STS-107 Daily Science Report
January 25
SOFBALL-2 test
point 06A was completed successfully. This was the high pressure,
very lean H2/O2/SF6 test point that had the longest expected burn
time of any SOFBALL test point. A total of four burns were obtained.
The first burn produced one flame ball that lasted about 600 seconds,
which was much less than expected. It was not possible to determine
the precise burn time because the flame ball drifted out of the
field of view of the cameras before it extinguished, and the radiometer
data did not show the abrupt changes normally found when a flame
ball extinguishes. The first reburn produced one flame ball that
lasted about 1000 seconds; it was very similar to the first burn.
The second reburn produced a very interesting result. It also
produced one flame ball that lasted at least 1500 seconds, the
longest of any burn to date, but the flame ball motion was very
dynamic on this test. OARE data show that the motion was not due
to gravity disturbances. This suggests a new and as yet unknown
mechanism responsible for flame ball motion. The third reburn
produced one flame ball that lasted 600 seconds. Unlike the other
three tests, the flame ball extinguished while still within the
camera field of view, which makes it easier to interpret the three
earlier burns. The quality of the science data obtained from these
four burns was outstanding, as was cooperation from the crew.
Pretest operations for test point 11A are currently in work.
SOFBALL-2 test point 11A was completed. This test point was the
first H2/O2/CO2/He test point. The two flame balls were smaller
than expected and did not show any of the dynamic behavior we
expected. The longest-lived one lasted for 705 seconds. We did
a reburn and obtained one flame ball that lasted for 500 seconds.
SOFBALL-2 test point 10A was completed, also. This test point
was hydrogen/air at 3 atmospheres (atm). We could not get this
point to ignite, so we bled the pressure down to 1.75 atm, where
we had success. We had one flame ball that lasted for sixteen
minutes. We are in the process of doing a reburn.
Critical Period #3 of the CVX-2 experiment—the
ramp through the critical temperature (Tc)—was completed.
We have changed the time of Critical Period #4. We are not requesting
any changes to JSC planning of orbiter attitudes or crew exercise.
It is very possible that CVX-2 will continue operations beyond
the 300 hours originally planned. It is likely that operations
will run as long as FREESTAR allows.
We’ve completed the step to soak at Tc + 0.1 K, and have
started collecting data using newly defined sequence S15. The
sample is being prepared for the fourth pass through Tc.
SAMS-FF continues support of ongoing
SOFBALL operations on a 24-hour basis, providing data to the SOFBALL
team on each test point for their science correlation. There was
a short period when SAMS-FF was able to connect to EGDA, but no
data was received. Repeated disconnect/reconnect as directed by
SHCMD did not solve the problem. The next step was to reboot EGDA
during subsequent LOS and attempt to reconnect SAMS-FF—this
cleared the data flow problem.
For the SOFBALL-2 11A test point, SHAB command forgot to put the
Shuttle payload recorder in recording mode as specified in the
OST. As a consequence, the quasi-steady acceleration needed for
SOFBALL-2 science correlation was lost.
Regarding the OARE, recent (weekend) data dumps will not be processed
until Monday because required MSFC/GRC support is not available
until then.
Mission Status Reports
January
31, 2003
January 30, 2003
January 29, 2003
January 28, 2003
January 27, 2003
January 26, 2003
January 25, 2003
January 24, 2003
January 23, 2003
January 22, 2003
January 21, 2003
January 20, 2003
