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Right: Mary Etta Wright, the MSG Integration and Test Engineer at NASA/Marshall's Microgravity Development Laboratory, demonstrates the roomy interior of the Microgravity Science Glovebox. Links to 1024x673-pixel, 160KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall The Microgravity Science Glovebox Ground Unit - delivered to NASA/Marshall's Microgravity Development Laboratory - will be used to test hardware and procedures for the flight model of the glovebox aboard the ISS's U.S. Laboratory Module, Destiny. Many of the microgravity experiments planned for ISS got their start - or an important boost - from early work in the Middeck Glovebox (MGBX), a tiny enclosure carried aboard the Space Shuttle and Mir. In the glovebox, astronauts were able to conduct experiments that are highly promising, but don't quite warrant a full-fledged facility of their own. They still need the personal touch. |
Left: Illuminated by interior lights, the MSG Ground Unit looks like a juke box lacking its records. Fluid and electrical connectors are on the rear bulkhead. Circles are openings for gloved arms and for inserting new equipment. Links to 1280x1024-pixel, 197K JPG. Credit: ESA. Services provided by the new glovebox will include electrical power, air conditioning (to clean the air and cool equipment), pressurized nitrogen, a vacuum vent, color video, connections to the space station's own network and - through communications satellites and the Internet - to scientists at universities and government labs. And lots of room.
Right: Dr. Roger Crouch does some detail work before conducting and experiment in the Middeck Glovebox (actually installed here in the lab module) during the Microgravity Sciences Lab 1 mission in 1997. The MGBX from Shuttle would easily fit inside the new MSG for space station. Credit: NASA. "The beauty of the MSG is that it is so much more powerful than the original gloveboxes that scientists used and so more complete science can be done," said Dr. Don Gillies, the materials science discipline scientist. |
"We are very excited about receiving the first Space Station facility, " said Bob Johnson, a manager at the Microgravity Development Laboratory. "Investigators will be able to bring in their experiment hardware, install it in the glovebox in our laboratory and make sure their experiment will work inside the glovebox aboard the Space Station." The MSG aboard Space Station will support experiments in all five microgravity fields: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics, and materials science. Gloveboxes are especially useful when chemicals, fluids and burning or molten samples need to be contained. |
Right: The view as an experiment will see it from inside the MSG.. Links to 1024x1280-pixel, 150K JPG. Credit: ESA. The much larger MSG will occupy a double floor-to-ceiling International Standard Payload Rack. This more sophisticated glovebox holds larger experiments, and investigators can control their experiments from the ground. The glovebox also has a new video system and a coldplate that can be used to cool hot furnaces and other samples. It supplies vacuum, venting and gaseous nitrogen, as well as increased power, to experiments. An early experiment is the g-LIMIT (GLovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology) that will use a sophisticated electromagnetic levitation system to isolate the most vibration-sensitive experiments from the normal vibrations of ISS. After it has been proven, it will be available for use by other payloads
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More Space Science Headlines - NASA research on the web Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications information from NASA HQ on science in space Microgravity Research Programs Office headquartered at Marshall Space Flight Center Microgravity News online version of NASA's latest in Microgravity advancements, published quarterly. |
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