March 2016 – Dan Leppold

Dawn of a New Space Era Evident at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Dawn of a New Space Era is Evident at the Kennedy Space Center

I was lucky enough to tour the active facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the place is buzzing with activity surrounding America’s next generation spaceship called the SLS, or Space Launch System. It will carry a crew of four astronauts on deep space missions that might explore our Moon, Mars, other planetary moons like Phobos, or other celestial bodies like asteroids and comets. Most of the experiments onboard OA-6 and facilities we toured on our March 21-22 launch event centered around this new theme of deep space exploration.

The revamped Crawler, now capable of carrying the SLS Launch Tower and SLS Rocket

We were able talk to and meet all the project managers currently involved in getting the Crawler ready for it’s next mission, to move the SLS. To my surprise they let us examine the amazing machine up close and then see the Crawler Transporter in action. It weighs about 6 million pounds empty and is capable of moving an 18 million pound cargo. Being a geologist I was naturally drawn to the Crawler Trackway and its long paths of neatly raked quartz pebbles. Amazingly the suspension system of the vehicle actually incorporates the gravel as part of the machine. As the Crawler travels it literally crushes the specially picked stone. If the stone does not break the ride will have too many vibrations, if the stone is too soft the Crawler will sink and get stuck. The size, strength, and mineralogy of the chosen stone is perfect, not too strong but not too soft. Each time the Crawler passes water trucks spray the tracks and wash away the powdered rock. It must pass over fresh raked stone each time. One of the project managers told us one day during the Space Shuttle days one of the tracks did sink (there was a heavy rainstorm) and for a few moments he was concerned about it getting stuck. He said if it gets stuck, there is nothing on the planet powerful enough to unstuck it. I thought that was a great comment and really made me realize what a powerful machine I was watching slowly roll down the trackway. Some interesting statistics they told us is that it burns about 1 gallon of diesel every 32 feet the Crawler travels and it normally travels less than one mile per hour. As if the lifting and moving power of the Crawler is not impressive enough, they explained how the platform of the Crawler remains completely level, even when the topography changes. So when it goes up the small hill as it approaches the launch pad the back end of the Crawler raises, so as to not tip over the rocket it is carrying. Rockets are notoriously top heavy until they reach the launch pad where the final liquid fuels are added.

Here are a few of the pictures and a video, although I don’t think any of them really convey the experience of what it is like to stand right next to it as it passes by, hearing the quartz pebbles shatter with each trackway step.

What a quartz pebble sees before it is crushed.

Crawler

Crawler Experts

Crushing quartz as it moves.

Can lift 18 million pounds.

NASA Crawler in Action

SLS Launch Tower artsy

SLS Launch Tower

Space Launch System (SLS) Crew Access Arm

crewaccessarmmechanism

Crew Access Arm

Solid Rocket Booster Facility

Solid Rocket Boosters

Moving the volitile solid rocket boosters.

Vehicle Assembly Building, Getting Ready for the SLS

VAB!

Yes, it will precipitate if conditions are right inside the VAB.

The VAB is so big it makes your head spin!

Gecko Grippers and Biological Diversity on NASA Grounds

Gecko inspired OA-6 Mission Experiment and Biological Diversity on Kennedy Space Center Grounds:

Last week I was invited by NASA to get a behind the scenes look at current NASA projects and watch the March 22nd launch of the OA-6 spacecraft and rocket to the International Space Station. One of the payloads on board the OA-6 Cygnus spacecraft was a relatively new invention/concept called a Gecko Gripper. In space astronauts often use Velcro to stick instruments and items to surfaces, however these have several limitations. Velcro can release small inhalable dust particles (dust is always a problem in the microgravity of space) and you also need to have a mating surface application. The Gecko Grippers create directional stickiness where adhesion can be turned on and off without leaving a residue or mating surface and do not create any dust particles. Aaron Parness of NASA’s JPL lab explained that gecko’s fingers are not sticky but they use microscopic hairs that have a tremendous surface area when pressed against a smooth surface. Van der Waals forces then allow the gecko to walk up a wall and appear to “stick” to a ceiling. Van der Waals forces are very weak, but because there are so many tiny hairs, the addition of all those individual weak forces add up and provide pretty impressive sticking power. The Gecko Grippers attempt to recreate this amazing tool for adhesion that mother nature has made through millions of years of evolution. In addition to allowing astronauts to move and easily mount objects in microgravity, Aaron Parness hopes this technology will allow small robots to walk or stick to the outside of the space station and perform continuous inspections evaluating micrometeorite damage and structure anomalies.

This technology can also be used in many products on Earth, for example you could mount a flat screen tv to a wall just by pressing it onto the position you want it. If you want to move it later no problem, just unstick it and there will be no residue on the wall. I wish my cell phone case had this as my cats would have a much more difficult time lopping it off of a table. Picture frames, lights, blinds, curtains, the possibilities are endless! Gecko Grippers have limitations as they work best on smooth surfaces, researchers at NASA’s JPL facility are also working on devices that use microscopic hooks, spines and claws to scale or adhere to rougher surfaces.

