| Inside
SPACEHAB | 
STS-107 Mission Specialists Kalpana Chawla, left, and
Laurel Clark conduct experiments inside the SPACEHAB Research
Double Module. |
|
Scientists
Assess Columbia Experiment Data
Accident investigators are not the only people studying data from
Space Shuttle Columbia. Throughout the 16-day science flight, the
crew downlinked video and data from many experiments to researchers
on Earth in real time. Those experiment results are providing a
wealth of information to scientists involved in the mission.
David Liskowsky
of NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research said, "For
those experiments that received downlinked data during the mission,
we estimate that anywhere between 50 to 90 percent of the data was
acquired."
More than 80 experiments
flew aboard Columbia during STS-107, including investigations into
life sciences, combustion research, material sciences and fluid physics.
Most of the life science experiments included specimen samples that
were lost in the accident, but many of the other experiment results
were downlinked during the mission.
Among the scientific
successes of STS-107 were the six experiments of the Space
Technology and Research Students, or STARS, program. The student-designed
experiments downlinked video and data to the researchers every day,
and an estimated 70 percent of the scientific objectives were achieved. |
