The majority of Columbia's experiments, especially the life science payloads, had to have their samples back for analysis. In many cases the 'samples' were the bodies of the astronauts which would be subject to a battery of tests after the mission. Many scientists waited at the Kennedy Space Center to collect their samples when Columbia reentered - whether it was plants, worms, RNA samples, rats, the blood, urine, and saliva contributed by the astronauts, or their equipment inside the shuttle's cargo bay. They all went home empty handed.
The scientists were shocked by the accident. The years of hard work they put into their experiments seemed insignificant in comparison with the loss of the astronauts's lives and the loss of the shuttle. But shock turned into amazement as some scientists found out that their payloads had made it through Columbia's destruction and in many cases made it to the ground intact.
The scientists decided to dedicate their science to the crew in recognition of all of their hard work as well as their lives to make the science possible. NASA released a chart of the science which is still possible.
A postflight science report was released by NASA in January 2005, dedicated to the astronauts.
An oscillating flame ball - named 'Dave'
The data obtained during the mission will keep combustion scientists busy for many years to come and will help lead to the development of cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines as well as improved methods for spacecraft fire safety assurance.After the accident Ronney said -Oscillating flame balls that were predicted theoretically about 15 years ago by Prof. John Buckmaster at the University of Illinois and Dr. Guy Joulin of CNRS in Poitiers, France, but heretofore never observed experimentally.
When the Gods want to punish you they answer your prayers. It will take me years to analyze all of the data obtained on STS-107.
We did get some of our test results downlinked during the mission. I would estimate our loss of science at about 50% of the total we would have gotten with a normal flight. Many of the life science experiments needed their samples post-flight and so had nearly 100% loss. Since science was the main objective of the flight, perhaps the crew would have been pleased to know that SOFBALL did get much of its science.
Within a day after the accident ITA president John Cassanto's grief turned into amazement when he saw photos of his CIBX payload's DMDA (Dual Materials Dispersion Apparatus) hardware on the ground in the driveway of a gas station in Nacogdoches, Texas. His payload had somehow survived the intense reentry heat and a 38 mile fall.
Engineers open a BRIC canister wondering what they're going to find inside. |
Fred Ahmay and William McLamb study the recovered BRIC payload. |
One of the most amazing experiments to survive was several canisters filled with tiny C. Elegans worms. The worms were flown to test a synthetic worm food and continued to live and reproduce in their canister until they were opened up three months after the accident. The tiny worms are about the size of a printed comma in a newspaper.
Also astonishing was the recovery of the BRIC moss, which had been fixed in space by the astronauts. They showed the clockwise spirals which were first observed on the STS-87 mission. Dr. Fred Sack published his findings in "Planta An International Journal of Plant Biology" © Springer-Verlag 2005 in the article "Gravitropic moss cells default to spiral growth on the clinostat and in microgravity during spaceflight". These photos appeared on page 4 and 7 courtesy of BRIC scientist Fred Sack.
Amazingly the BRIC temperature loggers recorded the stable temperatures during the experiment, then incredible heat during the reentry, and after the experiment hit the ground the temperature loggers recorded the natural day-night temperature changes where they fell in Texas until their batteries ran out!
But there are some amazing stories. Several computer hard drives were recovered, ordinary off-the-shelf hard drives in protective cases. The CVX hard drive looked like it had been smashed with a hammer and then went through a hurricane, but a commercial company which recovers data from damaged hard drives was able to recover most of the data. The SOLSE hard drive was also found but it was in far worse shape and the team didn't even try to recover its data. Flash cards with data from the Mist experiment were also recovered and sent to their manufacturer. The company was able to recover some data. The Mist team had no idea what data was on the card but were astonished that the recovered data was from one of the final tests. The final tests were the ones which were not transmitted to the ground during the mission because of lack of time. The test was especially important because throughout their mission the Mist team moved towards their ultimate goal - slowing a flame front down to as slow as possible.
On the other hand no data was obtained from most of the recovered payloads. The Biopack Leukin cartridges were recovered but the heat and exposure had almost immediately destroyed the delicate biological samples the scientists wanted to study.
Engineers wanted to use Columbia in some way for research instead of just burying it forever. They convinced managers to approve the project and a permanent technical library was established for Columbia inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Columbia was in the VAB less than a year earlier, when it was mated to its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Engineers designing next-generation high speed aircraft and spacecraft can use Columbia's pieces to design better vehicles in the future. The parts are all cataloged and available for qualified researchers.
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