Researcher’s Guide to: Physical Sciences Informatics System

I NT:i<.N/\TION/\L SP/\C if/\TION National Aeronautics and Space Administration A Researcher’s Guide to: Physical Sciences Informatics System This International Space Station (ISS) Researcher’s Guide is published by the NASA ISS Program Science Offce. Authors: Dr. Francis Chiaramonte, Program Scientist for Physical Sciences Ms. Cynthia Frost, PSI Project Manager Ms. Cheryl Payne, PSI Data Architect Ms. Preethi Manoharan, Senior Solicitation Support Specialist Ms. Teresa Miller, PSI Technical Manager Dr. Harri Vanhala, Lead Solicitation Support Scientist Executive Editor: Heidi Parris Technical Editor: Susan Breeden Designer: Cory Duke Published: October 10, 2018Revision: (ebook only) December 7, 2018Cover and back cover: a. PSI: Providing Global Access to Microgravity Physical Sciences Datab. This color image of an ethylene-air diffusion fame was recorded 1.3 seconds after ignition in theNASA Glenn Research Center 2.2~Second Drop Tower. The fame sheet and soot are clearly visible.Ignition was performed in microgravity, and most ignition nonuniformities have dissipated here. Thecamera used is a Nikon D100 digital still camera with a resolution of 6 megapixels. The scale isindicated by the 6-mm spherical burner (top). ISS fnal Confguration (bottom). (Image credit: NASA)2 ’’The Lab is Open Orbiting the Earth at almost 5 miles per second, a structure exists that is nearly the size of a football feld and weighs almost a million pounds. The International Space Station (ISS) is a testament to international cooperation and signifcant achievements in engineering. Beyond all of this, the ISS is a truly unique research platform. The possibilities of what can be discovered by using the results of research already conducted, as well as by conducting research on the ISS, are endless and have the potential to contribute to the greater good of life on Earth and inspire generations of researchers to come. As we increase utilization of the ISS as a National Laboratory, now is the time for investigators to propose ways to use both existing and new research and to make discoveries unveiling new knowledge about nature that could not be defned using traditional approaches on Earth. NASA s Physical Sciences Research Program conducts fundamental and applied physical sciences research, with the objective of enabling exploration and pioneering scientifc discovery. NASA s experiments in the various disciplines of physical science reveal how physical systems respond to the near absence of gravity. They also reveal how other phenomena that have a small infuence on physical systems in Earth’s gravity can dominate system behavior in space. Not only are we using the ISS to perform investigations, we are also taking the results from these investigations and making them available to researchers via open data. The PSI system (https://psi.nasa.gov) allows researchers to access the data from physical sciences investigations, most of which have been performed on the ISS. 33 444 Unique Features of the ISS Research Environment 1. Microgravity, or weightlessness, alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences. Systems and processes affected by microgravity include surface wetting and interfacial tension, multiphase fow and heat transfer, multiphase system dynamics, solidifcation, and fre phenomena and combustion. Microgravity induces a vast array of changes in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans, including global alterations in gene expression and three-dimensional (3-D) aggregation of cells into tissue-like architecture. 2. Extreme conditions in the ISS environment include exposure to extreme heat and cold cycling, ultra-vacuum, atomic oxygen, and high-energy radiation. Testing and qualifcation of materials exposed to these extreme conditions have provided data to enable the manufacturing of long-life, reliable components used on Earth as well as in the world’s most sophisticated satellite and spacecraft components. 3. Low Earth Orbit at 51 degrees inclination and at a 90-minute orbit affords ISS a unique vantage point with an altitude of approximately 240 miles (400 kilometers) and an orbital path over 90 percent of the Earth’s population. This can provide improved spatial resolution and variable lighting conditions compared to the sun-synchronous orbits of typical Earth remote-sensing satellites. 55 Table of Contents The Lab is Open 3 Unique Features of the ISS Research Environment 5 Introduction 7 NASA’s Physical Sciences Research Program and Physical Sciences Informatics System 8 What is the Open Science Research Method? 10 PSI Research Areas 12 Biophysics 12 Combustion Science 13 Complex Fluids 14 Fluid Physics 15 Fundamental Physics 16 Materials Science 17 How the PSI System Works 19 Using the PSI System 20 PSI Funding Opportunities 32 Acronyms 33 6 Intro