NeurOn Chat with Chris Barreras
February 4, 1998 - 10:00 A.M.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 1 - 08:23:13 ]
If you come before Wednesday's chat, you'll find yourself unable to post any messages here. If you need to reach me, please email me at: lindac@quest.arc.nasa.gov

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 4 - 09:54:24 ]
Hello all, It's Wednesday, and we're getting ready for our chat with Chris Barreras. I will now open the room, and Chris will let us know as soon as he is signed on. I know he has spent some time looking through your designs, and I'm looking forward to a terrific chat. Welcome!

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 6 - 09:56:27 ]
Hello Montgomery High! Chris has not checked in yet, but should be here shortly.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 13 - 10:05:09 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] What was your major at San Jose State?
Hello I am here I just got off the phone. How are you at Montgomery High? Where is Montgomery High? My major at San Jose State was Aeronautics Operations.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 15 - 10:06:43 ]
RE: [Theresa-students/MontgomeryHigh] Hello Linda. We are eagerly awaiting him.
Hi Theresa, I've really been enjoying your students' work!

[ Chris/NASAARC - 16 - 10:06:56 ]
RE: [Theresa-students/MontgomeryHigh] Hello Linda. We are eagerly awaiting him.
Hi Linda, I am here and I apologize for keeping you waiting. If you have any questions in Spanish, then I can try and answer but help me out since mi español is somewhat poor.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 17 - 10:07:57 ]
RE: [cristian-students/MontgomeryHigh] tú hablas español.do you speak Spanish
Yo hablo español poquito, Lets give it a try. Mi madre is angry with me that my Spanish is not better.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 21 - 10:09:50 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Looking at the picture of RACK 3, could you please explain the air flow? How does this direct the waste to the waste tray?
Welcome Atholton! What a project! to come up with ONE drawing for all your groups. That's a teamwork effort very similar to what's happening with this mission at NASA

[ Chris/NASAARC - 22 - 10:11:53 ]
RE: [Victor-students/MontgomeryHigh] Why do you use bus to go to work instead of a car.
Hello Victor. I use the Bus and sometimes the train like today for a couple of reasons. 1. Its less wear and tear on my car since my commute is about 1 hour by car out of Morgan Hill sometimes longer. 2. Its more relaxing letting someone else do the driving. 3. On public transportation it helps the environment and also I can do work or reading. Its better use of my time.

[ ESMERALDA-students/MontgomeryHigh - 23 - 10:12:06 ]
Hola Estamos muy bien aquí en la escuela de Montgomery High que se encuentra en South San Diego at Palm Avenue.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 24 - 10:13:39 ]
RE: [luliana-students/MontgomeryHigh] What part of Mexico did your grandparents come from?
Mi Tío has just finished a family tree and during his research he located their origins in Sonora, Mexico I believe.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 25 - 10:13:59 ]
RE: [ESMERALDA-students/MontgomeryHigh] Hola Estamos muy bien aquí en la escuela de Montgomery High que se encuentra en South San Diego at Palm Avenue.
Me imagino que estás refiriendo a San Diego, California?

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 28 - 10:16:37 ]
RE: [MeteoriteGroup/TheWhiteLakeSchool-KarenJ.Massey] How many animals do you take into space at one time? We are in second grade and we are building model space stations.
Hello White Lake, Where are you coming to us from?

[ Chris/NASAARC - 33 - 10:20:58 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] How do you make the habitats for the rodents? What materials do you use?
Hello Luis How are you? This is a good question. Our habitat is assembled in sections and then we put all together somewhat like what is done when building our homes. The materials we use are primarily aluminum and some stainless steel. We also use a type of plastic in our waste tray.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 36 - 10:24:47 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Looking at the picture of RACK 3, could you please explain the air flow? How does this direct the waste to the waste tray?
Hello Mellie at Atholton. Where is this school? Good question. We use an Air purification system which intakes are from the spacelab. This intake is located just above the cage areas below the upper cover on the rack left side.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 40 - 10:30:01 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] What kind of food should be provided for the rats? How much food should be provided?
Mellie Hello again. I did not finish answering your question. Through the Air purification system the air flows into the top of our cages and down through the waste trays and then back out into the spacelab through a filtering process so the crew does not smell the waste odor. The food we use is basically wheat in a foodbar format somewhat like a long (2 ft) candy bar.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 41 - 10:30:36 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] What kind of food should be provided for the rats? How much food should be provided?
Did you get my food answer?

