The first Chinese Getaway Special program is described. Program organization, the student proposal evaluation procedure, and the objectives of some of the finalist's experiments are covered. The two experiments selected for eventual flight on the space shuttle are described in detail. These include: (1) the control of debris in the cabin of the space shuttle; and (2) the solidification of two immiscible liquids in space

Fu, Bing-Chen

Jin, Xun-Shu

Ke, Shou-Quan

Lee, Mark C.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

N89-10903
THE FIRST CHINESE STUDENT SPACE SHUTTLE
GETAWAY SPECIAL PROGRAM
Mark C. Lee,* Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, California 91109
Jin Xun-Shu and Ke Shou-Quan, Chinese Academy of Space
Technology, Beijing Institute of Environment Test Engineering,
Beijing, China
Fu Bing-Chen, Chinese Society of Astronautics, Beijing, China
Abstract.
The first Chinese Getaway Special program, including program
organization, student proposal evaluation procedure, contents of some of
the finalists' experiments, will be presented. Specifically, the two
experiments selected for the eventual flight on the Space Shuttle will be
described in detail.
1.0 The Chinese GAS Program
The first Chinese student US space shuttle getaway special (GAS)
program was jointly organized and sponsored by American Association for
Promotion of Science in China (AAPSC), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit
organization, and Chinese Society of Astronautics (CSA), based in Beijing,
China. The agreement was signed on December 27, 1985 in Beijing, China.
The call for proposals from vast population of Chinese secondary school
students, estimated at 150 millions strong, was announced in January
1986. Over seven thousand proposals were submitted before the end of
summer, in spite of the demoralization caused by the Challenger disaster.
Those proposals were evaluated by a two-tier process. First, the proposals
were presented and defended orally by student proposers at nine regional
locales approximately evenly distributed throughout China. Those regional
symposia, actively participated by six experts from the States and many
of their Chinese counterparts, produced a total of 264 regional proposals
for further consideration in the national symposium to be held during the
Christmas season of 1986, in Beijing, China. The national proposal
* Current on assignment to Microgravity Science and Applications
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. 20546
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19890001532 2020-03-20T06:05:42+00:00Z
evaluation committee consisted of seven American and twenty-five
Chinese experts whose specialties covered a broad range of space science
and technology disciplines.
The criteria that they had applied uniformly throughout the entire
selection process were based on the proposal creativity, scientific merits,
experiment feasibility and organization. The committee certainly went
through quite a difficult time in deciding what to accept or decline.
Nevertheless, twenty proposals were selected as the national finalists•
Those proposals, as well as those not chosen, were generally of
surprisingly good quality considering the severe handicap that the Chinese
students must cope in search for information needed for the research
topic• The titles for those twenty proposals are:
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Control of debris in the cabin of space shuttle, by Wang Nian-qing
Solidification of two immiscible liquids in space, by Tian Chun-Liang
Effect of cosmic ray on pharmaceutical products, by Shi Gang
Effect of #g on plant cell reproduction, by Zhao Quan-Zhong
Effect of p.g on onion cell reproduction, by Tian Yu-Zhi
Application of Velcro in space, by Wang Hai-jiang
Observation of surface tension under pg, by Zhou Yan
Effect of #g on germinatn of Chinese herb seeds, by Huang Zheng-Chong
Ice formation at different temperatures under #g, by Liu Zhong
Healing worm injury under pg, by He Kai
Mixing paraffin, water and ice under }_g, by Zhu Lei
Speeding up chemical reactions under #g, by Huang Wen-Ge
Gas and liquid phase separation under #g, by Liu Shu-Xiang
Coating and capillary absorption under #g, by He Bin
Making Tofu in space, by Zhan Han-Jing
Behavior of NaCI solution droplet in E field under #g, by Song Yang
Property of liquid crystal under I_g, by Zhang Jin-Song
Effect of #g on Chinese painting, by Zhang Qin-Mei
Effect of #g on germintn./reprod, of Chinese mushroom, by Shen Zhong
Feathered Ying-luo plant growth in space, by Jiang Yong-Bo
The first two(#1 and 2) experiments were further designated, after
hours of heated debate among committee members and final settlement
with a secret balloting, as the first Chinese student microgravity payload
