The shuttle will check dust particles, flashes of light, culture bacteria - and grow blue-white crystals * The Air Force hopes that Ramon will serve as a "knowledge center" * Reports from the second day of the flight
17.1.2003
By: Avi Blizovsky
Pictured: Small flame balls from a previous experiment on the Columbia shuttle in 1997.
The year was 1643. Evangelista Torricelli, one of Galileo's assistants mixed some mercury into a glass tube and closed the opening with his finger. He then tried to take out the mercury but it did not come off. A kind of emptiness separated him from the mercury. Somehow he managed to replace it with a heavy liquid. And that's how he discovered the void - vacuum.
Today every child creates a vacuum in every common restaurant using a straw over water or milk. However, in Torricelli's time, Rick's idea was radical. Aristotle himself stated that nature abhors a vacuum. Science, however, has learned to love the void.
A laboratory vacuum chamber is like a piece of outer space on Earth. It is a great place to perform experiments that would be impossible to perform in Earth's compressed atmosphere. Research at Brick gave birth to light bulbs, integrated circuits, freeze-dried food, particle accelerators, Microsoft Electronics, and even weather forecasting and making airplanes easier to fly. Torricelli would have been amazed if he had seen all this.
It can be said that to some extent, Torricelli's work symbolized the beginning of space exploration, but there are many aspects of space that cannot be imitated on Earth." says Dr. John Charles of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We can lower the air pressure in the lab and in vacuum chambers and bombard samples with radiation like in space, but we can't cancel gravity, for example, or look at the Earth from above."
Some things simply cannot be done on Earth. This is why NASA built the International Space Station, a laboratory that is constantly weightless. This is also why NASA sends spacecraft on scientific missions.
One such mission began Thursday when the space shuttle Columbia left Earth with more than eighty science experiments on board. About half of them are commercial, funded by businesses hoping to turn them into the next profitable discovery. The rest is pure science. "We conduct experiments in physics, biology, firefighting, medicine, climate. The variety is impressive" said Charles, the chief scientist on Mission 107.
"Space is indeed an alien environment," says Charles. "Many things behave differently there in space. Flames are a good example. On Earth, flames take the shape of a teardrop. The flame is caused by hot air rising up within a gravitational field. On a spaceship, however, the flames break up into small balls and move around like clouds. They continue to burn with almost no fuel - something the researchers seek to emulate in fuel-efficient car engines. One of the examples on Flight 107 is called SOFBALL-2. In this experiment, the astronauts will ignite several flames and measure their properties. The scientists hope to learn how they burn and what keeps their embers burning.
The human brain is another example. An astronaut just arriving in orbit has to make adjustments. There is no "up" and no "down". If you throw something it doesn't fall. And just try to catch a ball thrown by a teammate. The brain adapts itself to the lack of weight by building a model or mental subroutine. After a while, sleeping with your head down is not a problem. No one knows how the brain builds these models, but neuroscientists want to find this example of model building as a key to human learning. NASA researchers will study the process on Flight 107 crew members.
How different is the space? Even the smell of the flowers is not like itself. The giant of the perfume industry, International Fleavor and Ferganas (IFF) found in 1998 when they sent a miniature rose called "Overnight Scentsation" into orbit on the shuttle Discovery (Mission 95). The flower developed a rose aroma differently from its normal smell on Earth. The new fragrance meanwhile became ZEN perfume, produced by the Japanese company Shishido. This time, on flight 107, IFF scientists sent two flowers - a rose and an Asian rice flower. They hope that the duo will together develop an even more exotic scent than before.
And these are just three examples, there are 77 more experiments on board Columbia, and all of them are exciting." Amretz
Managing so many experiments is a lot of work. To carry it out, Columbia's team will be divided into two - blue and red, and they will work in shifts of 12 hours each. This will allow the researchers to conduct experiments continuously for 24 hours during the 16 days of the mission.
Each of the experiments has a specific purpose such as improving car engines and discovering new smells. But the great prize, says Charles, is unknown. No one in the 17th century could have predicted when Torricelli performed simple experiments where it would lead. Equally, no one can predict where zero-gravity experiments might lead.
Almost certainly, what we predicted was only a tiny fraction of the profits we received."
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/porta
The shuttle will check dust particles, flashes of light, culture bacteria - and grow blue-white crystals
16.1.2003
By: Tamara Traubman
The Israeli experiment that will be conducted on the space shuttle Columbia is called MEIDEX, an acronym in English for "Israeli Dust Experiment in the Middle East".
The main goal of the project is to study the impact of dust storms and air pollution on the climate in the Middle East. The experiment was designed at Tel Aviv University, and according to Prof. Ze'ev Levin, one of the leaders of the experiment, aerosols - dust particles floating in the atmosphere - will be measured over the Mediterranean region. This, in order to examine their effect on the formation of clouds and rain.
