What a better way to
wrap up a week and a month than to share with you some cool sights
around Kennedy Space Center I've seen in the past week? Sometimes I
don't know what I'll spot.
The Space Station
Processing Facility (SSPF), where I worked for a summer a few years
back, hosts many interesting projects and labs, many of which have
nothing to do with the International Space Station. I visited a
scientist who is interested in flying NASA life science payloads on
various microgravity missions, including parabolic flight. While I
was in the building, I met with an engineer who is diving into the
world of geology, planetary science, and plant growth and loving
every minute of it.
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| Vials of Mars regolith simulant |
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| A diversity of rocks from the Mojave Desert |
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| Lettuce and cabbage grown in various Mars regolith simulants |
Our mutual colleague
in the same group allowed me to play with his pocket vials of Mars
regolith simulants (fake Mars dirt) JSC-Mars-1A and sand from the
Mojave Desert in California. While conducting experimentation for my
doctoral research, I played with JSC-Mars-1, but not the other. NASA
is resurrecting long-shelved research to grow plants in Mars regolith
simulant in preparation for future human missions to Mars. Anyone up
for growing potatoes on Mars?
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| Mars mania at the NASA SSPF gift shop. |
Above the S3 Florida
office in the Space Life Sciences Laboratory is a scientist who
specializes in Martian life conditions, Andy Schuerger. In his lab,
he is able to recreate Martian conditions such as temperature,
atmospheric pressure, and radiation levels. He also has the largest
collection of Mars regolith simulant that I've ever seen. For anyone
wanting to know about the survivability of life on Mars, he's one to
talk to.
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| Chamber for replicating Martian conditions |
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| Mars regolith simulant galore! |
On one rainy
afternoon, I caught sight of a low rainbow on the water horizon not
far from the giant Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) while driving on
NASA Causeway. So pretty!
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| Rainbow on the horizon |
I had wanted to end
this entry with a photo of a rocket launch, but that will have to
wait. Go Atlas!
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