for a future US space shuttle flight. The third proposal was selected as the
back-up• The hardwares for carrying out the GAS experiments are in the
process of being developed and fabricated by Beijing Institute of
Environment Test Engineering(BIETE). The qualification for flight in space
shuttle is scheduled to complete in the second quarter of 1988.
To commemorate this event, a logo has been designed (Fig. 1). The lone
star in the sky of the Great Wall signifies that it is the first such event
in China.
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Figure 1. The logo to commemorate the Chinese student space shuttle
getaway special program. The lone star in the sky of the Great Wall
signifies the first such event in China.
2.0 Student Experiments
Experiment 1: "The control of debris in the cabin of space shuttle,"
by Wang Nian-Qing
The purpose of the experiment is to study the motion of debris (small
particulates) in the cabin of shuttle under the microgravity condition. A
certain amount of simulated particulated debris are stored in a container,
a side wall of which is covered with a sheet of adhesive paper. A movie
camera will be mounted in the container to photograph the motion of
debris upon their release in the microgravity environment and to record
the moment when they make contact with the side wall and are captured.
From a practical point of view, this simple technique could be applied to
remove floating particulates from the living environment in space. In
addition, the particulates rely on the residual gravity to initiate the
movement. The mathmatical modelling of the experiment could be related
to the pseudo-random walk problem. It is highly probable that the residual
magnitude of the gravitational field on the shuttle can be backed out from
the statistical measurement of those particulate movements.
Experiment 2: "The solidification of two immiscible liquids in
space" by Tian Chun-Liang
Two immiscible low melt-point materials (Wood's metal and paraffin)
will be premixed in various ratios and manners in the solid form on earth
and remelted in space, then left to cool and resolidify. It is predicted that
paraffin and Wood's metal be phase separated and assume amorphous and
crystalline structures, respectively. Depending on the magnitude of the
residual gravitational field in the shuttle, the two phases may be
uniformly mixed or droplets of the same species may coalesce to form
large conglomerates due to the nature tendency for a physical system to
minimize its total internal free energy. The samples are to be post-flight
analyzed.
3.0 Experimental Apparatus
3.1 Size and weight of the payload: 2.5 cubic feet, 60 pounds.
3.2 Experiment description:
Experiment 1: In this experiment 25 small lumps of different materials to
be used as "space debris" or "particulates" will be stored in a container. A
side wall will be coated with adhesive cloth. An 8 millimeter movie
camera will be installed to view the adhesive wall, to photograph the
motion of those small bits of debris after being released under
microgravity conditions, and to record the moment when they make
contact with the wall. It is desired that every collision of a particulate
with the adhesive wall will result in a capture by the wall. However, this
is not a prerequisite for the success of the experiment. The camera will be
controlled and pictures will be taken at a preprogrammed time sequence.
The container will be maintained intact for further post-flight analyses.
Experiment 2:8 small cylindrical containers, each 2 cm in diameter and 6
cm in height, will be loaded with paraffin and Wood's metal mixtures in
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different ratios and manners. The two heaters are of foil-type, each
powers 4 cylinders. The heating and cooling sequence are preprogrammed.
Those containers will be left intact after the space experimentation so
that they can be post-flight analyzed.
3.3 Supporting Structure
To provide added thermal insulation, the entire experimental apparatus
will be housed in foam/fiberglass composite shells within the GAS
canister. These hexagonal type structures are the same as the "spacepak"
used in the similar payload in the past GAS flights. Experiment #1 will be
stacked on top of the Experiment 2 in a two-spacepak configuration.
The spacepaks will be held by three sets of aluminum ribs on the
exterior. At one end of the rib assembly is an aluminum ring with bolt
holes for securement to the experiment mounting plate. At the opposite
end of the rib assembly, there are three separate bumpers to provide
lateral support of the payload within the container.
Figures 2 and 3 show the top view of those two experiments. Each
Figure 2. Top view for experiment #1. Initially, the debris are confined
