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 | | Flight Experiment Development Laboratory | | |
The Flight Experiment Development Laboratory helps scientists develop their experiments into Space Shuttle and/or International Space Station payloads.
Its primary areas of responsibility are payload mission management and payload engineering. Payload mission management responsibilities include
planning, integration, and operation of the payload, including safety analysis, astronaut training, and in-flight mission monitoring. Payload
engineering responsibilities include the design, fabrication, testing, certifi cation, and sustaining engineering of the payload flight hardware.
The laboratory has three primary facility resources: the Experiments Monitoring Area (EMA), the Orbiter Environmental Simulator (OES), and the bonded
storage area. The EMA provides real-time communications support for fl ight experiments; the OES mimics spaceflight temperature, humidity, and carbon
dioxide environment; and the bonded storage area is available both pre- and postflight. The Flight Experiment Development Laboratory has successfully
developed and integrated more than 40 flight experiments.
Laboratory Services
- Experiment ground controls (OES)
- Payload communications (EMA provides communication links with launch pads, Launch Control Center, Mission Control Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center)
Laboratory Assets & Specialized Equipment
- Three environmental control chambers (temperature and relative humidity)
- Two Orbiter Environmental Simulators
- Large and small vacuum chambers
- Surface-mount-technology soldering station
- Flight-certified weight/CG table
- Oscilloscopes, voltage meters, and precision ohm meter
Current Projects
- Development of WONDER payload, consisting of a double middeck locker confi guration that combines the series/refl own Plant Generic Bioprocessing
Apparatus (PGBA) commercial hardware with the Porous Tube Insert Module (PTIM) experiment-unique equipment. The PGBA will provide the appropriate
temperature, relative humidity, and light intensity to sustain wheat seed germination and seedling growth in microgravity. The PTIM supplies water
and nutrients to the plants via moisture sensor feedback. The goal of this payload is to quantify how microgravity exposure shifts the water delivery
algorithm within the plant root zone.
- Development of Advanced Plant Experiments on Orbit (APEX-01) payload, which will perform studies of higher plants in the spaceflight
environment. Specifically, the payload will attempt to gain an understanding of physiological processes (such as gene expression, metabolism, and
general plant development) that are affected in plant systems exposed to microgravity.
Staff Credentials
- Communications Engineer
- NASA-Certified Quality Engineer
- Laboratory Technicians
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