NASA mission STS-122 will introduce a new technological innovation to the International Space Station, courtesy of NASA’s partner in the mission, the European Space Agency.

The new addition, Columbus, will attach to ISS and serve as a laboratory in which astronauts on the space station will engage in several different kinds of scientific experiments.

“What goes up tomorrow is an operating laboratory,” said Alan Thirkettle, the ESA’s International Space Station program manager, in a Dec. 5 press conference, “it doesn’t have to be outfitted, it’s all ready to go and ready to start work.”

The Columbus laboratory weighs approximately 13 tons, with two tons used specifically for scientific facilities, including over 1,102 pounds of scientific instruments.

The laboratory has twenty experiments on it’s agenda, some of which will begin within the first few days of the mission. Experiments will be done in a variety of different scientific disciplines, such as biology, fluid science, and the study of human physiology.

The goal of these experiments is not only to improve the quality of life in space, but here on Earth as well.

“We want to use this station to improve the lives our citizens,” Thirkettle said.

The program itself has cost the ESA approximately five billion euros to date, which translates to approximately seven billion US dollars.

The program was paid for through the combined efforts of 10 different European countries, with Germany contributing the highest with 30 percent of the funding. France was the second highest contributer, funding 25 percent of the program, and Italy contributed 17 percent.

In addition to the Columbus, the ESA will also be introducing the Automated Transfer Vehicle, a new kind of re-supply ship for ISS, the first of which will be launched in early 2008.

The ATV will contain five different kinds of cargo for re-supplying the space station, including up to 5.5 tons of dry cargo and one ton of water.

Once the ATV engages to ISS, astronauts can open the hatch and retrieve supplies from the inside of the vehicle. After the transfer is made, the vehicle will make its way back to Earth.

Originally published by The Corsair for Pensacola Junior College.

After a meeting held on Dec.9 to assess the faulty fuel sensors of space shuttle Atlantis, mission managers at Kennedy Space Center have decided to not launch the shuttle within it’s December launch window.

The shuttle was set to launch earlier that morning, but the proceedings were cancelled when its engine cut-off sensors failed a series of simulated tests.

The delay means that mission STS- 122, in which the shuttle delivers a new laboratory module to the International Space Station, can be initiated no sooner than Jan. 2, 2008. Mission managers will keep the shuttle at its launch pad while various tests are carried out to isolate the problem.

“All of our efforts are going to be, first of all, to do some troubleshooting… to try and capture this failure,” said LeRoy Cain, chair, mission management team.

In the meantime, the flight crew of mission STS-122 will be returned to Houston, Texas. Although there is less than three years left in the space shuttle program, mission managers are confident that the delay of mission STS-122 will in no way hinder the completion of the International Space Station’s construction.

“The team is disappointed, but highly motivated… to get [mission STS-122] back into a launch posture,” said Doug Lyons, space shuttle test director.

The troublesome electrical failures happen intermittently during the filling of the liquid hydrogen fuel tank.

On the morning of Dec. 9, at about three minutes after a sequence of simulated tests to the sensors, a failure of the third sensor was declared. Due to revised launch criteria that was commissioned after the original launch day was postponed, if a failure of any of the four sensors was noticed the shuttle was not to launch.

After the launch was aborted mission managers used the rest of the day for tanking tests.

Originally published by The Corsair for Pensacola Junior College.