Questions about launch readiness, payload preparation, the weather forecast, etc., were answered by a panel of experts on a webcast on the NASA web site. And my question was chosen as one of the 3 "best questions" submitted.
My question was answered by Scott Higginbotham, International Space Station Payload Manager, during the Mission Webcast on July 10th 2005.
The question I submitted was:
Why will the Space Station's robotic arm move the Raffaello module this time instead of how it was done in previous flights where the Space Shuttle's robotic arm was used? Is this a mechanical issue or related to a safety issue?
From NASA - The Orbiter Boom Sensor System (upper right) is positioned to take a look at the underside of Discovery.
Scott Higginbotham's answer:
Well that's an excellent question, Chloe. You're right. On all previous missions, we used the Shuttle's arm to lift the MPLM that was flying and pick it up and attach it to the node of the Station. However, on this mission, we're flying the Orbiter Boom Sensor System for the first time. This boom sensor system is mounted on the orbiter payload bay on the opposite side from where the Shuttle arm is, and unfortunately it's in the way of the MPLM when it comes time remove it and put it back in place. So on flight day three just after we dock to the station, the crew's going to use the station arm to actually pick up the OBSS, hang it out in space, and hand it off to the Shuttle arm, which will then deploy it out away from the Station in the Shuttle. This will clear the way for the subsequent unberthing and docking of the MPLM from the Space Station. It also clears the way for the ESP-2 and the newer activity that is going to take place on the third EVA of the mission. Basically, with the OBSS being added to the flight, we needed to get it out of the way. And the way we're going to do it is do this hand off. And, so the Station's arm which is perfectly capable of doing the job, will lift the MPLM up and attach it to the Station and then put it back when we're done.
I'm always shocked when I win anything. Because I've probably only won something about 3 times in my life. I've certainly never been a "Grand Prize Winner", that's for sure!
Furthermore, I'm all whoo-hoo'd about the fact that the NASA International Space Station Payload Manager actually said my question was an "excellent" question!
The truth is, I had just been reading the articles about the mission on the site. And quite a few aspects of the mission are about safety. But then the article mentioned that in this mission, the Station's arm would be used instead of the Shuttle's arm, that was always used before. But then they just left that hangin' out there, danglin'. (I hate when articles do that.) So naturally I was curious. And just after reading that article, I noticed a link that was something like "submit your questions about the mission", so I submitted my question, not even thinking it would be answered on the site, let alone on the webcast... let alone that I would win a prize for it!
What's more is that the webcast was on a Sunday, so I didn't see it, because I live in dial-up internet land most of the time. And by the time I looked at the site again, I guess it wasn't mentioned on the front page anymore.
And then, apparently NASA had tried to contact me once to inform me... but I guess that e-mail was filtered out.
Yahoo!'s filters are not perfect - always check your bulk bin before emptying it!
Of course, in the past, I myself have occasionally almost deleted e-mails from NASA, thinking they were spam: Watermelon Punch, the Blog - 31 Jan 2003 | Almost mistaken for spam
So I didn't even find out that I'd won until a NASA's Public Affairs Web Writer, Cheryl, e-mailed me again, to ask for my mailing address, to which to send my prize.
So I haven't received it yet, but I believe it's an official STS-114 mission patch & pin.
Whoo-hoo.
My mother, Dolores, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. June 1999.
Yes, I've always been a bit of a NASA geek. When I lived in Wilkes-Barre years ago, we had a good cable company that provided the NASA TV channel. I watched kept it on often.
When I'd moved to Edwardsville, and the cable company didn't offer the NASA channel, I didn't bother to get cable tv, and haven't had it since.
My mother used to live not far from the Kennedy Space Center. I didn't take the photo of my mother in the space suit though, my step-father, Ed did. I was never there with my mother.
But I did visit the Kennedy Space Center once, when I visited them in Florida in 1997. But I went with Ed, because my mother was recovering from surgery at the time and couldn't go.
Actually, I was also recovering from surgery. But I absolutely insisted on going anyway, with my pillow and in a wheelchair, because I knew it might be my only chance to go there.
Now, for those of you in Northeastern Pennsylvania who have listened to the clip of Scott Higginbotham answering my question on the webcast...
Is it just me, or does the host, Stephanie Stilson, say "Scranton" like a native Scrantonian?
Presenting, my virtual pet fish, Mr. Frozen Soda. He's named after someone I wished to 'honour', because of his extensive work in the area of sticky frozen soda experiments.
I've been meaning to get another fish ever since my poor beloved Jamaica Jerry bought the farm.
