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Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington                March 18, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Catherine E. Watson
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

RELEASE: 03-109

NASA'S FUN SCIENCE EMPHASIZES SPACE BASED RESEARCH 

     Like most of us, the NASA Science Officer aboard the 
International Space Station looks forward to Saturday 
mornings. 

"Saturday is when we have a bit of free time," said Dr. Don 
Pettit, the NASA Space Station Science Officer on the 
Expedition Six crew. While some of the crew read books, play 
musical instruments or watch movies, "I prefer to do 
'Saturday Morning Science' ­ fun experiments of my own 
design," Pettit said.

One recent Saturday, Pettit prepared a solution of water, 
soap and glycerin, and fashioned a bubble-wand from thin 
wire. "I wanted to see what thin films and bubbles might do 
in zero gravity and felt it was a topic ripe for discovery," 
he said.

Next, Pettit injected some tiny mica flakes into the film, 
allowing him to observe otherwise-hidden flows and swirls. 
"Then I blew on the film, and fascinating patterns emerged. 
These tracer particle patterns lasted for well over four 
hours, he said."

These films highlight the value of space for fundamental 
research in fluid physics. Gravity-driven convection and 
three-dimensional motions complicate fluid flow on Earth. A 
two-dimensional film of weightless water is a splendid 
research tool that could yield valuable data for many 
industries on Earth.

Pettit has also taken still pictures of cities at night, 
obtaining very high-resolution images, and observed 
noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds, rare and not fully 
understood atmospheric phenomena.  "Over the past few weeks 
we've been enjoying outstanding views of these clouds above 
the southern hemisphere," Pettit remarked during a NASA TV 
broadcast. 

Pettit is a long-time noctilucent cloud-watcher. As a staff 
scientist at the Los Alamos, N.M. National Laboratory between 
1984 and 1996, he studied noctilucent clouds that were seeded 
by high-flying sounding rockets. "Seeing these kinds of 
clouds [from space] ... is certainly a joy for us on the 
Space Station," he said.
 
Pettit intends to continue his Saturday Science activities 
until his return home in early May. 

"Observations of nature, no matter how seemingly arcane, are 
like peeling off one more layer from the great onion of 
knowledge, tickling your imagination with what you have found 
but always revealing yet another tantalizing layer 
underneath," Pettit said. "I hope we never get to the core."

A video of Pettit conducting his Saturday Science experiments 
will be shown on NASA Television at noon EST, Wednesday, 
March 19, 2003.

Pettit's Saturday Science videos and written observations are 
available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles
.html

Information about NASA scientific research, including 
Pettit's, is available on the Internet at:

http://science.nasa.gov

For information about research on the International Space 
Station on the Internet, visit:

http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov

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