NASA Centers, Firms Plan To Use Proposed Space Facility

PASADENA. CALIF.--Materials scientists from several NASA-supported centers and commercial firms have developed plans to conduct research aboard the proposed industrial space facility. In February President Reagan endorsed the concept of an orbiting facility, built with private funds, that could be launched years earlier than the space station. The space lab would offer opportunities for continuous processing and testing, with experiments tended every four to six months by astronauts arriving and departing in the space shuttle. NASA officials originally saw the facility as a threat to their more costly manned space station, but were pushed by the White House into becoming reluctant advocates. Congressional attitudes toward the facility are divided between those who see it as a cheaper way to carry out commercial and scientific activities and those who worry that it will divert resources from a range of other space science projects. The idea for the facility comes from Space Industries Inc., of Houston, which boasts several former top NASA officials. Although it would be financed by private funds, the facility has won promises from NASA and other government agencies to lease 70 percent of its 2,500 cubic feet of interior volume, at a cost of $140 million a year, for five years after its launch in 1991 or 1992. "It will provide an opportunity for more access to space, which is quite limited," said Charles Lundquist, director of the Consortium for Materials Development in Space at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "We will be able to leave equipment in orbit, which is a pressing need, rather than hauling it up and down all the time. It also gives you a quiet environment; one can grow crystals very slowly, for instance, without any disturbances." Last year Lundquist asked members of the NASA-supported Centers for the Commercial Development of Space (CODS) for suggestions after a report by former astronaut Sally Ride endorsed the concept. The 16 university-based centers also draw support from industry, with academic scientists creating the experiments and companies providing the expertise and resources to build and test the necessary apparatus. "There was a general view that it was likely to happen," Lundquist said about the proposed facility, "and that the CCDSs should understand it." Lundquist expects the centers to require one-third of the capacity of the industrial facility. He predicts that other commercial groups will want an equal amount of space, with the rest going to NASA for academic research. Industry Projects Industrial interest in the facility stems from recruiting efforts by Space Industries officials that predate the 1986 Challenger disaster. Most of this work involves basic physics or engineering research rather than the commercial production of products. Such research efforts are less affected than are production schedules by the delays in the post-Challenger era. The NASA centers have also proposed several experiments. The Huntsville center is considering work in such topics as organic crystals and thin films having nonlinear optical properties, the electrodeposition of coatings for longer wear, and the use of antibodies for separating organic compounds. The Center for Advanced Materials (Battelle Columbus Laboratories) seeks to prepare crystals of cadmium telluride, a gamma-ray detector, using a float-zone-process. In a separate experiment, Battelle hopes to prepare crystals of zeolite catalysts in "substantially larger size than can presently be grown." None of the centers or firms have committed themselves to using what is still only an idea on paper. However, they seem likely to come on board if the facility gains the approval of Congress and is actually built. Heppenheimer is a science writer and former aerospace engineer.

NASA Centers, Firms Plan To Use Proposed Space Facility

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of