Dec 27 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that its Kennedy Space Center (KSC) awarded a research grant to Tuskegee University to research possibilities of growing food in outer space. In the project, the researchers would select several sweet potato varieties that looked promising and research nutrient delivery and hydroponic systems that appeared best suited to development of the crop.
The sweet potato project was part of NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) program to search for methods to supply a continuous food source and to regenerate waste during long-duration spaceflights or for proposed lunar colonies. Dr. William Knott, manager of KSC's Life Science Support Facility and technical monitor for the project, said that, if the sweet potato could deliver enough energy conversion efficiency and productivity, NASA would incorporate it into a nearly full-scale “breadboard” of a working CELSS that it was developing. Other plants previously chosen for the CELSS breadboard project included sugar beets, lettuce, SNAP beans, wheat, soy beans, and white potatoes.
The sweet potato research would focus on three systems: plant growth, food processing, and waste management. The program would begin by studying the plants in a sealed 24 by 12-foot growth chamber with controlled light, food, water, and temperature. Plants would receive food in the chamber by recycling the atmosphere and water that passed through the nutrient system. NASA expected the chamber, once used to test the Mercury spacecraft for flight, might produce enough food for two to three people. A waste management system would treat leftovers from the recycling process, converting the waste products into a nutrient source for the plants.
Knott said a major challenge of the project was to harvest the highest yields possible while using a minimum of space and water to deliver nutrients to the plants. “We will take the edible seeds and fruit out of the chamber for processing and storage. The leaves, stems, and parts of the plant normally not consumed also would be converted into a food material.” Calling the CELSS program “a beyond the year 2000 endeavor,” Knott said NASA would test some of the concepts of the program on the proposed space station “just to see if they work.” However, he pointed out, “resupply on a long-duration spaceflight, a lunar base, or on a Mars mission . . . would make the 'space farm' . . . much more attractive.” (NASA Release 85-180)
NASA announced that its Administrator selected Dr. Charles Chappell of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Dr. Dirk Frimout of the European Space Agency (ESA) to serve as alternate payload specialists for the first Earth Observation Mission (EOM), which would use the Spacelab scheduled for launch on the Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis in the latter half of 1986.
Chappell and Frimout would serve as backups to flight payload specialists Dr. Byron Lichtenberg and his alternate, Dr. Michael Lampton.
Chappell was chief of the Solar Terrestrial Div., Space Science Laboratory at MSFC and was responsible for directing a research group that studied the physics of the sun-earth environment. He served as mission scientist for the 10-day Spacelab 1 mission, during which 70 investigations were carried out.
Frimout was the senior engineer supporting European researchers who would have experiments on the mission, and he had served as ESA crew coordinator and operations manager for Spacelab 1.
Chappell and Frimout would train with the flight crew and serve as members of the mission management team in the Payload Operations Control Center during the flight. They would communicate directly with the crew on orbit, assist the payload operations team during normal operations, and aid in trouble shooting problems and in changing crew procedures when necessary. They would also advise the mission scientist, Dr. Marsha Torr, of the possible impact of problems and timeline changes.
The EOM flight was the first in a series of Space Shuttle missions primarily dedicated to measuring solar irradiance and the chemical composition of the earth's stratosphere and mesosphere during an 11-year solar cycle. NASA would refly several instruments originally carried on the Spacelab 1 and 3 missions to accomplish these measurements.
The mission would use the short version of the Spacelab module, in which a single Spacelab pallet and special support structure would hold instruments that required exposure to the space environment. The mission would consist of 15 experiments conducted in six disciplines-atmospheric science, solar physics, plasma physics, earth resources, astronomy, and life sciences. The international mission included experiments sponsored by Belgium, France, Japan, Federal Republic of Germany, and the U.S. ESA would provide operations support for the European investigations.
The Investigators Working Group (IWG), which consisted of the principal investigator for each of the mission experiments, recommended alternate payload specialist candidates for selection by NASA's administrator. (NASA Release 85-179)
Reps. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.) and Norman Dicks (D-Wash.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger warning that “Congress would not excuse any attempt by the Department of Defense to circumvent” a congressional ban on antisatellite weapon testing, the Washington Post reported. The warning came after the Post reported that a DOD official discussed plans to continue development of a $4 billion U.S. antisatellite weapon despite a week-old law that banned tests against an object in space as long as the Soviets did not test such a system.
The DOD official said a possibility under study was to fire a test weapon against “a point in space” rather than at two targets put into orbit December 12 [see U.S. Air Force/NASA and DOD, Dec. 12]. The Air Force “won't do anything in direct violation” of the congressional language attached to an omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Reagan, but “we will find a way to go ahead,” the DOD official had said.
Although the congressional action stopped testing, it did not halt the overall antisatellite program, for which Congress increased by $15 million a Pentagon request for $150 million in FY 86 to develop the system. The increase, a congressional aide said, was to show the Soviet Union that the U.S. program would be available for testing if Moscow broke its moratorium.
The spending bill also had a special $5 million item for the Air Force “to carry out a research program to develop new and improved verification techniques to monitor compliance with any antisatellite weapon agreement that may be entered into by the U.S and the Soviet Union.” Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he hoped to bring arms-control supporters in the House together to discuss antisatellite weapons. The long-term goal of arms control, he said, was “to promote stability.” In the antisatellite area, he added, that meant finding a way to make secure the superpowers' high-altitude satellites that monitored nuclear forces and provided early warning of an attack. (W Post, Dec 28/85, A5, Dec 25/85, Al)
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