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| NASDA Daily
Report | NASA
Status Report |
| Reheasals for Post-Flight Experiment
|
NASDA Daily Report |
Flight Day 15 (May 1CDT)
The STS-90 crew members were awakened at 3:55 a.m. (CDT), and began Flight Day 15 activities. Today, the dexterity test with young rats was conducted. The newborn rats were dissected, tissue samples taken for post-flight analysis. The ball catch experiment was also conducted. This experiment studies the ability of the central nervous system to accept and interpret new stimuli in space. Before going to sleep tonight, Payload Specialists Buckey and Pawelczyk will don specialized gear (a mesh cap that records brain waves and a Respiration Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP) suit that monitor respiration) designed to monitor their breathing, muscle activity, and eye motion as they sleep. This is the final sleep experiment during the mission. The astronauts will go to sleep at about 7:29 p.m. tonight and will be awakened at about 3:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. Status of Japan related experiments Mission Specialist Hire exchanged the data recording magnetic tape of the Vestibular Function Experiment Unit (VFEU). The magnetic tapes for recording neural signals are exchanged twice per day. The VFEU water sample/refill was performed. The water will be analyzed to determine whether the VFEU is maintaining water quality for the fish after landing. The neural data has been obtained from the Fish Packages (FPs). The feeder of Rodent Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF) was exchanged. After landing, Dr. Shimizu, who is the Principal Investigator of "Development of the Aortic Baroreflex Under Conditions of Microgravity", will receive a part of tissue of young rats which were disserted today. Report from Dr. Izumi Koizuka, Co-Investigator of "Spatial Orientation of the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex" The key to the sucess of our experiment is to obtain a clear and focused picture of the eyeball. Needless to say, the astronaut has to keep thier eyes open despite of the movement of the rotating chair. Judging from the pictures send down to us so far, all of them are perfect. We are very happy with these results which are essential to the sucess of the experiment. Our initial plans were to use the video taken aboard the shuttle which would be handed over to us after the landing for analysis, but since the downlinked images are in such good condition, we have already started part of the analysis using these data. We might be able to find the results of our studies sooner than we had expected. On the day before landing, we are going to conduct the last run of our experiment. After landing, we will conduct the same experience several times to see how humans adapt the Earth environment. Everyone in our team is very excited to see the results of these experiments too. |
Last Updated : May 2, 1998
| NASDA Daily
Report | NASA
Status Report |
| Reheasals for Post-Flight Experiment
|
|
