posted 04-01-2004 08:58 AM               

I plan on asking him about the proposed but canceled Neurolab 2 and of the moon/Mars initiative. And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't STS-90 the last STS to carry payload specialists until STS-107?

Any other questions, any other cSers going to be there? I'll be there all day as his interview time is sked for the afternoon.

posted 04-01-2004 08:19 PM               

Use this link to check on any shuttle flights for other what if type things .[URL=http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/year1998.html]

posted 04-05-2004 05:07 PM               

The gift bags – Jay Buckey’s speech as part of Seton Hall’s first “Faculty Research Day” – consisted of a pen from a drug manufacturer, a box of CentrumKids’ “Jimmy Neutron” multivitamins (60 count), and a package of freeze-dried, vanilla flavored ice cream. Someone there’s got a sense of humor….

Apparently I was the only one who harassed, er, asked him for an autograph. He brought along his blue flight suit litho for a science group who was to talk to him at 3:30 today, but I didn’t ask for one (nor did I photo kiosk my stuff I had downloaded off the ‘net.) He did sign my STS-90 photo of the crew on the bridge set of “Star Trek Voyager” as well as my “Space Shuttle: 20 Years” book. He brought along his own gold Sharpie-type pen, signing my book with his name and “STS-90, Neurolab” and the photo with just his name.

Unlike Dave Williams a few months back, Buckey didn’t take notice of the signatures in the book (Williams remarked, “Wow! You got Fred Haise!”) Buckey did want to know where I got the photo, and showed it to one of the faculty. (Darn it… I realize now I shoulda asked him about their visit to the set….)

I did tell him I had met Williams and Searfoss, and that I might be seeing Jim Pawelczyk in Pennsylvania later this month (April 17.) “You’re getting to see the whole crew,” he said. “Well, if you could get Kay Hire to do an appearance…” I remarked.

Buckey attended school on Long Island, so we talked a bit about the area, with him remembering stuff he hadn’t thought about in years, things like Smith Haven Mall, Roosevelt Field, and Nassau Coliseum. He mentioned about Grumman building the lunar modules in Bethpage and I told him that Apollo 18’s LEM was at the Cradle of Aviation Museum there; Apollo 19’s was at the Franklin Institute in Philly at one point (but not there any longer) and Apollo 20 was discarded. I didn’t know where the command modules for those missions were, other than I believed that one of them had been used on Skylab.

Despite his wife having family in somewhat nearby Summit, he was in NJ just for the university’s academic expo.

I asked him for a business card, but he apologized, saying that he forgot to bring them with him (and besides which, they also had the wrong phone number, he said.)

posted 04-06-2004 10:48 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Tonyspace:
He mentioned that
the results of STS-90 was just published and
can be purchased from the Goverment printing office or Amazon.com.

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I told him of my astronaut encounters, most recently of Walt Cunningham at his signing of the revised "All American Boys."

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a market for signed Neurolab books," Buckey commented. (He edited a book on Neurolab....)

posted 04-15-2004 05:00 PM               

Buckey, who in 1993, was chosen as one of three Payload Specialist candidates for the STS-58/Spacelab Life Sciences-1 mission, was the event’s keynote speaker, on the topic of “Life on Mars?”

He was born in 1956 and watched the flights of the early astronauts, thinking, “I’d sure like to be able to be an astronaut.” However, that was only a passing interest. Thirty-seven years later came the Columbia/STS-58 flight, and he, along with Martin Fettman, who flew, and Lawrence Young, were chosen as Payload Specialist candidates for that flight. “The investigators vote for the flight payload specialists and backup. This was the first flight dealing with animal research and Marty’s an outstanding vet, so that’s why he was chosen.”

For the Neurolab mission, “It was like old home week. Jim [Pawelczyk, the other Payload Specialist] had been at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at the same time I was, and I met Rick Searfoss beforehand, as he was pilot of STS-58.

“I was lucky to get the flight I did,” says Buckey. “I was one of the last scientist payload specialists.” (Of the Payload Specialists that flew after STS-90, both Chiaki Mukai and John Glenn, who flew on Discovery/STS-95, had astronaut training, she with the then-NASDA, and he as part of the original seven astronauts selected by NASA; Ilan Ramon, who died on Columbia/STS-107, also had astronaut training, with the Israel Space Agency. All the cosmonauts who have flown on Shuttle have been considered Mission Specialists by NASA.)

A Neurolab-2 flight was discussed but cancelled due to NASA wishing to preserve the launch date of the Endeavour/STS-88 flight, the first International Space Station assembly flight. “I had heard about it, but wasn’t involved with its planning, so I don’t know how real a Neurolab-2 mission was,” he commented. He calls the legacy of Neurolab “the most complex, biomedical flight, showing the different capabilities of Spacelab, showing that we can operate a laboratory in space, and showing that we can do complex, high-tech stuff” in orbit.

Following the Columbia accident, Buckey has been quoted saying that he’d like to go back in space again. “I like space, and I like space exploration.” But unlike Payload Specialist Robert Cenker (Columbia/Mission 61C), he has not applied for the astronaut corps. He realizes that for him, there’s too long a wait between being selected and flying. “If I was accepted, how long would be before I get assigned a flight?” he asked. “It would be tough.”

For his presentation Buckey reviewed evidence for early life on Mars and the challenges of missions to Mars. Buckey began by examining how Mars has remained in the public’s mind, with it being a popular destination in popular media such as Edgar Rice Burrough’s novels, and detailed some of the early experiments to determine how life on Earth may have began – leading to experiments on whether or not life exists on Mars.

“The question is,” Buckey continued, “does the political will exist for a manned Mars mission?”

Afterwards, Buckey answered that question when it was posed to him. “Traditionally, the United States has been a country of explorers. We have an immigrant culture, and a culture that’s been willing to take chances. Space has been a part of our culture – just look at some of the popular movies, which has space as part of its theme somewhere. It’s clear people are fascinated by the space programme,” he said, “but it doesn’t meet an immediate need.

“The problem,” Buckey continued, “is getting that interest into a tangible nuts and bolts programme. Such a programme needs to be sustained through multiple presidential administrations.” Buckey noted that manned Mars missions have been looked at a number of times, starting with Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1969 as the next step after Apollo, and with the first President Bush in 1989.

Buckey also cited the problem of how to present the cost data for a Mars mission to the public. “If we ask people, ‘Should we spend 0.8 percent of the Federal budget on NASA?' they’ll say, ‘That sounds about right.’ Ask them the equivalent, ‘Should we spend $15 billion?’ and they’ll say that’s too expensive.

“I’d like to see a manned Mars mission,” he said. “I hope it does happen.”

But why Mars? “Next to the Earth, Mars is a most interesting place, with a lot of attractions. Not only may life have been there, but it’s possible to be living there in the future.

“And it’s challenging. It’s beyond what’s been done before, and that’s important. If you’re not pushing yourself, you need to ask ‘why?’

“The benefits result from that pushing. Apollo did not set out to develop technology. In 1962, most of the integrated circuits in the United States, and by extension, the world, were used for the Apollo programme. We get a payoff from that every day.”