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Field Notes from Space Station Alpha

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Last Thursday, November 30th, the Space Shuttle Endeavor lofted into the darkness of space during the blackness of night. It will deliver two massive solar panels for the International Space Station (ISS), or “Alpha,” as it was designated by its first residents. The shuttle is visiting the station a month after an American and two Russians began inhabiting it. Their mission is planned to last 11 days.

The solar panels are the most critical installment to the ISS thus far. The five-man Endeavor crew will face one of the most complex and dangerous missions of the construction of the ISS. Without a successful installment of the panels, the station cannot grow any larger. The new panels will be used to help power the next modules that will be connected to the station. They will also allow for an existing module to be heated and inhabited. The panels themselves are the first set of three to be installed. The station is slated to be complete by 2006.

The five astronauts, led by Commander Brent Jett, have trained three years for this specific task in space. Two of the astronauts, Joseph Tanner and Carlos Noriega, will perform two space walks to install the panels. The two astronauts will also perform a space walk to test the risk of static electricity that future space walkers might encounter when working outside of the space station. Marc Garneau will operate the shuttle’s robotic arm to help with panel installation. The fifth crewmember, Michael Bloomfield, is the pilot (to learn more about this mission go to http://spaceflight.nasa.gov ).

Despite the power that the new panels will allow, they will also radically change the look of the station. With their addition, the station will become the third brightest object in the night sky (Can you see the station from your own backyard? Go to http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sig... to find out). The moon and the star Sirius are only more brilliant. The panels are massive to say the least. Once they are unfurled from within Endeavor’s cargo bay, and attached to the station, they will stretch to 240 feet and produce over 62 kilowatts of power (CNN.com).

What is clearly exciting about this newest shuttle mission is that this minivan to the stars now has a definite purpose. For almost twenty years it has been delivering satellites and the occasional probe into space, but now it is helping build the largest, most advanced, object every constructed in space. It is one thing to watch satellites be repaired, but clearly there is something magical and wondrous in seeing a habitable space station gradually being built in space. Every module or component, such as the solar panels, makes the ISS a little more grandiose in size and purpose. Soon, with the addition of the massive Lab Module in January, the station will be capable of conducting scientific experiments and observations never before attempted in space.