Betta Fish, Jamaica Jerry April 2004 - December 2004 (R.I.P.)
You can pick up that cannister of food and feed Mr. Frozen Soda. I'm sure he'd like that a lot. (But no frozen soda please!)
And since I can't have this llama...
A llama at the Country Junction General Store in Lehighton, Pennsylvania.
I got a virtual llama
NOTE: Please do not engage in excessive spanking of the virtual llama, or he will spit at you in your dreams tonight.
A sign reading, "What happens in Luzerne stays in Luzerne." outside Dugan's in Luzerne, Pennsylvania, June 19th 2005
Is this really a city slogan anyone in their right mind would want their town to adopt?
Well, maybe it's just me, but Las Vegas is actually one city on the planet I could live the rest of my life happy without ever visiting.
The slogan's also probably highly inaccurate there too, considering it's, in many ways, "a small world" here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and what you do at Dugan's in Luzerne is probably going to get around to all the... similar drinking establishments in Luzerne & the surrounding towns, among everyone who also patronizes these 'watering holes'.
Frankly, I'm sick to death of hearing about Las Vegas & especially that slogan.
(I really have been keeping my car relatively clean!)
Last week one day I got in my car in the morning and noticed a rather foul odor. I didn't think much of it at the time because I only drove a short distance, with the windows down, and I was in a hurry.
In the late afternoon, after the car had sat in near 90°F weather, in direct sunshine, for the entire day, with the windows up, the car stunk to high heaven. I'd assumed I'd put something in the rubbish bag that had gone bad. My "litter bag" is a full size trash bin liner, and it was half full, so I just took it out, without bothering to discern what it was that was stinking.
About 2 hours later I got in my car to go out in the evening, and my car smelled even worse. I was again in a hurry so I just got on the highway and opened all the windows wide. And yet still the stench was horrible. As soon as I arrived where I was going, I immediately began searching the car for the offending source.
By this point I had abandoned my earlier theory that I'd forgotten to bring in some groceries that went bad, and moved onto the possibility that something had actually died in my car, and the smell had to be eminating from some type of corpse. I briefly had a fear of opening the trunk... I watched too many episodes of CSI and Touching Evil this year.
I found the source of the pungeant god-awful stench... It was on the driver's side back seat, under a piece of crumpled newspaper... It was a poor little brown bird - or rather what had been a poor little brown bird.
Of course I was very upset about it.
And here I'd thought it was bad when my friend told me the story about how one day she was driving and a ham sandwich came flying in her window and bounced off her head.
Though an acquaintance of mine, upon hearing my bird through the window story told me of an incident where a hawk flew into a woman's car window and latched onto her arm with its talons. That certainly sounded worse in some ways.
The bird in my car was way past using its bitty talons for anything anymore. The poor thing.
I made my pal Marty remove the corpse from the back seat. Honestly, I didn't feel bad asking because I've seen a dead deer in the back of Marty's pickup truck during hunting season, so I didn't think he'd mind much.
I now remember that last week one evening when I was driving I heard a thud. I'd thought for a moment about it and figured that a bird had flown into my car - I mean hit the exterior. Of course it bothered me, so I pushed the incident out of my mind. I certainly hadn't considered the possibility that the bird had actually flew into my car and landed and died inside it.
And, as if just flying into my back seat and dying there wasn't bad enough... the poor little thing bled all over my seat. I tried to clean it up... and I thought it wouldn't be too bad over the holiday weekend... But then I had to drive a half hour in a rainstorm the one night with the windows open and the rain coming in on me because the stench was that bad with the windows up, in the humidity and such.
So the next day I took it to a hand car wash place where they shampooed the seat where the bird had met its end. The blood stain came out fine. And the car no longer smells bad at all.
The car wash guy said that once he cleaned a van where he found a dead bird under a rug in the back, and the owner hadn't even known about it. This must have occurred in winter time.
The thing is, now, every once in awhile I think I might smell a hint of it perhaps... I hope it's not a case that the stink has permeated into the entire car, and I'll forever be catching a hint of a whiff of it from time to time.
I think I might have to take it back to the car wash and have them wet vac all the upholstry with a whole bottle of Febreeze or something, just to be extra sure the stink is removed.
Last resort would be tomato juice. I only wish my interior upholstry was red.
Note: No, my hair does not smell like a dead bird. My name's not Elaine, and I'm not a character on Seinfeld. Any similarities are pure coincidence.
superficiality >>If the facade is what's important to you, all you wind up with is an illusion. Disillusionment is the gift of substance.
-- Chloe<<
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There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexeplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
The Book in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
