Space Team Online QuestChat

Featuring: Deborah Wells

November 15, 2001

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 0 - 12:12:32 ]
Please join us Thursday, November 15, for a chat with Deborah Wells, Flight Experiments Project Manager at the Kennedy Space Center. This chat continues the theme featured in the November 8 webcast concerning launch support hardware . Please be sure to read Deborah's profile before joining us, so that your questions will be appropriate to her field.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 1 - 12:13:03 ]
You may go ahead and place questions in the chatroom now to be answered during the webchat. Please don't post test messages or repeats -- though you may not see your question, it is in the chatroom. Again, PLEASE do not repeat your questions. Enjoy the chat :-)

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 3 - 12:12:46 ]
To build a Clinostat see lesson helps at: http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/space/iss2001/nov/guides.html

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 10 - 10:00:06 ]
Hello everyone!! Welcome to our NASA Quest Webchat with Deborah Wells, from the Kennedy Space Center. We are ready to begin :-)

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 11 - 10:01:59 ]
Hello everyone and welcome. I'm very excited to be here with you. I am looking forward to your questions.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 16 - 10:03:50 ]
RE: [scott] What is biomedical engineering?
Scott - biomedical engineering is a field of engineering where we look at living systems. Instead of studying water flowing in a pipe, I studied blood flowing through veins.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 18 - 10:05:29 ]
RE: [lovebug16] hi i'm from girl scouts and i'd like to know some things about your career- thanx
Hi lovebug16 - I hope you like Girl Scouts. I sure do!! I studied lots of science and math in high school and started as a chemistry major in college. I changed to biomed engineering though. It is a great field. I've been at NASA for about 14 years.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 20 - 10:07:08 ]
RE: [Scott] What is a clinostat and what is it used for exactly?
Scott, a clinostat is a slow rotating device that spins the sample. When we spin the sample, the sample "sees" gravity on all sides. When the sample sees gravity the same on all sides, it tricks the sample into thinking there is no gravity. Does that make sense?

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 21 - 10:08:48 ]
RE: [Janice] What is the fixative used in the KFT made of?
Hi Janice! Our fixatives are made of toxic chemicals known as aldehydes. These chemicals preserve the cells of the plant, so the scientist can look at it later. It freezes everything just where it is. Using the fixative we can see what the cells are doing in space, after we get them back on Earth.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 24 - 10:11:38 ]
RE: [David] Who was the first person to come up with the idea to build The ISS?
Hi David - I remember you asked this question last week. Well, I've done a bit of thinking since then. The current space station was first official in 1988 when the U.S. signed an agreement with the first set of partners. A new agreement was signed in 1998 to establish a new set of partners. However, let's not forget that the Russians had Salyut and Mir, and the U.S. has had the Skylab program. Each of these were space stations. What we have today is built on our human desire to explore.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 26 - 10:15:04 ]
RE: [Nataly] Hi! I would like to know how plants are grown in the Space Station.
Hi Nataly - plants are grown very similar to how you might grow them on Earth. We plant the seeds in some sort of "substrate" - it can be a dirt-like substance, foam like you use for flower arrangements, or agar. Agar is like Jello®, but with nutrients in it for the plants to eat. We also provide air and light. It takes a bit of engineering though to get all this into the little spaces they give us for experiments!!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 29 - 10:17:21 ]
RE: [JESSICA] How big can your plants grow in space?
JESSICA - hope you are having fun - I am!! Plants grow a bit slower in space than they do on earth. We usually fly plants that will only get as big as our container. As an example, we grow wheat on space station, but it is superdwarf wheat and only gets about 10 inches tall. Wheat we grow for food on earth can be several feet tall.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 31 - 10:20:09 ]
RE: [Jose225] What kind of experiment do you do?
Welcome Jose225 - I have had the opportunity to work on lots of different experiments. I have helped fly plants (like wheat, moss, slime mold), swordtail fish, snails, chicken eggs, crickets, frogs, flies and lots of experiments on the astronauts. They are neat in there own way. What I enjoy most is meeting all the people from all around the world.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 33 - 10:23:04 ]
RE: [Faith] How many hours does it take to get to the space station?
Good question Faith! When we leave the launch pad the space station is usually directly overhead, but it is moving extremely fast -- so the shuttle has to catch up with it. It usually takes two or three days to catch up with the station, and be exactly at the same speed and altitude.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 35 - 10:27:13 ]
RE: [Lance] How does the KC-135 allow enough weightlessness time to actually do an experiment inside during the flying of parabolas?
Hi Lance - thanks for asking about the KC135 - it is really a fun ride!! If you've ridden a rollercoaster, usually there is a big hill that you go over really fast. When you go over the top of the hill, you come out of your seat - you float for a couple of seconds. The KC135 is the same thing - just bigger hills!! The plane accelerates up into the sky, when the plane goes nose down again, the plane is really falling - this is the period of time where you are "weightless". I hope this explains it for you. Keep this in mind if you ride any rollercoasters soon!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 38 - 10:29:45 ]
RE: [George] Can you give an example of something you used your math skills for recently in your job?
Math skills - hmmmmm? Yes, I really do use them. I have to figure out how strong a material is and if it can survive changes in pressure, temperature, etc. I can do this by doing a test, but that is expensive. Using a few formulas, I can use math to answer these questions. This is a lot cheaper than a test.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 39 - 10:32:07 ]
RE: [Scott] What was the hardest thing you had to preapre to go into space?
Scott - the hardest thing I had to prepare for space was probably an experiment which involved the slime mold. This experiment was the most difficult because we loaded this experiment, into the space shuttle, five times before it actually launched!! We had to work very hard to prepare new samples for every new launch attempt.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 41 - 10:34:10 ]
RE: [Jose225] What do you do for fun?
Thanks Jose225 for asking - I think my job is fun, but it is only a very small part of my life. I have three children and a wonderful husband. I look forward to doing outdoor activities like mountain biking (yes, even in Florida) and I do practice yoga, which is great exercise and a great stress reliever.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 43 - 10:36:15 ]
RE: [Albert] What other plants can live in space
Other plants that can grow in space? So far we've grown wheat, Arabidopsis & Brassica (these are mustard type plants), potatoes, flax, ferns. We are starting to study more of the "crop" plants so we can prepare for long duration flights where the astronauts can grow food to eat, and not just for experiments. Hope that helps Albert!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 45 - 10:39:29 ]
RE: [Vickie] What is your favorite part of your work?
Vickie - there are all kinds of opportunities in this area for travel, meeting people, seeing new things, having new experiences. These are the things that make this job fun. I truly enjoy the people at NASA - I have friends in Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Mexico, Ukraine, and all over the U.S. that I have made from my opportunities. This is my favorite thing.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 47 - 10:40:47 ]
RE: [ George - 40 - 10:33:38 ] Are the formulas you use for algebra, trig, geometry, which one?
George, the formulas I was referring to are structural materials formulas. I don't remember the exact name, but if you picked up a statics or dynamics of materials textbook, that would be the ones.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 49 - 10:43:12 ]
RE: [chloe] hi i was wondering if we, as a human race would reach orbit in a community in the near foreseable future or am i living in hope.
Hi Chloe - don't give up your dream!! In order for the whole race to live in space we would need to commit lots of money now. That's not likely since there are many other issues like hunger that need to be dealt with. I hope in my children's lifetime, that we continue to live on space station and send someone to Mars, or back to the moon.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 51 - 10:46:12 ]
RE: [Jesus] What steps did you have to take that made you a scientist of NASA? How did you feel when you first started?
Hello Jesus - I studied engineering in college, however NASA hires folks with all kinds of degrees and without degrees. There are lawyers, doctors, technicians, engineers, scientists, janitors, cooks, etc. All of these folks contribute to the success of our programs. I was lucky, I knew someone who worked here and I asked them about a job. I applied and was accepted. I think you need to be a good writer and speaker. You need to be a leader. Good luck!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 53 - 10:48:17 ]
RE: [Vincent] What kinds of things are drop tested in the tube or tower? What kind of information is learned from these tests?
Vincent - drop towers/tubes are used to look at things that happen really fast. One thing I know they use them for are tests of fire behavior. Fire behaves different in space than on the ground and a fire can be ignited and studied in the few seconds that you have "microgravity" in a drop tower. We don't use them much for life science experiments, because living things don't react that fast.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 54 - 10:50:36 ]
RE: [VanessaC] Why are the seeds so small compared to regular seeds
Hi VanessaC - we use the same seeds in space that you would use on the Earth. A lot of the plants we fly just have really small seeds, which makes planting them a challenge. A seed for Arabidopsis is as big as this period . :)

