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Destination Tomorrow - DT3 - Microgravity

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Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment describing a microgravity environment and how this environment allows for research on all types of matter.

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Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal. 00:00:00
And I'm Kara O'Brien. 00:00:05
Welcome to Destination Tomorrow. 00:00:06
This program will uncover how past, present and future research is creating today's knowledge 00:00:08
to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow. 00:00:12
The International Space Station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and will provide an 00:00:15
orbital laboratory in a reduced-gravity environment for long-term research. 00:00:20
This microgravity environment gives researchers an opportunity to study the fundamental states 00:00:25
of matter, solids, liquids and gases, and the forces that affect them. 00:00:30
A unique facility at NASA Glenn is able to conduct microgravity research here on Earth. 00:00:34
NASA researchers can study how the lack of gravity will affect the experiments before 00:00:38
they are brought into space. 00:00:42
Jennifer Pulley takes us inside NASA Glenn's 2.2-second drop tower. 00:00:44
By now, you've all seen astronauts and objects floating around inside an orbiting spacecraft, 00:00:52
seemingly free of Earth's gravitational field. 00:00:58
But these images are misleading. 00:01:01
In fact, these objects are actually not floating, but in a state of continuous freefall. 00:01:03
Any object in freefall experiences microgravity, or weightlessness, which occurs when the object 00:01:09
falls towards the Earth. 00:01:15
Before NASA researchers send experiments on board shuttle missions or to the International 00:01:17
Space Station, they often test them here on Earth. 00:01:21
But how do you replicate microgravity here on Earth? 00:01:24
NASA Glenn has been conducting microgravity experiments since the 1960s in drop towers 00:01:28
like this. 00:01:33
These facilities rely on freefall of the experiment to produce a microgravity environment. 00:01:34
Here, NASA can test experiments in a reduced-gravity environment, similar to orbiting in space. 00:01:39
The 2.2-second drop tower is one of two microgravity facilities here at the Glenn Research Center. 00:01:47
This facility is just under 80 feet tall. 00:01:52
We can drop experiments in this facility weighing up to 350 pounds. 00:01:55
They'll reach a terminal velocity of almost 50 miles per hour just before they hit the 00:01:59
airbag at the bottom of the tower. 00:02:02
We create microgravity for 2.2 seconds here. 00:02:04
You said microgravity. 00:02:07
Do you mean weightlessness? 00:02:08
Yes, that's exactly right. 00:02:09
Microgravity is weightlessness. 00:02:12
Astronauts experience that in orbit all the time. 00:02:15
We need to create that down here on the Earth, and we can do that here in the 2.2-second 00:02:17
drop tower. 00:02:20
This is how a drop tower experiment works. 00:02:24
Researchers place their experiments inside an aluminum frame, also called a rig. 00:02:28
Experiment rigs are then placed inside a drag shield, but are not attached to it. 00:02:33
Once assembled, the experiment package is lifted to the top of the tower, then released. 00:02:38
When the experiment is dropped, it experiences microgravity, or zero-g, for 2.2 seconds. 00:02:45
The drag shield protects the experiment from aerodynamic drag during the drop, which allows 00:02:53
the experiment rig to fall freely a distance of 7.5 inches. 00:02:58
The experiment experiences weightlessness, similar to what would be expected in space. 00:03:02
During the drop tower, what happens is the experiment falls through the tower inside 00:03:08
the drag shield. 00:03:11
The drag shield is being slowed down by the aerodynamic drag as it approaches 50 miles 00:03:12
an hour as it nears the bottom of the tower. 00:03:17
The experiment inside, however, is falling through 7.5 inches inside the drag shield 00:03:19
and is unaware of the aerodynamic drag that's occurring around it. 00:03:25
There's three kinds of microgravity experiments we perform. 00:03:29
Most of our work is centered on combustion. 00:03:31
All the experiments are basically the same internally. 00:03:34
There's a power system, there's a computer system on board to control the experiment 00:03:36
as it falls through the tower, there's a diagnostic system on board, which takes the imaging or 00:03:40
the pressure or temperature data from the experiment as it falls, and then there's the 00:03:45
experiment itself, the thing that's actually burning or the liquid that's moving around 00:03:48
inside the experiment. 00:03:53
And we get all this ready, raise the experiment to the top of the tower that we have now, 00:03:54
and we close it up, package it up, do a countdown. 00:03:58
Three, two, one. 00:04:02
And as the experiment falls through the tower, it's in microgravity. 00:04:06
That's when the experiment runs. 00:04:09
Why do we conduct microgravity experiments here on Earth when we can easily conduct them 00:04:10
in space? 00:04:14
Well, actually, to conduct them in space is quite expensive. 00:04:15
The numbers I've heard is about $10,000 per pound just to lift the experiment into space. 00:04:18
Not to mention the cost of having the astronaut operate the experiment while it's up there. 00:04:23
Here in the drop tower, it's probably a bit less expensive to do that. 00:04:28
And if we make a mistake, we can go back and run the experiment again quite rapidly. 00:04:31
Our researchers set up the parameters for the experiments that do go up to space right 00:04:35
here in the drop tower. 00:04:39
So how do the combustion experiments that you conduct here at this facility in microgravity 00:04:41
affect me, the general public? 00:04:46
Well, the whole idea here is to understand combustion at the fundamental level. 00:04:49
Once we understand that, we can go out and make cleaner burning engines, cleaner burning 00:04:55
power plants, which means less pollution in the air. 00:04:59
So we're less fuel-dependent and we have a cleaner environment. 00:05:02
The 2.2-second drop tower was originally built in 1948 to house a distillation tower for 00:05:05
making jet fuel. 00:05:10
In the mid-1960s, the need to perform reduced gravity research in support of the space program 00:05:11
saved the facility from being torn down. 00:05:16
In the coming up, we'll see how playing video games can help us understand combustion 00:05:18
We'll see how playing video games can help people overcome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 00:05:22
But first, did you know NASA uses a specially adapted plane nicknamed the Vomit Comet that 00:05:26
creates microgravity here on Earth? 00:05:31
When the plane reaches the top of a parabolic trajectory, the occupants temporarily become 00:05:33
weightless, experiencing what it is like to fly in space. 00:05:38
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Idioma/s:
en
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Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
488
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
05′ 44″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
33.38 MBytes

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