According to Prof. Levin, information received in recent years has led scientists to believe that dust particles affect climatic processes such as the formation of clouds and rain. However, according to him, "the dust is still missing and misunderstood in the equation known as 'climate', and its investigations are today at the forefront of scientific research. The dust is important not only for Israel, it covers the entire planet, and understanding it is important for understanding the phenomenon of global warming, rainfall and other phenomena."
Cameras on the shuttle will point towards dust storms, and at the same time - a research plane will fly under the shuttle's coverage area. The plane will collect additional data that will help interpret the data received from the instruments on the space shuttle. According to the team, the data collected could improve the degree of accuracy of the dust measurements made by satellites operating in space.
According to the original plan, the dust experiment was supposed to be carried out in the summer about two years ago, but its postponement led to its being carried out in the winter season, when dust storms are quite rare. Since the team was concerned that the lack of storms in the winter would harm the quality of the experiment results, it was decided to also add air pollution measurements and three other experiments.
In one of them they will investigate mysterious flashes of light called "elves". The first reports of the light sprites were first received in the 50s by pilots who saw flashes of red and blue light. "Scientists didn't believe them that much," says Prof. Levin. However, in 1989, for the first time, pictures of the elves were taken from the ground. According to Levin, the elves appear during lightning storms, but it is not clear how they are created. In the experiment - which will be done in collaboration with the Open University - the researchers will try to decipher how they were formed.
There are two more experiments that Columbia will conduct, in which Israeli researchers participate:
- An experiment to test the ability of bacteria to reproduce in the microgravity conditions of space. The experiment was conducted under the direction of Dr. Eran Shankar from the Israel Institute of Space Medicine, and Dr. David Warmflesh, a researcher at NASA. Its partners are Yuval Landau, a medical student from Tel Aviv University and Tarek Adwan, a Palestinian medical student in the USA. After the shuttle returns to Earth, the researchers will compare the bacteria grown in space to a group of bacteria grown on Earth, and see if there is a difference in the rate or manner of their growth.
- An experiment that will test a formula in space, which contains a "pro-biotic" bacterium, and was developed by the "Materna" company. The experiment will be done in collaboration with NASA, Dr. Shankar from the Institute of Space Medicine and Dr. Yael Bar, a doctor and researcher at the Pathology Institute of the Ichilov Hospital. As part of the experiment, the bacteria's activity will be tested in test tubes that will be placed on top of the shuttle, comparing it to the bacteria's activity on Earth.
The Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, will also supervise an experiment designed by the students of "Ort" high school in Kiryat Motzkin, under the scientific direction of chemist Prof. Eliezer Kolodani from the Technion in Haifa. In the experiment, blue and white crystals (chemical molecules) will be grown. Crystals of the type that will be taken into space usually grow against the direction of gravity, and the students want to see how the crystals grow in weightless conditions.
The launch of the shuttle Columbia today will be the 113th time that space shuttles have been launched into space and the 28th time that this shuttle has been launched. After you complete this mission, Columbia will be put in for renovations, during which she will be trained for docking at the International Space Station. In recent years, the US government's investment in the American space program has been significantly reduced and most resources have been concentrated exclusively on the construction of its International Space Station.
The expedition departing today - whose code name is - 107-STS will be the first expedition in three years launched for the purpose of scientific experiments only, and not for the purposes of construction and maintenance of the space station.
The Air Force hopes that Ramon will serve as a "knowledge center" * "a big step for Israel"
17.1.2003
In the photo: the launch of the Ofek 1 satellite in 1998
In the Air Force, it has not yet been determined what role Lt. Col. Ilan Ramon will play upon his return to Israel after completing his mission in space. The commander of the Air Force, Major General Dan Halutz, said that Ramon will be a "center of knowledge" in the force on space issues. Military sources added that an attempt will be made to keep Ramon in the Air Force, but it is not clear whether he will hold a position permanently or in the reserves.
Ramon, 49 years old, was in his last position head of the munitions department at the Air Force headquarters. In 96, he was about to be released from service, when he was offered by the Air Force to go to the USA for the mission at NASA. General Halutz said yesterday, in an interview with Channel 2, that Ramon's flight is Israel's "first and I hope not the last" step in space. Halutz added that space is "not foreign to Israel", due to the experience gained in launching unmanned vehicles (satellites). According to him, sending the astronaut into space is a "worthy and worthwhile effort" and has far-reaching consequences for Israel's progress in this field in the future. "I would be happy to exchange with him," the air force commander said of Ramon.
Amos Harel
First Israeli in space - a small step for Ramon, a big step for security
by Yitzhak ben Israel
The preoccupation with space serves as a modern expression of the tendency of the fathers of the state - as far back as its founding - to base Israel's security on scientific and technological superiority, in order to compensate for quantitative inferiority. The space allows Israel to adapt this concept to a state of peace - even if it is partial - with its neighbors.
