April 13, 1994

Allright. It's MET 04/03:10, (Mission Elapsed Time four days three hours ten minutes) flight day five, and time for our third report. Alicyn's talk with the astronauts went famously -- in fact, everyone here was so impressed that we've been invited into the Mission Control Center, the brain of the entire place. We've seen it on TV, and we've even looked in from the viewing room right next door, but it's not the same. A little later, Alicyn will tell you what went on.

To start out with today, I thought that we would give you all out in Netland some idea of where we are and what we actually do here. We're working in a room called EOL, the Earth Observations Lab, and its immediate area. In this room, there is sophisticated equipment for monitoring the weather of the world. For those of you who like to know the tech angles, (I know I do) the equipment is, from the ground up : 5 TVs, a VCR, a laserdisk player, a MAC IIfx with two monitors and more memory than I can shake a stick at, a venerable 386sx-33, an impressive 486dx-66, a PS2/70, a 386-33 notebook that we are in constant connection with a naval weather database called NODDS with, a Silicon Graphics Indy, and, on the floor, the most incredible piece of equipment in the whole lab -- a Silicon Graphics Crimson. This is a computer designed to run hyper-powerful graphics applications. We use it to get satellite weather pictures, manipulate them, and use them to examine weather under the shuttle's flight path. There's also a few racks of computers that I have no idea about whatsoever. We've also got a light table for viewing photos and a thermal printer hooked up to one of the TVs.

But I had promised to tell you what we do here. Earth Obs is usually a minor support position, but STS-59 (the mission designation for this project) is the first step in NASA's Mission To Planet Earth. So Earth Obs becomes a lot more important -- we (the students) monitor world events to search out "targets of opportunity," places on the world where something is happening realtime that the astronauts should be aware of, either to take photos of or, if it's significant enough, to take radar data of. There are a dozen little things that we have to do every day -- keep track of what's going on in the mission over the NASA select TV channel; digging up photos from older shuttle missions to get another view of the areas that are being studied on this mission; we take notes at the daily weather briefing to send over to whoever needs it. We correlate data; we investigate sites.

There's surprisingly much to be done here, even though we're only in college and most of the people here have doctorates. Everyone here has been incredibly supportive, though. Case in point. Pat Jaklitch runs the lab, and has a background in about four seperate fields of science including computers and meteorology, and she seems not to mind us underfoot, so I guess we're doing something right.

Allright! Now we've got what you've been waiting for. This is Alicyn Campbell's report on her conversation with the crew of the Endeavour.

Alicyn : As of today, I am extremely pleased to report that the mission is still continuing smoothly. The phenomenal success of this Mission to Planet Earth has made an already exciting opportunity to be here at JSC even more rewarding.

Yesterday evening I had my discussion with the crew from the POCC COMM. It took place at approximately 7:30 PM, and was an unbelievable experience. As nervous as I was, the days (and weeks) of anxiety became worth it to have the chance to talk to the crew in space about what they were seeing in regards to supersites and a mission I've spent time and effort on. The supportiveness of everyone here at JSC, too, made the experience all the more impressive. The continual faith shown by JoBea and others in me and my ability makes experiences like this even more worthwhile. When I think of the opportunities which have already been made available to me at the age of eighteen, sometimes all of this doesn't even seem real.

The sites I have been working on for the past two summers were in the disciplines of ecology, hydrology, and oceanography; but as a biology major and environmentalist, the sites in the Amazon (namely Manaus) have become closest to my heart. I had the chance to update the crew on what I have been doing here at JSC with the Manaus site, and tell them about the first SIR-C image of the area. Additionally, I was able to inquire about what they've seen so far, and how they're manipulating the extensive amount of camera equipment on the Shuttle to take images of the sites.

The opportunity to be at the Johnson Space Center for the duration of the mission is an amazing one. I've spent the past two summers working with JoBea Way of the Jet Propulsion Lab on a crew notebook, and learning about the sites to be targeted in this mission. To be involved in the mission and able to see the goals of the project come to fruition so successfully is definitely an extraordinary feeling. As an environmental monitoring tool, SIR-C is one of the most important devices we as young people will have to combat the damage being done to the planet we will soon inherit as adults. Knowledge is vital in the struggle to preserve planet earth, and this mission is the first of many that will contribute to providing that information. The Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) will have a real impact in shaping what we've learned, and are yet to learn about our changing planet, and SIR-C/X-SAR is the first step. It is an honor and a privilege for me to be here in Houston for STS 59, contributing my time and myself to the mission to planet earth.