April 17, 1994 MET 08

Student Report Six

Well, we're getting close. Today's Sunday, and the Shuttle lands on Tuesday. Things are still going well. In fact, by Friday, the amount of data that the scientists here were expecting to be collected had been. A conservative estimate has to be made, because of all the different things that can happen, but for the people down here, it's like having an extra four days to take data. Aaron hasn't spoken yet -- it was rescheduled for 5:00 today. Tomorrow you'll get that report.

We had a very good time on our day off, thank you very much. We visited Houston and liked it less than immensely, and then visited Galveston and didn't hate it but it still wasn't that great. It was a day off, though, which all of us needed. All of us have jobs of one sort or another, but none of us are used to working ten or twelve hour shifts starting at seven in the morning. The work is fun, but it gets to you.

Although history takes no notice of such things, it's kind of exciting for a bunch of college freshmen to think that because of research they did, something on a Shuttle mission changed. Because of our reports of flooding in Bangladesh and the Mississippi River area, SIR-C has taken data of those areas. It's infinitesimal compared to the scope of the mission, but because of us, the shuttle made a maneuver. Yes, it's stupid, but I know that I get a thrill out of it. Our part in it was collecting data on the affected areas. We monitored the papers, and when we noticed the targets of opportunities, we put together reports with everything from the path that the radar would take to previous radar data to complete weather forecasts to satellite pictures. And although it won't give us immortality, it's still cool.

I don't know what you think of what JSC looks like, but I know that the first time I walked onto JPL, it destroyed every expectation that I had. JSC is easily the size of a small town. It is big enough to have its own roads, and I don't mean just a glorified driveway, either. There are a lot of roads here, and all of them are good-sized. To walk from one side to another would probably take fifteen or twenty minutes. There are enough parking spaces to fit 5,000 JSC employees and 12,000 outside contractors, from Lockheed to Boeing. There are about 120 buildings, all told, and none of them are anything that could be described as small. The grounds are very well-kept, though. All the grass is green, and there's a fair-sized pond right out of Building Eight. And there's quite a lot of grass. In fact, there are many parks that would envy JSC's spaciousness. I think that a popular conception is that a place like JSC would feel sterile, but it's actually quite a nice place. (with the exception, of Mission Control, which is still a nice place, but really is sterile.)

Actually, there are places on JSC (and JPL) that really ARE sterile. They're called the Clean Rooms, and that's just what they are. They're fabrication facilities, and the nature of the equipment that is being build in them is such that they have to be reduced to a level of sterility equaled by no other place on Earth. These are the places you think of when you think "NASA complex" -- enormous rooms, rooms so big that trucks can drive into them easily. Pure white rooms, with a bunch of scientists with face masks, white outfits, clip boards, and lots of delicate tools put together some of the most complex equipment ever assembled.

To get into the Clean Room where SIR-C/X-SAR was assembled, Jon and Alicyn went through a chamber that blew all of the dust off of their clothing and vacuumed it up, and another area where they had to step on stuff which removed all the dirt from their shoes. Inside, a stream of air is constantly blowing through the room to get rid of any free-floating dust. And that room was relatively dirty by Clean Room standards. It was a level 100,000 room, which means that for every cubic (Something; I'm honestly not sure. I think meter, but it could just as easily be foot or yard) there are only 100,000 particles of dust. NASA has Clean Rooms that go all the way down to level 1 -- a single particle of dust for every cubic whatever. That we have the technology to do that -- to take a room and remove all traces of the Earth outside of it, to make it an absolutely artificial environment -- is incredibly impressive. I can't imagine the rooms themselves, however, being anything but depressing, and maybe even frightening. On the other hand, these literally ARE the rooms where dreams are built ... that's far from depressing. But it's still an environment entirely different from that which Man was meant to inhabit. Powerful stuff.

We've been here for a week, now, and a lot has changed. While last Sunday it was comfortable working here nearly alone, now it feels empty There's no-one here to answer questions, no odd requests for information coming in over the loop. It's a lot less hectic, but there's a less to do. It's different. It's the weekend. Everyone but us is home resting. Oh well, two days left.

I wish that there was more to tell you. Friday we mostly did research, finding out what people need to know. Fun work, and important to the people who need the data, but not worth writing about. I guess that the report ends here -- tomorrow we'll at least have Aaron's report. Until then ...