Therefore, it is particularly important that the Israeli astronaut, Lt. Col. Ilan Ramon, is on the space shuttle - first and foremost, to run a scientific experiment. The main experiment will deal with the measurement of the dust clouds over the Middle East, in an attempt to build a computational model that will allow a better prediction of the weather - for scientific and security needs. The experiment was chosen by Mapat (the body responsible for research and development in the Ministry of Defense) in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency. The project was selected from among dozens of proposals by the Israeli Academy, and was approved by the American Space Agency, where it was tested according to strict scientific criteria.
The experiment demonstrates the combination between the Israeli scientific reputation and the security establishment, which financed the experiment. The connections established with the American Space Agency are an important basis for continued cooperation in vital technology areas.
The field of space is taking an increasingly central place in Israel's security concept. There are several reasons for this. First, the technology of ground missiles allows even a distant country like Iraq to hit Israeli cities. In such a situation, the Israeli ability to gather intelligence at great distances, to maintain contact with forces that will be forced to operate at such distances, and to receive warnings of surface-to-surface missile launches is of central importance. The solution to all of these is found in space: starting with photography satellites (which Israel already has), through communication satellites (which were also developed in Israel) and ending with warning satellites (which Israel does not have, but the connection is maintained through a direct connection to American satellites).
Second, Israel must prepare for a situation in which its ambitions for expanding the circle of integration with its neighbors will be fulfilled. In such an era, you will no longer be able to stand guard and receive warnings by the classic means (such as photo planes), because these require intrusion into the border and violation of the sovereignty of the neighboring countries. The use of space can therefore provide Israel with a "warning in a state of peace".
And thirdly, the development of Israel's space capability is a useful way to maintain its image of deterrence in the Middle East, without resorting to the old way of maintaining deterrence through the demonstrable use of military force. The capability in space is a "deterrent measure of peace".
The launch yesterday revealed for a moment the connection, usually hidden from view, between the defense establishment in Israel - its contribution to the development efforts of new technological areas in the direction and concentration of development efforts, and especially in financing - and the development of industry in Israel in general and the defense industry in particular, and all this with the assistance of the United States.
Beyond the scientific-security importance of the experiment, there is also the importance of the practical experience gained from the first instrument by an Israeli pilot-engineer. This experience will make it possible to expand Israel's involvement in space in the future. Even if this is initially done with American cooperation and support, the day will come when the newborn will stand on its feet and walk on its own.
Paraphrasing the words of the first man to walk on the moon, it can be said that Ramon's launch was a small step for him, but it is a big step for the renewal of Israel's security concept, and its entry into a new scientific-technological field.
Major General (Res.) Prof. Yitzhak Ben Israel, lecturer in security studies at Tel Aviv University. In the past, he served as the head of MPAAT (the division for research on the development of weapons and technological infrastructure in the Ministry of Defense)
Israel concentrates on the creation of satellites and their deployment
The Israel Space Agency was established in 1983 as a body operating under the Ministry of Science. The agency was established by Professor Yuval Naaman, who then served as Minister of Science in Menachem Begin's government.
The Israeli Space Agency's budget this year is about two million shekels, and it employs only two employees, the director, Avi Har-Evan, and a secretary.
The main role of the Israeli agency is to coordinate between different parties, develop research relationships, assist and support Israeli and international projects.
Israel's space program stands out mainly in the creation of satellites and their launch into space. Regardless of the space agency, several astrophysicists, astronomers and climate researchers work in the universities, some of whom are considered among the leaders in their field in the world.
Below are some of Israel's main entrepreneurs in space:
* The "Amos" communication satellite system - Amos-1 was the first Israeli communication satellite. Amos was developed by the aerospace industry, and is used for communication and television purposes. It was launched into space on May 16, 1996 by a French Ariane rocket.
* "Ofek" satellite program - the Aerospace Industry served as the main contractor for this program and was responsible for building a command and control center and a ground reception station for the satellite. The Aerospace Industry also operated these centers at the site of the Mbat plant in Yehud.
As part of the program, three satellites were launched into space: Ofek-1, a satellite weighing 156 kg, which was an experimental satellite and was launched in September 1988 by an Israeli "Shavit" launcher. The satellite stayed in space for 118 days, during which it functioned successfully; Ofek-2 was launched in April 1990 for an improved thermal insulation satellite and improved protection from cosmic radiation, as well as an improved navigation system and a two-way communication system; Ofek-3 was launched in April 1995 by the "Comet" launcher. It was a "third generation" satellite, with the possibility of remote sensing. The satellite is still active in space.
* The Technion's satellite project - the satellite, "Texat" its name, is a small scientific satellite, built by students from the Technion, with the help of immigrant scientists from the Commonwealth of Nations. The Ministry of Science invested about 2.5 million dollars in this project. The satellite was launched into space in 1995, but the Russian launcher that launched it failed in its mission. Finally, in July 1998, another satellite was successfully launched, named "Gorwin-2-Texat". The satellite is still floating in space and some scientific experiments are being conducted on it. A camera manufactured by the Israeli company "Al-Op" is installed in the satellite.