Aaron Parness with Grippers

Microscope view of gecko foot hairs.

For more information visit this site below and watch Aaron Parness discuss and demonstrate this amazing gecko inspired technology.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4688

I found it fitting that a payload bound for the International Space Station had such a clear link between biology and cutting edge science because of the coexistence of the space industry and nature has on the Kennedy Space Center grounds. Because I arrived a day early I was able to explore the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge which surrounds the Kennedy Space Center. I was amazed by the biological diversity and healthy ecosystems I was easily able to observe. During my tours of the NASA facilities they explained how they take ecosystem preservation very seriously. We even saw areas that just last week were subjected to controlled burns to help Florida’s Scrub Jay population. Scrub Jays need areas of oak trees adjacent to more open areas. Fire prevention over decades has caused the open areas to regrow which in turn hurts the Jay populations. By controlled burning portions of the Cape it helps preserve the natural ecosystem in which the Scrub Jay populations rely on. I was fascinated by the wildlife and was able to take the following pictures in just a few hours of exploring around the Kennedy Space Center grounds. The relationship NASA has with nature is truly a model that all industry should strive to attain.

NASA Swamp Works Tour

279 (2)

Swamp Works Research Lab

The main lab in this high tech research lab run by NASA scientists reminded me of a “make your space” library concept or a playroom for the characters on the Big Bang Theory TV Series. The large open air lab design promotes interaction between research teams. From our viewing area the room was filled with computers, 3-D printers, drone prototypes, robot miners and robot parts, a regolith testing area (fully enclosed to insure the particles did not escape into the work area), and pieces and parts of complex machinery. I was instantly drawn in by the pure science and experimentation that was clearly not just on display. The room was literally alive even though none of the scientists had arrived to work yet (we were there very early in the morning). I thought to myself that this is the type of work space or job that would be difficult to leave at the end of the day.

The experiments and research was organized to address the next big challenge and that is space exploration to another world like an asteroid, planet, or moon (not just Earth’s). Drones to fly into very steep craters and then mine for water, larger heavier robotic miners that will be able to land prior to a manned mission and mine the regolith (soil), and finally machines that will take the mined regolith, extract any water or resources, then almost like a 3-D printer, create landing pavers that will fit together to form a landing pad. Dream it, build it, experiment with it, refine it, test it in the regolith chamber. I would imagine this is the ideal place where scientific ingenuity and invention become reality.

Application and Spinoff Potential
As I gleaned down on the almost alive workspace in the main Swamp Works Lab I immediately realized how the technology breakthroughs and inventions that were being created will benefit society outside of space exploration. My geology background steered my thoughts towards the extraction and exploration of methane gas hydrates on the ocean floor. Space; with its low or microgravity and low pressure environments, presents similar challenges as the unique environmental conditions found in the deep ocean. It is estimated that there is enough energy stored in methane gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico alone to provide all the energy needs our country needs for the next few hundred years. Why are we not mining it? Because we have not “thought it off of the ocean floor yet”, but I believe it is research like the topics that are currently being addressed at the Swamp Works Lab that will eventually lead to the breakthroughs needed to make mining methane gas hydrates a reality on Earth.

We were not permitted to photograph the active work space at the Swamp Works Lab, but they did provide a few photos on their Facebook page and are as follows:

2 - Copy

The Regolith Chamber

After touring Swamp Works we were taken to an adjacent research lab investigating dust mitigation and robot built reentry heat shields for spacecraft (similar manner to the regolith landing pad construction). The heat shields were cool, but it was the dust mitigation that I found fascinating. One problem that was encountered during the Moon missions was that the lunar regolith was very hard to remove and was profoundly abrasive. Because the Moon is not large enough to hold an atmosphere there is very little chemical weathering. Micrometeorite bombardment powders the mostly basaltic rock into very fine yet very angular particles. These obsidian-like fractured grains are very abrasive, are dangerous when inhaled, and must be removed from astronaut suits, space sensors, as well as from the sides and windows of any spacecraft or structure. Since there is no water on the moon it is very difficult to just “brush off the dust”, and it gets into every little nook and cranny of the spacesuits. But at the Swamp Works scientists have figured out a way to remove the dust but creating an electrostatic force field. This invention can be incorporated into spacesuits as well as structures, and once turned on, can very effectively remove dust contamination. Dr. Carlos Calle, manager of the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab was gave us a demonstration which I was permitted to videotape. It sounds like something out of a movie but I can see astronauts entering a room where they activate their suits and all the dust almost instantaneously jumps off of them and is whisked away into a collector system. Can you imagine how useful this will someday be in our lives? Just activate the room and vaarrooom, it is clean. The first video of Dr. Calle shows how the dust can be removed when you activate the system (which uses very little energy and can be realistically used with a solar powered system). The second video shows how if the system is left on it can repel dust to prevent it from sticking to the surface in the first place.

electrostatic force field

Dust Repelling Force Field

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/mitigating_dust_prt.htm