IML-2 Public Affairs Status Report #04
6:00 a.m. CDT, July 10, 1994
1/18:17 MET
Spacelab Mission Operations Control
Marshall Space Flight Center

Crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia spent a productive night
performing experiments in life and materials science for the second
International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2) mission.

Mission Specialists Leroy Chiao and Don Thomas placed sample containers of
Chara, a type of green algae, into the Slow Rotating Centrifuge Microscope
(called NIZEMI, the acronym for its German name) and adjusted the facility's
microscope to provide the best possible view of the algae during their exposure
to variations in levels of gravity.  Video downlink of this experiment gave
Principal Investigator Dr. Andreas Sievers of Bonn, Germany, a good view of how
these single cells react and adjust to various levels and durations of gravity.

Chiao continued to conduct a second experiment studying jellyfish in the NIZEMI
facility.  Dr. Dorothy Spangenberg of the Eastern Virginia Medical School in
Norfolk, Virginia, principal investigator for this IML-2 experiment, watched
video downlink of the jellyfish as they experienced the varying levels of
gravity provided by the NIZEMI facility.  This experiment is designed to
examine the effect of microgravity on developmental processes of animals and
the role gravity plays in the behavioral and developmental responses of
organisms on Earth.

Chiao opened the window of Japan's Aquatic Animal Experiment Unit and reported
that the goldfish continue to appear healthy.  This experiment explores the
hypothesis that space motion sickness is caused by conflicting messages sent to
the brain from the eyes and gravity-sensing organs, the otoliths.  Dr. Akira
Takabayashi, principal investigator from Toyoake, Japan, hopes to clarify
causes of space motion sickness as part of the efforts to develop preventive
measures.

Life sciences investigations continued throughout the evening as Thomas worked
in the European Space Agency's Biorack glovebox to terminate the growth of
roots from a plant called rape (Brassica napus) and preserve them for analysis
after the mission.  This investigation is called Transform because the plant
roots have been genetically transformed by strains of a bacteria known as
Agrobacterium, which causes the roots to branch out excessively and become
unaffected by gravity on Earth. Principal Investigator Dr. Tor-Henning Iversen
of Dragvoll, Norway, designed this experiment to compare the roots of these
genetically altered plants to those of normal plant roots grown in
microgravity.  Scientists must learn more about plant growth in microgravity
before plants can be included as part of the ecological environment system for
longer stays in space.

Payload Specialist Chiaki Mukai worked in the Biorack glovebox to "wash" white
blood cells.  This washing process was done when Mukai injected a
detergent-filled syringe into the cell containers and actually flushed the
culture medium away from the white blood cells.  These procedures completed the
Cytokine experiment, and Dr. Didier Schmitt of Toulouse, France, will analyze
the cells and the culture medium after landing to determine the rate of cell
growth and multiplication.  Previous space experiments have shown that the
absence of gravity interferes with normal cell activities and scientists hope
to determine which part of the cells' reaction chain is altered in
microgravity.

Both of the Biorack centrifuges continue to work normally following an earlier
inflight maintenance procedure which connected both centrifuge drives to the
same drive motor, bypassing a failed drive motor in one of the centrifuges.

Payload Commander Rick Hieb talked with team members for the Electromagnetic
Containerless Processing Facility (called TEMPUS, the acronym for its German
name) to adjust an aluminum-copper-iron sample before processing began.  In
this experiment, a small spherical sample was levitated, melted and solidified
to help scientists better understand how and why quasicrystals form.  The
quasicrystalline state in metallic alloys, the third state of solid matter, was
only discovered in 1984.  Before the experiment was completed, downlink
indicated that the sample was moving toward the side of its container, or cage.
The science team decided to retract the sample to avoid possible contamination
of the heater coils.  Thomas viewed the sample in the TEMPUS facility, relaying
information to Angelika Diefenback, an operations team member at the Spacelab
Mission Operations Control center in Huntsville, Ala., about the behavior of
the sample as it was successfully retracted.

Thomas started the operation of a second experiment in the TEMPUS facility
which will investigate viscosity and surface tension of undercooled melts.  Dr.
Ivan Egry, principal investigator from Cologne, Germany, will examine the data
from this IML-2 experiment to gain a better understanding of the internal
friction of a liquid (viscosity) and the force that keeps liquid together in a
drop (surface tension).

Payload controllers continue to plan for an inflight maintenance procedure to
repair the data downlink system which supports part of the Japanese life
sciences equipment.  The Real-Time Radiation Monitoring Device, a Japanese
investigation which measures the high-energy cosmic radiation entering the
Spacelab module, has been turned off and will not be turned back on until the
data downlink system is operational.

During the next 12-hour shift, STS-65 crew members will continue to conduct
life sciences experiments in the NIZEMI and Biorack facilities and materials
sciences investigations in the TEMPUS facility.

NASA issues four status reports daily on STS-65/IML-2 activities:
science operations reports from Spacelab Mission Operations Control in
Huntsville at approximately 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and orbiter operations reports
from Mission Control in Houston at approximately 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.