32 Years Later: Day Two: Tuesday, August 8, 2001, Briefing, Part 2

The Space Experiment Module (SEM) is an experiment managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. It is part of an initiative to increase educational access to Space. The SEM canister will contain up to 10 small, enclosed modules, each containing a separate, passive experiment designed and constructed by students. The experiment will remain on the Shuttle during Mission STS-105. Two Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) Containers will carry hundreds of samples ranging from lubricants to solar cell technologies. Crewmembers of STS-105 will attach the samples to the Station during a spacewalk. The samples will be exposed to the harsh environment of space for one year in order to examine how the coatings fare. The MISSE experiments will help researchers seek new insight into developing materials for future spacecraft, as well as making materials last longer on Earth.

After the meeting, I had the opportunity to talk to Armstrong about my connection to the Ames Research Center, my responsibilities and my purpose here at KSC and thanked him for a thorough job in explaining the mission.
Next, we attend 3-D feature presentation called, "L5: City in Space" in a comfortable air-condition IMAX theatre at the Galaxy Center. The Galaxy Center is located at the north end of Spaceport USA, which provides visitors with a variety of enjoyable attractions. The IMAX and Galaxy Theaters space art, and informative space exhibits are housed inside the Galaxy Center. You wouldn't have known that it was 100 degrees, high humidity outside the facility as it was very cool inside.
The L5 story takes place 100-years in the future when we've been able to achieved building orbiting space stations with cities inside them at libration point 5. There are five libration points in space around the Earth-Moon system. They are called Lagrangian points, after the French astronomer-mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange (1738-1813) who first showed that libration points exist. The L1 point is approximately 58,000 kilometers (36,000 miles) above the Moon's near side. L2 is a slightly farther distance above the far side. L3 is a point on the Moon's orbit precisely on the opposite side of Earth. The L4 and L5 positions are also on the Moon's orbit, equidistant from Earth and Moon. They are locations where large permanent space colonies could one day be constructed, thus what our movie is set in the far future. Without giving away the plot, the set design and CGI special effects were so realistic, they almost arrival past science fiction films. The 50 by 70-foot IMAX screen with 3-D glasses gave a feeling that you were moving through space in and around the space city of the future.
After the movie, we were scheduled to board our bus for 2 P.M. at the NASA Protocol Office Bus Boarding area. While we waited amongst other spectators, we hear over the loud speakers, that the Genesis probe was about lift off since weather was clear for launch. I'd forgotten about the Genesis mission at the time but this gave us an opportunity to see our first live unmanned launch before tomorrow's manned launch. The launch had been delayed several times due to the rain and we had the opportunity to see the unmanned probe riding atop a Delta II rocket. We position ourselves in the parking lot and managed to capture on camera at 12:13 P.M. EDT, the rocket liftoff, disappearing into the clouds for a few seconds. The wristwatch-shaped Genesis probe's name means origin or beginning. And its mission is the origin of the universe, thus the Genesis name. After a three-month journey, Genesis will park 930,000 miles from Earth where scientists say the gravitational pulls of the Earth and the sun are balanced. The satellite then will unfold its bejeweled frying pan-shaped solar collectors to attract certain elements of the solar wind. Genesis will spend about two years collecting 10 to 20 micrograms of solar wind -- that's the weight of a few grains of salt. Then, the spaceship closes its lids and heads back to Earth. In September 2004, it will plummet toward the desert at the U.S. Air Force's Utah Testing and Training Range.


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