Technology for Space Research
A major NASA space research objective involves provision of
innovative technology to enable ambitious future space missions
and build capability for the U.S. space industry through focused
technology efforts.
A milestone of that objective was a 1996 Space Shuttle mission
devoted almost entirely to research directed toward expansion
of the commercial space frontier. The mission was STS-77, Orbiter
Endeavour, launched May 19; more than 90 percent of the
payloads aboard Endeavour were sponsored by NASA's Office of
Space Access and Technology (OSAT).
Carried in the Space Shuttle Orbiter's payload bay, the SPACEHAB
space research laboratory doubles the habitable volume of the
Orbiter and quadruples the volume available for crew-tended experiment
hardware.
Primary payloads of STS-77 included the commercially-developed
SPACEHAB module, which supported a wide range of commercial development
experiments; an experiment in deploying a large inflatable antenna;
and a suite of four technology advancement experiments collectively
known as TEAMS (Technology Experiments for Advancing Missions
in Space).
Developed by SPACEHAB, Inc., Arlington, Virginia, the SPACEHAB
Space Research Laboratory is intended to meet a need for additional
experiment facilities on Shuttle flights. Carried in the Orbiter's
payload bay and accessed through an airlock, SPACEHAB is a pressurized
facility that roughly doubles the Orbiter's human-habitable volume
and quadruples the volume available for crew-tended payload hardware.
STS-77 carried the fourth flight of the module, SPACEHAB-04;
it contained almost 3,000 pounds of flight hardware, virtually
all of it in support of NASA's objective to facilitate industry
use of space for commercial products and services.
Two of the basic SPACEHAB modules were built and flight-certified
in a development program financed entirely by private capital.
Under contract to SPACEHAB, McDonnell Douglas Corporation conducted
design, development and construction of the basic module. SPACEHAB
also offers a double module, used on Shuttle/Mir missions, that
can carry 6,000 pounds of cargo; it was modified by the Italian
company Alenia Spazio.
SPACEHAB is operated as a commercial space system; the company
pays NASA for launch services and leases experiment space to
U.S. and international private industry, universities, research
institutions and government agencies, including NASA.
On STS-77, Endeavour carried a single-module SPACEHAB
in the forward portion of the Orbiter's payload bay; the module
housed almost 3,000 pounds of experiments and support equipment
for 10 commercial space development payloads. Some of these payloads
were developed by NASA Commercial Space Centers, which are non-profit
consortia of industry, academia and government partners dedicated
to using the space environment to enable creation by industry
of new and improved products and services.
Examples of the types of experiments carried out in the SPACEHAB
laboratory include:
- The Advanced Separation Process for Organic Materials, designed
to enhance separation technologies for medical products (sponsored
by the Consortium for Materials Development in Space, University
of Alabama-Huntsville).
- The Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, a system
for investigation of molecular, cellular, tissue, small animal
and plant systems (sponsored by BioServe Space Technologies,
NASA's Commercial Space Center at the University of Colorado,
Boulder).
- A series of Commercial Float Zone Furnace experiments designed
to produce large, ultrapure compound semiconductor and mixed
oxide crystals for electronic devices and infrared detectors
(the experiments are joint efforts of Marshall Space Flight Center,
the Canadian Space Agency and the German Space Agency).
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