[ Chris/NASAARC - 42 - 10:32:58 ]
RE: [ESMERALDA-students/MontgomeryHigh] Hola Estamos muy bien aquí en la escuela de Montgomery High que se encuentra en South San Diego at Palm Avenue.
Hola Esmeralda San Diego. ¿Cómo es El "Super Bowl"?

[ Mellie/AtholtonElementary - 43 - 10:33:30 ]
Chris, Our school, Atholton Elementary, is located in Columbia, MD. Columbia is midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Thank you for answering our questions.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 44 - 10:34:40 ]
RE: [MeteoriteGroup/TheWhiteLakeSchool-KarenJ.Massey] We are from Fort Worth, Texas. We are interested in space. We would like to know what kind of models Mr. Barreras built.
Hello White Lake. I have built several type. Planes, Space shuttle, Rockets, boats....etc.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 46 - 10:36:44 ]
RE: [KarenJ.Massey] Could you tell us what "room moderation" means? We would like to leave a message that could be answered later because we have to get another group from our class now.
Sure Karen! by moderation, I mean that instead of questions appearing as they are asked, I hold them in store and post them a little closer to the answer so that Chris doesn't have to try to scroll back so far to find previous questions that are still unanswered. You can continue to ask questions. This will just give Chris a chance to catch up - after all, we're about 15 to 1 right now!

[ Chris/NASAARC - 47 - 10:39:41 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] Hello Chris do you believe in aliens? I do.
Hello Luis Yes I do. I am believer that we are not alone. As stated in the movie "Contact" if we were alone, then it would be a terrible waste of space.

[ Mellie/AtholtonElementary - 48 - 10:43:54 ]
Chris, Thank you for the food answer. This will help us with our design.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 49 - 10:44:37 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Could you please describe what the food and water containers look like and how do they work?
Hi Mellie Our food container is actually a long cassette which holds the foodbars. The cassette is approximately 2 ft long by 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. It is spring loaded so as the animal (rodent) eats food the spring automatically feeds the food to the animal. The crew hardly ever has to do the feeding. As for the water. We have a main water tank which feeds water to all the cages. The tank holds about 9 liters of water under pressure to the cages.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 50 - 10:48:38 ]
RE: [MeteoriteGroup/TheWhiteLakeSchool-KarenJ.Massey] How many animals do you take into space at one time? We are in second grade and we are building model space stations.
Hello White Lake For this mission we are taking a zoo The systems I work on are taking 24 adult rodents, plus 12 mother rodents with 8 seven day little rodents per each mother. We are also flying mice, crickets and fish. I do not have the exact quantities for these.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 51 - 10:53:56 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] Why can't artificial gravity be created for the Space Shuttle.
Hi Luis There are different answers to this one but briefly the shuttles design and basic mission role is more of transport to and from earth orbit. Designing the shuttle to create artificial gravity would have made it more complex than it already is. Taking everything into consideration, costs, schedule, and the tasks it needs to accomplish, the present design was the best one needed. However, there are new designs on the computers...

[ Chris/NASAARC - 52 - 10:58:16 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] What should wattage of the fluorescent light be?
Wattage? Our present systems use about 50 watts per each RAHF for the lighting systems. The shuttle provides the RAHF 28 VDC of power to each RAHF RACKs 3 and 7. Try to keep your lights under 50 watts. Question for your group- How would you calculate the wattage if you only knew the voltage and current? Do not cheat by looking on the bulb.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 53 - 11:00:36 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] How long did it take to make the habitats? to come up with the idea and to make it.
How long? Ours took at least two years including the designing and testing. They were built before I came to work on this project.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 54 - 11:04:30 ]
RE: [Atholton-Mellie/AtholtonElementary] We are a little confused. How do the rats hang on to aluminum and steel? Is there a grid surface on the steel?
Hello again Good one... Yes we do have a grid on the floor the cage or habitat.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 56 - 11:08:49 ]
RE: [KarenJ.Massey] Thank you for explaining room moderation to us. We are learning how to use the computer to learn more about space. We are divided into groups, and we picked names for our groups. We also decided on a question to ask. We are enjoying these computer activities. Our question today is how long will the animals stay in space when they go up in April?
This one I can help with. The mission is scheduled for around 16 days. To find out more about the schedule, timing, etc. check out: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/background/mission.html