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 55 - 10:53:24 ]
Great questions everyone!! We have about 10 minutes left to chat with Deborah. Once the chat is over, please let us know what you think about this chat and our site redesign by filling out our online survey. Thanks, we appreciate it!!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 56 - 10:53:40 ]
RE: [Sherri] How do you decide where something is best tested – KC-135 or drop tubes?
Hi Sherri - the difference between these two "simulators" is the duration of microgravity, so usually that is what we look at to decide which one to choose. The plants would not recognize the 2 - 5 seconds of microgravity in a drop tower. It is too short of a time for them to sense the change. However on the KC135, the 20-25 seconds is plenty of time for the plants to notice the change and they react. We can study the plant's reaction and understand how the plant senses the change in gravity. Hope that helps!

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 58 - 10:55:58 ]
You can keep up with all the cool NASA Quest events by checking out our calendar.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 59 - 10:56:38 ]
RE: [Laura] What was the hardest experiment you ever dealed with?
Thanks for your interest Laura - I mentioned the slime mold experiment earlier because it took so many launch attempts to finally get it in orbit. But from another view, flying experiments to the space station for 90 days is a much harder than just flying an experiment for 16 days on the space shuttle. Just the change in length of the experiments makes it much more difficult.

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 60 - 10:58:03 ]
RE: [Scott] What was the neatest thing you ever prepared for travel to space?
Neatest thing would have to be the chicken eggs. This was a student experiment, proposed by John Vellinger when he was in high school. It was sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken®. We flew chicken eggs, and then hatched the eggs after the mission and studied what changes occurred.

[ Scott - 61 - 10:58:30 ]
Gotta go, but wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. This is sooooooooooo cool!! Thanks Ms. Deborah Wells!!

[ DeborahWells/KSC - 62 - 10:59:22 ]
So long everyone - thanks for your interest and excellent questions! I really enjoyed my first "chat". Take care and remember to put a deadline on your goals and work toward them everyday!!

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 63 - 11:01:08 ]
Thanks to our participants for joining us today and a special thanks to Deborah Wells, from the Kennedy Space Center, for sharing her time and expertise with us today! Join us next week for a webcast on the 20th. Have a great day all!!