The Mini-Laboratory used for STS-135 is the same as used for STS-134—the Materials Dispersion Apparatus (MDA). However, there was to be one essential operational difference. For STS-135 student teams were to be able to add a third experiment sample (a fluid and/or solid) before the shuttle leaves orbit. This would have provided a team the ability to shut down a biological experiment, before gravity is reintroduced to the experiment, by adding a “biological inhibitor” or “fixative”. This was described in the Microgravity Experiment Case Studies and Fixative and Growth Inhibitors documents found in the Document Library.
This added capability required that all the SSEP experiments fly in one mini-lab, and the professional researchers’ experiments fly in a second mini-lab. The reason was that the professional researchers required a different sequence for when their experiment samples are brought together (which is called the “Slide Protocol”.)
On April 12, 2011, NCESSE learned that due to the compressed launch schedule, with a launch date targeted for June 28, 2011, only a single mini-lab could be flown and that it had to be shared by both SSEP student experiments and the professional research experiments. (This is actually a teachable moment, reflecting how compromises have to be made when many researchers need to use a limited research resource, and yes … the students participating in SSEP are definitely considered researchers!) Very significant conversations between NCESSE, NanoRacks, and ITA quickly led to the conclusion that the SSEP slide protocol would not work for the professional researchers, yet the slide protocol for the professional researchers would still work for SSEP. It is the slide protocol that was used for STS-134, and which successfully saw 447 student team proposals and 16 selected to fly on Endeavour. It was clear that mini-lab operation on STS-135 would need to be identical to mini-lab operation on STS 134. This means that mixing a third sample many days into the mission is no longer possible, and only two types of Experiment Slots are available for STS-135: Type 1 and Type 2-Prime.
The STS-135 Mini-Laboratory Operation page has just gone through a sweeping revision so that it fully describes mini-lab operation on STS-135. All Student Teams and Teacher Facilitators are urged to read this page carefully and adjust their experiment design thinking if needed. Ground Truth Experiments now take on an even greater role in experiment design, and the importance of such experiments is described on the page.
Jump to: STS-135 Mini-Laboratory Operation page.
The SSEP on-orbit research opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
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