[ Chris/NASAARC - 57 - 11:08:57 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] Yes we are in California near Tijuana, Baja California a unos cuantos kilometros de Sonora--400 kilometros las 3 horas
Near Baja! ¡Qué bonito! Yo quiero visitar a tus estudiantes. My Spanish needs work...please excuse me

[ Chris/NASAARC - 60 - 11:11:59 ]
RE: [Luis-students/MontgomeryHigh] How are the fish going to be able to find their food in space.
Hi again I am not involve in the fish project so I do not know the details but I can find out.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 61 - 11:12:56 ]
RE: [KarenJ.Massey] Do the animals make noises in space?
Hi Karen and welcome They make some noise but generally they are quiet.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 65 - 11:15:23 ]
RE: [Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Are you going up in space on Neurolab? If yes, how often do you expect to check on the rats?
Hi No I am not going up in space... I wish I were... The Astronauts will be doing daily health checks for our Scientists on the ground.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 66 - 11:16:18 ]
RE: [Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Will there be a veterinarian on the Neurolab? Will he have medical supplies?
Have you checked out the bios for the crew members? They're at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/team at the foot of the page.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 67 - 11:16:55 ]
RE: [Mellie/AtholtonElementary] Will there be a veterinarian on the Neurolab? Will he have medical supplies?
Good question... One of the Mission Astronauts is a Veterinarian. Yes they will have medical supplies.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 69 - 11:19:09 ]
Wow! We went right past 11:00! I'm going to close for now, and if Chris is willing, perhaps he would stick around and answer the last 2 or 3 before checking out. Thanks for joining us!

[ Mellie/AtholtonElementary - 70 - 11:19:36 ]
Chris, Thanks for the math problem. We'll calculate the wattage problem in math tomorrow, first and second period math classes, and send the answer to Linda. My students say thank you for this challenging problem.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 71 - 11:20:37 ]
RE: [students/MontgomeryHigh] el super bowl: ya pasó hace 1 semana y fui a ver el juego y ganaron los broncos. ¿Qué equipo de soccer te gusta? a mí me gustan las chivas de Guadalajara, México.
Chivas es us gran equipo. Missail Espinosa juega por las Chivas? Mi equipo favorito es Estados Unidos y Cruz Azul. Aquí en Oakland Mexico juega con Trinidad hoy.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 72 - 11:21:13 ]
RE: [KarenJ.Massey] How many different animals have you worked with? Thank you for answering our questions.
Hi Karen I have worked with Rodents rats and mice.

[ students/MontgomeryHigh - 73 - 11:22:08 ]
Thank you for answering our questions and thank you for your efforts in Spanish. You are welcome to visit any time.

[ Mellie/AtholtonElementary - 74 - 11:22:21 ]
Chris & Linda, Thank you both very much. The information from today will really help the students revise their animal habitat designs.

[ Chris/NASAARC - 75 - 11:22:49 ]
RE: [Linda/NASAQuest] Wow! We went right past 11:00! I'm going to close for now, and if Chris is willing, perhaps he would stick around and answer the last 2 or 3 before checking out. Thanks for joining us!
Hi I can stick around for a few more

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 77 - 11:27:02 ]
RE: [Standish/RussellMiddleSchool] Hi, this is Christine and Lynn. We are from Thomas Russell Middle School.We would like to know what the rat cage design is?
Shhhh! Keep it under your hat, but I've posted some pictures that you can check out at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/neuron/photos/AEM.html These will give our Chat participants a chance to see one of the habitats designed here at NASA Ames Research Center.

[ Linda/NASAQuest - 78 - 11:28:58 ]
I want to say a giant thank you to Chris for taking from his really busy schedule to chat with us today! I enjoyed it so much that I lost track of time, and he has been very tolerant. Thank you to all the classes that joined us -- and thanks for your terrific designs. You're the reason we do this!

[ Chris/NASAARC - 79 - 11:30:36 ]
RE: [Standish/RussellMiddleSchool] Hi, this is Christine and Lynn. We are from Thomas Russell Middle School.We would like to know what the rat cage design is?
Hi Christine and Lynn and welcome Our cage design is rectangular shape about 3ft long approx 10 inches wide and 10 inches tall. The cages actually is in two equal sections where each section can hold one adult rodent. Both rodents have access to food and water. The top of the cage has two screened doors for access to the animals. The bottom of the cage has a tray which collects all the waste. One end of the cage has a viewing door for health monitoring.

I have to go and thanks for the chat.. Good luck in all you do. Stay cool.

Adiós