Mission specialist Mamoru Mohri, left, of
Japan's National Space
Development Agency, and pilot Dominic L. Gorie aboard the
space shuttle Endeavour. Click the box on the photo to see
how the shuttle’s radar-mapping apparatus works.
(NASA)
By Marcia Dunn
The Associated Press
C A P E C A N A V E R A
L, Fla., Feb. 16 —
Thanks to fuel-efficient changes in steering and flushing aboard space shuttle
Endeavour, NASA is optimistic that astronauts can complete their mapping of the world.
By Tuesday, flight controllers had come up with 17 ideas for
conserving fuel aboard Endeavour, ranging from changes in shuttle maneuvers to changes in
urine disposal. Five were implemented.
Balky Thruster Leads to Fuel
Drain
The astronauts have had to use more shuttle fuel than planned to keep a 197-foot radar
antenna mast pointed in the right direction. Thrusters on the shuttle are being fired more
often to compensate for a malfunctioning thruster on the end of the mast.
“Quite frankly, I’m optimistic that we’re not
going to fold our tent early,” said mission operations representative Milt Heflin.
“But I’ve got to tell you also that I’m probably a couple days away from
coming here and telling you that we’re there. But we’re well on our way.”
A topographic map of Rio Sao Francisco, Brazil, obtained by the
shuttle’s radar, depicts an area south of the Sao Francisco River.
The scrub-forest terrain shows changes in elevation of about 1,300 feet.
(NASA)
Earlier in the week, NASA said the astronauts might have to cut the mapping mission a
day early. The mission to create a 3-D map of the Earth’s terrain was supposed to
continue until Sunday.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the crew had mapped more than 29 million
square miles of terrain at least once. That’s an area roughly equivalent to the size
of Africa and North and South Americas combined.
A Hodgepodge of Fuel-Saving
Ideas
The radar is working so well that engineers feel comfortable giving Endeavour more room to
move in orbit, reducing the number of shuttle thruster firings, Heflin said. By
maneuvering Endeavour more slowly, additional fuel can be saved.
NASA also is changing the way the astronauts flush urine from the
shuttle.
Engineers noticed that less fuel is used to steady the shuttle
when waste water is dumped overboard through a nozzle than when the liquid is discarded
through an evaporator system. So Mission Control has advised the astronauts to go with the
nozzle.
“The things I’m talking to you about are sort of
nickel, dime, quarter sort of savings,” Heflin said. “But if you do this over
hours and days, then you can build up to where you can have mission completion.”
NASA had to pass on one fuel-saving method because of the amount
of human energy required.
While German astronaut Gerhard Thiele was exercising on the
cycling machine Tuesday, flight controllers detected a slight improvement in the position
of the shuttle and the mast. The momentum of the wheel was nudging the shuttle in the
right direction.
“There was actually a noticeable difference, and if you stop
to think about it, it’s a bicycle and you’ve got this wheel, like a gyroscope in
a way,” Heflin said.
Will NASA be ordering up extra exercise sessions for the six
astronauts?
“No, I think we’ll probably stick with the normal
routine,” Heflin said with a laugh.
Talking With Students
Crewmembers also took time out Tuesday for a 10-minute question-and-answer session with
students from three schools in Kansas, North Dakota and Texas.
Eleven-year-old Grahame Hemman was one of 10 fifth-grade students
at Morgan Elementary School in Hutchinson, Kan., who got to chat with Endeavour Commander
Kevin Kregel.
The boy, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan
“Actually, I Am a Rocket Scientist,” stepped up to a tall lectern and spoke
boldly into the speakerphone: “Commander Kregel, how far is the farthest you have
been from Earth?”
The answer from space was fed softly back into the hushed room.
“Well, right now, 125 miles from the earth. The farthest
away in this mission has been 150 miles away. So you see, we are not that far away from
you.”
Neither the questions nor the answers were out of the ordinary:
What does it feel like taking off? Do you get dizzy when you are going up in space? What
do the stars look like?
But for the young students, it meant the world.
Minutes after the session, Grahame was still flushed from the
exchange, his voice cracking with emotion as he talked about his experience.
“It means a lot,” he said.
