IML-2 Status Report #16 IML-2 Public Affairs Status Report #16 6:00 a.m. CDT, July 16, 1994 7/18:17 MET Spacelab Mission Operations Control Marshall Space Flight Center The STS-65 crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia were busy overnight, conducting life, materials and fluid science experiments for the second International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2) mission. Mission Specialist Don Thomas made video observations of male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) after transferring two containers from the European Space Agency's Biorack centrifuge and four containers from the incubator into the facility glovebox. Principal Investigator Dr. Roberto Marco of Madrid, Spain, is studying the life cycle of male fruit flies exposed to both simulated gravity and microgravity during IML-2 in an effort to understand more about how space travel affects their aging process. Accelerated aging was noticed on previous flights. Knowledge gained from this experiment could prove useful to researchers studying the factors which influence aging in humans on Earth. Two experiments in the German Space Agency's Slow Rotating Centrifuge Microscope (called NIZEMI), continued studying the amount of gravity necessary to cause a reaction in plants. Thomas selected cuvettes, or containers, of a type of green algae known as Chara and placed them into the NIZEMI facility where they were exposed to varying levels of gravity and videotaped to document their response. Mission Specialist Leroy Chiao made additional observations of selected samples of chemically prepared cress roots in the NIZEMI facility as part of an experiment to determine the lowest level at which roots become sensitive to changes in gravity. After this mission, Dr. Dieter Volkmann of Bonn, Germany, principal investigator for this experiment expects to draw conclusions concerning the ability of plants to adapt to changes in gravity levels. Before plants can be considered as potential food and oxygen sources during extended spaceflights, scientists must understand more about how plants react to gravity changes in space. After transferring containers of slime mold cells from the Biorack incubator, Thomas connected a 35mm camera to the container, providing images of the slime mold after approximately five days of growth in space. A radiation detector, attached to the petri-dish-type culture container, is recording the amount of radiation the slime mold is being subjected to during the mission. Slime mold, which is classified as both an animal and a plant, is being used in this IML-2 investigation because it has a specific life cycle, going from an amoeba to a fruiting body. Principal Investigator Dr. Takeo Ohnishi of Nara, Japan, is studying a radiation-sensitive strain of slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum (which can not repair itself after exposure to radiation) and a wild-type strain of the same slime mold (which repairs itself after radiation damage) to distinguish between the effects of microgravity and cosmic rays. Chiao opened the window to the goldfish tank in the Japanese-provided Aquatic Animal Experiment Unit (AAEU), starting their daylight cycle. He closed the window for their night period before his shift ended. Also in the AAEU, Thomas observed the newts and reported that they continue to appear healthy. No new eggs were hatched since the last observation period. Overnight a science team from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, sent commands from the Spacelab Mission Operations Control center in Huntsville to the European Space Agency's Bubble, Drop and Particle Unit (BDPU) to conduct another fluid science experiment . During the first part of this experiment run, approximately 20 drops of the liquid fluorinert were injected into silicone oil to help Principal Investigator Dr. Shankar Subramanian and other researchers study the movement and shape of liquid drops inside a container that is warmer at one end than the other. Later, Subramanian studied the speed of additional fluorinert drops when the temperature at the warm end was increased. Since bubbles do not behave in space like they do on Earth, scientists must learn how to manage bubbles and drops in order to predict future engineering applications and hardware designs. Just before Chiao took his lunch break, a pump shut off during an experiment run in the Applied Research on Separation Methods Using Space Electrophoresis (called RAMSES). Since the same anomaly had occurred during an experiment run the night before, ground team members decided to leave the facility off for one hour. Chiao successfully restarted the facility and the experiment resumed to its normal completion. Thomas gave several reports on the position of an 8mm (3/8 inch) spherical sample of nickel-niobium, as it was levitated and melted in the German- developed Electromagnetic Containerless Processing Facility (called TEMPUS) last night. Dr. William Johnson from the California Institute of Technology is the principal investigator for this experiment, which is designed to learn more about the physical properties of glass-like metallic materials. Thomas also collected the third of five sets of air samples inside the Spacelab module and in the mid-deck of the Shuttle. Information from this experiment, which is part of NASA's Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project, will add to results from previous flights to determine the air quality inside the Space Shuttle and Spacelab during longer stays in space. During the next 12 hours, science crew activities will include spending time in the Lower Body Negative Pressure device, monitoring the goldfish, Medaka and newts, and conducting materials science experiments in the TEMPUS and BDPU facilities. 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 5 p.m.