Artifact: STS-56 training Contingency Abort Cue Card
Artifact Category: cue card.
Date of use: 1993.
Manufacturer: NASA
Materials: cardboard, Velcro.
Dimensions: 18.2 x 20.4 cm

Program: Space Shuttle

Mission: STS-56
Flown Status: unflown.
Description: 7"x 8" heavy card Contingency Abort and RTLS cue card used in training by Ken Cameron for his STS-56 mission. It comes with a signed COA from him.

Once the shuttle's SRBs were ignited, the vehicle was committed to liftoff. If an event requiring an abort happened after SRB ignition, it was not possible to begin the abort until after SRB burnout and separation, about two minutes after launch. There were five abort modes available during ascent, divided into the categories of intact aborts and contingency aborts.

The RTLS abort mode was never needed in the history of the shuttle program. It was considered the most difficult and dangerous abort, but also among the most unlikely to occur as only a very narrow range of probable failures existed that were survivable but nevertheless so time-critical as to rule out more time-consuming abort modes.

STS-56 was the 56th mission of the United States Space Shuttle program and the 10th flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission was launched on April 8, 1993, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a crew of five astronauts led by Commander Kenneth Cameron.

The main objective of the mission was to carry out a series of scientific experiments in microgravity. The payload included the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-2), which was a collection of instruments designed to study the Earth's atmosphere and its interactions with the sun.

During the 9-day mission, the crew conducted a total of 81 experiments, which included observations of the Earth's ozone layer, the effects of solar radiation on the atmosphere, and the behavior of fluids in microgravity. They also tested a new device called the Active Rack Isolation System (ARIS), which was designed to reduce the amount of vibration experienced by sensitive experiments on board the shuttle.

In addition to the scientific experiments, the crew also performed a number of technical and maintenance tasks, including the deployment and retrieval of a small satellite called the Spartan 201, and the testing of new thermal protection materials for the shuttle's heat shield.

STS-56 landed on April 17, 1993 at the Kennedy Space Center.

Item: Apollo ALSEP disc used in training
Size: 6.5 cm.
Manufacturer: Bendix Aerospace.

Description:

The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) comprised a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site of each of the five Apollo missions to land on the Moon following Apollo 11 (Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17).

Background

The instrumentation and experiments that would comprise the ALSEP were decided in February 1966. The ALSEP was built and tested by Bendix Aerospace in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The instruments were designed to run autonomously after the astronauts left and to make long term studies of the lunar environment. They were arrayed around a Central Station which supplied power generated by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) to run the instruments and communications so data collected by the experiments could be relayed to Earth. Thermal control was achieved by passive elements (insulators, reflectors, thermal coatings) as well as power dissipation resistors and heaters. Data collected from the instruments were converted into a telemetry format and transmitted to Eearth.

Development

The ALSEP was stored in the U-I's Scientific Equipment (SEQ) Bay in two separate subpackages. The base of the first subpackage formed the Central Station while the base of the second subpackage was part of the RTG. A subpallet was also attached to the second subpackage which usually carried one or two of the experiments and the antenna gimbal assembly. On Apollo 12, 13, and 14, the second subpackage also stored the Lunar Hand Tool Carrier (HTC). The exact deployment of experiments differed by mission. The following pictures show a typical procedure from Apollo 12.

The artifact in my collection was used as part of the Apollo Program ALSEP training program with astronauts from the Apollo 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions. It was part of Mr. Richard Mulheim personal collection.

Artifact: Apollo Lunar Sample Collection Bag

Size: 22 x 20.5 cm.
Manufacturer: Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division

Part number: 11306-EM-031-00

Description: Polyethylene Flat Bag made by Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division. Y-12 Oak Ridge Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It comes from a sealed bag containing 20 of these rectangular sample bags to be used during training of lunar surface activities.

The flat rectangular bag had an aluminum ring to top for easy opening and closing. These types of bags were mounted on the side of an astronaut’s Hasselblad camera during EVA.

Documented sample bags were numbered bags that indicated the order of collected samples.

Although documented sample bags of several different configurations were used on the Apollo missions, two basic shapes described most bags - cup-shaped and flat rectangular. The cup-shaped bags came in sets of 35 (used on the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 missions) and in sets of 48 (used on the Apollo 17 mission). Flat rectangular bags in sets of 20 were used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17.

Jack Schmitt (left) tips a rock sample into a bag held by Gene Cernan during training at the Cape. Photo: KSC-72PC-440.

Astronaut Charlie Duke holding a sample bag in his right hand, and grabbing a rock from a boulder in his left hand. Photo: AS16-116-18649.