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Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-1753)
Catherine E. Watson
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)
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March, 11, 2003 |
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RELEASE: 03-099
Astronaut Donald R. Pettit, Expedition Six is NASA's science officer aboard the International Space Station. He is working on an experiment in the Destiny laboratory 200 miles above us.
Like most of us, the NASA Science Officer aboard the International Space Station looks forward to Saturday mornings.
"Saturday is when we have a bit of free time," said Dr. Don Pettit, the NASA Expedition Six Space Station Science Officer. "While some of the crew read books, play musical instruments or watch movies, I prefer to do 'Saturday Morning Science,' fun experiments of my own design," Pettit said.
A few Saturdays ago, Pettit prepared a solution of water, soap and glycerin, and fashioned a bubble-wand from thin wire. "I wanted to see what thin films and bubbles might do in zero-g and felt it was a topic ripe for discovery," he said.
Next, Pettit injected some tiny mica flakes into the film, allowing him to observe otherwise-hidden flows and swirls. "Then I blew on the film," Pettit said, and fascinating patterns emerged. "These tracer particle patterns lasted for well over four hours."
These films highlight the value of space for fundamental research in fluid physics. Gravity-driven convection and three-dimensional motions complicate fluid flow on Earth. A two-dimensional film of weightless water is a splendid research tool that could yield valuable data for many industries on Earth.
Pettit has also taken still pictures of cities at night, obtaining very high-resolution images, and observed noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds, rare and not fully understood atmospheric phenomena. "Over the past few weeks we've been enjoying outstanding views of these clouds above the southern hemisphere," Pettit remarked.
Pettit is a long-time noctilucent cloud-watcher. As a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory between 1984 and 1996, he studied noctilucent clouds that were seeded by high-flying sounding rockets. "Seeing these kinds of clouds [from space] ... is certainly a joy for us on the Space Station," he said.
Pettit intends to continue his Saturday Science activities until his return home in early May. "Observations of nature, no matter how seemingly arcane, are like peeling off one more layer from the great onion of knowledge, tickling your imagination with what you have found but always revealing yet another tantalizing layer underneath," Pettit said.
Pettit’s Saturday Science videos and written observations are available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles.html
Information about other NASA scientific research, including articles on Pettit’s experiments is available at: http://science.nasa.gov
Information about scientific research aboard the International Space Station is available at: http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov
For information about NASA and the International Space Station on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.
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