THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090612
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Barring last-minute technical gremlins, two Hampton Roads experiments will rocket into orbit this afternoon on board the space shuttle Discovery. Norfolk public school students and scientists from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton will watch their payloads take flight from a viewing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
For the groups, this launch culminates efforts that go back nearly a decade. The mission also marks the first time in space shuttle history that Hampton Roads high schoolers have designed and sent an experiment to space.
``All this work has come to something,'' said teacher Joy Young, supervisor of NORSTAR, which stands for Norfolk Public Schools Science and Technology Advanced Research. ``We're feeling real good. We know it's going up. The kids are very excited.''
The NORSTAR payload is designed to visually record sound wave patterns in the nearly weightless conditions of space. Results from the student experiment could lead to more efficient internal combustion engines, quieter air conditioners, better sound deadening in auditoriums, and car mufflers that can barely be heard.
NORSTAR gear is packed into an aluminum canister roughly the size of a 55-gallon drum and mounted in the shuttle cargo bay.
The canister is sealed tight but hooked electrically to Discovery's power grid. Astronauts will turn the NORSTAR instruments on and off with a hand-held remote.
The Norfolk experiment is one of a dozen canisters that include projects designed by adult researchers from China, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.
However, the experiments are not Discovery's primary payload. That honor falls to a device designed by NASA Langley engineers and scientists. Called LITE, for Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment, the Langley device will make use of lasers to study clouds and aerosols, tiny particles floating in Earth's atmosphere. The results could improve long-range weather forecasting by pinpointing the atmospheric conditions that affect and drive world weather patterns.
``We are trying to provide the kind of data climate modelers need,'' said LITE project scientist M. Patrick McCormick. ``This is the first time this remote sensing (technology) has been used. It opens a whole new area to scientists.''
Lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, is similar to radar but uses focused light rather than radio waves as a means of measuring distance and speed. LITE will send laser bursts through atmospheric aerosols and clouds.
Aerosols include not just minute droplets of water and chemical pollutants, but also the residue from forest fires, agricultural burning, wind erosion, volcanic eruptions and automobile tailpipes. The types of aerosols and their distribution in the atmosphere affect cloud formation, kind and frequency of precipitation, and average global temperature.
NASA scientists believe constellations of LITE-like orbiting satellites could be used to monitor weather from one minute to the next.
Discovery is scheduled for a nine-day mission. Late Thursday, forecasters were calling for good launch weather.
Locally, cable TV viewers can see the 4:30 p.m. launch on CNN. Coverage usually begins 15 to 30 minutes prior to liftoff.
The last shuttle launch attempted was Aug. 17. That day, as NASA's countdown clock reached zero, the shuttle Endeavour's main engines abruptly shut down because of an overheated fuel pump. ILLUSTRATION: Color drawing
[Space Shuttle lifting off]
by CNB