing his stories about flying the X-15 because, I said, they weredifferent; my other friends had all flown on shuttle.From time to time, I make it a point to remember that two of them died on it.Most of us have similar connections to the Space Shuttle, no matter what part of the spacebusiness in which we have worked. But the influence of the shuttle on the American* Written in 2009 while serving as NASA administrator.512The Shuttle Continuum

space program goes far beyond individual events, or even their sum, because the legacy ofthe Space Shuttle is a case where the whole truly is more than the sum of the parts.Because of its duration at the center of human spaceflight plans and activities, because of thegap between promise and performance, because of the money that has been spent on it,because of what it can do and what it cannot do, because of its stunning successes and itstragic failures, the Space Shuttle has dominated the professional lives of most of us who arestill young enough to be working in the space business. I’m 59 years old as I write this, andcloser to retirement than I would like to be. Anyone my age or younger who worked on Apollohad to have done so in a very junior role. After Apollo, there were the all-too-brief years ofSkylab, the single Apollo-Soyuz mission, and then—Space Shuttle. So, if you’re still workingtoday and spent any time in manned spaceflight over the course of your career, you workedwith shuttle. And even if you never worked in human spaceflight, the shuttle has profoundlyinfluenced your career.So, as the shuttle approaches retirement, as we design for the future, what can we learn fromhaving built and flown it, loved and feared it, exploited and been frustrated by it?If the shuttle is retired by the end of 2010, as presently planned, we will have been designing,building, and flying it for more than 4 decades, four-fifths of NASA’s existence. This istypical; aerospace systems normally have very long life cycles. It was Apollo that was anaberration. We must remember this as we design the new systems that will, one day, becommanded by the grandchildren of the astronauts who first fly them. We must resist makingcompromises now, just because budgets are tight. When a system is intended to be used fordecades, it is more sensible to slip initial deployment schedules to accommodate budget cutsthan to compromise technical performance or operational utility. “Late” is ugly until youlaunch; “wrong” is ugly forever.The shuttle is far and away the most amazingly capable space vehicle the world has yet seen,more so than any of us around today will likely ever see again. Starting with a “clean sheet ofpaper” less than a decade after the first suborbital Mercury flight, its designers set—andachieved—technological goals as far beyond Apollo as Apollo was beyond Mercury. What itcan do seems even now to be the stuff of science fiction.But it is also operationally fragile and logistically undependable. Its demonstrated reliability isorders of magnitude worse than predicted, and certainly no better than the expendable vehiclesit was designed to replace. It does not degrade gracefully. It can be flown safely and well, butcontinued on next pageThe Shuttle Continuum513

only with the greatest possible attention to every single detail, to the consequences bothintended and unintended of every single decision made along the path to every single flight.The people who launch it and fly it are the best engineers, technicians, and pilots in the world,and most of the time they make it look easy. It isn’t. They work knowing that they are alwaysone misstep away from tragedy.It was not intended to be this way; the shuttle was intended to be a robust, reliable vehicle,ready to fly dozens of times per year at a lower cost and a higher level of dependability thanany expendable vehicle could ever hope to achieve. It simply didn’t happen. What shuttle doesis stunning, but it is stunningly less than what was predicted.If it is true that “satisfaction equals results minus expectations,” and if ultimately we have beenunsatisfied, maybe where we went wrong was not with the performance achieved, but withthe goals that were set. What if we had not tried for such an enormous technological leap all inone step? What if the goal had been to build an experimental prototype or two, fly them, andlearn what would work and what was not likely to? Then, with that knowledge in hand, wecould have proceeded to design and build a more operationally satisfactory system. What if wehad kept the systems we had until we were certain we had something better, not letting go ofone handhold until possessed of another?That we did not, of course, was not NASA’s fault alone. There was absolutely no money tofollow the more prudent course outlined above. After the cancellation of Apollo by PresidentNixon, the NASA managers of the time were confronted with a cruel choice: try to achievethe goals that had been set for the shuttle, with far less money than was believed necessary,or cease US manned spaceflight. They chose the former, and we have been dealing with theconsequences ever since. That they were forced to such a choice was a failure of nationalleadership, hardly the only one stemming from the Nixon era. But the lesson for the future isclear: in the face of hard choices, technical truth must hold sway, because it does so in the end,whether one accepts that or not.I will end by commenting on the angst that seems to accompany our efforts to move in anorderly and disciplined manner to retire the shuttle. In my view we are missing the point, andmaybe more than one point.First, the shuttle has been an enormously productive step along the path to becoming aspacefaring civilization. But it does not lie at the end of that path, and never could have.514The Shuttle Continuum

It was an enormous leap in human progress. The shuttle wasn’t perfect, and we will makemore such leaps, but none of them will be perfect, either.Second, even if the shuttle had accomplished perfectly that which it was designed to do,we must move on because of what it cannot do and was never designed to do. The shuttle wasdesigned to go to low orbit, and no more. NASA’s funding is not such that we can afford toown and operate two human spaceflight systems at the same time. It never has been. Therewere gaps between Mercury and Gemini, Gemini and Apollo, Apollo and Space Shuttle.There will be a gap between Space Shuttle and Constellation*. So, if we can have only onespace transportation system at a time—and I wish wholeheartedly that it were otherwise—then in my opinion it must be designed primarily to reach beyond low-Earth orbit.If we are indeed to become a spacefaring civilization our future lies, figuratively, beyondthe coastal shoals. It lies outward, beyond sight of land, where the water is deep and blue.The shuttle can’t take us there. Our Constellation systems can.So, yes, we are approaching the end of an era, an era comprising over 80% of NASA’s history.We should recognize and celebrate what has been accomplished in that era. But we should notbe sad, because by bringing this era to an end, we are creating the option for our children andgrandchildren to live in a new and richer one. We are creating the future that we wanted to see.*Constellation refers to the NASA program designed to build the capability to leave low-Earth orbit.The Shuttle Continuum515

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