inside the right half of the chamber (marked by the logo) by a partition to
slide open in the orbit.
5
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experiment has its own controller and power supply. All batteries are
installed in the second spacepak.
3.4 Controllers and Power Supplies
Two controllers, one per spacepak, are used to sequence various
functions to be performed in the experiments and to record data from
analog sensors. It is 65Co2-based microcomputer with 8K RAM, 16K ROM
and 32K EPROM. All the programs and all the data collected are stored in
EPROM. This same type of controller has been used in several previous GAS
payloads of the Utah State University by Professor Rex Megill and his
students.
Figure 3. View for experiment #2. Eight small cylinders containing solid
mixtures of paraffin and Wood's metal in different ratios and manners are
installed under the cover marked by the number 511.
Each spacepak will have two separate power supplies to power the
controller and to operate all other electrical devices in the spacepak,
including all electronic interface circuitries to the controller. The
batteries to be used are rechargeable lead-acid Gates X-cells or D-cells
wired in series.
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3.5 Operational Scenario
After the shuttle enters the orbit, relay "A" will be turned on at
70,000 feet by a baroswitch automatically. This action sends power to
the controller which initiates the controller program sequencing. The
controller will wait 2 hours before activating any of the devices in the
payload.
In experiment 1, the controller will activate the torque motor to strip
off the protective film from the adhesive wall, then the debris will be
released and photographed at predetermined time intervals. In experiment
2, the controller will switch on the heater circuits, monitor temperatures
and switch them off when the temperature reaches the predetermind value.
4.0 Development of the Payload
4.1 Preliminary Design Phase
Both Wang Nian-Qing and Tian Chung-Liang participated actively in the
preliminary design phase of their experiments. During the same time
period, they have carried out, thanks to the assistance of the scientists
and engineers at BIETE, many ground-based preparatory experiments. Those
experiments included: heating and melting the mixture of Wood's metal and
paraffin by battery power; taking pictures of debris in order to determine
the clarity and resolution of the photography; performing test for selected
adhesives, etc.. Data collected from those tests helped to guide the design
and fabrication of the engineering prototype for the flight model.
4.2 Flight Model Manufacturing Phase
After numerous modifications and iterations of the engineering
prototype, the flight model of the payload has been designed and is being
fabricated, which includes:
(1) The spacepak and supporting structures for camera, motor and
batteries, etc;
(2) The control system, including printed circuit boards and software; -
(3) Foil-type heaters and cylindrical containers;
(4) Assembling;
4.3 Environmental Testing
According to the requirements of experimenter's handbook for GAS
payload, environmental testings such as vibration and vacuum thermal test
are to be performed on the flight model to demonstrate its compatibility
with the space shuttle environments. These tests are in progress and will
be completed upon the approval of the phase III Safety Data Package from
NASA.
5.0 Acknowledgement
The authors list should include multitude individuals from many
Chinese and American sponsoring organizations including, but are not
limited to: China Association for Science and Technology, the China
Central Television, China Youth News, The China Science and Technology
Daily, Science and Technology Center( Los Angeles based), National
Association for Chinese American(Los Angeles Chapter) and China
Institute of California State University at Northridge. They are indebted to
the United Nations for the financial support through the TOKTEN program.
They acknowledge Professor Rex Megill of the Utah State University, his
colleagues and students for their technical assistance.
Particularly, the authors are profoundly grateful, on behalf of this
program, to Dr. Ren Xin-Min and Professor Sun Jia-Dong, of Chinese
Ministry of Astronautics, for their unabated support throughout the course
of this program.
Finally, the authors would like to express their sincere thanks to
countless American and Chinese friends for their encouragement and
unselfish support, without which the continued success of this program
would not be possible.


The first Chinese student space shuttle getaway special program

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