Yesterday I was watching the motion picture Academy Awards which was held in Los Angeles, and as such it is a big local event but certainly watched around the world for its star power and glamour. As I watched the Oscar ceremony, I watched scenes from the movie Gravity which had won several awards. Eventhough I have not seen this movie, the scenes of the International Space Station where this films story line takes place brought back memories of a time when my colleagues and I designed and build many of components that make up the present day International Space Station that orbits the earth about 200 miles above the surface of the earth. In the movie the components are just props, to me it was 8 years of hard work, toil, and uncertainly, and at the same time it was an adventure into the great unknown. In the movie I see Sandra Bullock moving around outside the Space Station only like Hollywood movie magic can do. For me it was 1989, (three years after 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, that grounded Shuttle fleet), the Shuttle fleet was just coming back into service after an exhaustive investigation into the accident. The task at hand was to design and test transverse devices (used to help astronauts to move about outside the Space Station). Working with NASA, three designs were proposed, but we had to collect data to prove which of these devices would be most effective in a micro G environment, that had not been done before. It was decided that we are to build and test these devices in a flight experiment to be flown on the Space Shuttle mission STS 37, in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. This was also going to the first Extra-vehicular activity commonly know as EVA, where the astronaut leaves the confines of the space vehicle since the Challenger disaster. EVA is probably the most dangerous mission performed in outer space. We had several challenges a head of us, develop transverse devices that works in a micro G environment, and convince NASA safety committee and a jittery public that it can be safely done. So began the journey that took almost two years, working with NASA engineers and scientist building and testing these devices in large thermal vacuum chambers and in huge under water tanks to simulate micro G environment at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Worked with Astronauts Jerry Ross and Jerome Apt who conducted a total of 10 hours and 49 minutes EVA on this flight experiment and launched the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite from the cargo bay of Atlantis. So as Hollywood glamorizes and bring this story of gravity to life, there is another real life story that played out many years ago that made these props come to life and is still used today by a few people fortunate enough to be living and working on the International Space Station. What wonders are they going to discover and bring to life that is going to improve all our lives in the future. As I drink my morning coffee I can only ponder about how future scientist, engineers and technologist will be improving our lives and to encourage young people to have thirst and curiosity to explore new frontiers. To go where No Man Has Gone Before.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 00:09:32 +0000
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