Current Time: Sun Oct 5 22:13:06 EDT 1997
MsgId: *infinities(1)
Date: Sun Oct 5 20:50:29 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Jim Buchli became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. A veteran of four space flights, he was a mission specialist and also served as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office. current operations manager for Boeing, prime contractor for the International Space Station. Stay tune for our upcoming chat, tonight at 9 PM EST. This will be an in-studio interview conducted by OMNI Editor, Pam Weintraub
MsgId: *infinities(2)
Date: Sun Oct 5 20:59:45 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Hi, we're ready to roll. Our first question is this: What exactly are you doing for Boeing vis-a-vis the Space Station?
MsgId: *infinities(3)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:01:00 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

My function on the Space Station program for Boeing --and we are the prime contractor for NASA in integration and development-- is in three parts. The first is to provide instructions for assembly.
MsgId: *infinities(4)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:02:36 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

We develop the assembly procedures and the recommended activation of systems and protocol for assembly and the NASA operations team who will be executing those procedures. In other words, we serve as the technical source for all assembly procedures.
MsgId: *infinities(5)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:03:51 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

The second piece is station utilization. In this context, utilization is defined as those accommodations and interfaces for the science community (researchers and experimenters) who will be designing experiments and engineering experiments for the ISS.
MsgId: *infinities(6)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:04:33 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

We provide the scientists with the data necessary for them to successfully integrate their experiments into the station.
MsgId: *infinities(7)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:07:23 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

The third area is this: Down at the Kennedy Space Center, we provide oversight for cargo integration and assembly; in other words, we supervise the packaging of all cargo elements within the space shuttle designated to be part of future states of ISS.
MsgId: *infinities(8)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:08:03 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: This seems like your doing ALL the technical work.
MsgId: *infinities(9)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:08:45 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

BUCHLI: Not really. We don't design the hardware. But our job is to understand the design, and to provide the assembly intructions.
MsgId: *infinities(10)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:08:45 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

BUCHLI: Not really. We don't design the hardware. But our job is to understand the design, and to provide the assembly intructions.
MsgId: *infinities(11)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:09:29 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: How do you interact with the Russians?
MsgId: *infinities(12)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:10:18 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

BUCHLI: We have a team that provides oversight and works directly with the Russians. But we use their operational data so we are all compatible.
MsgId: *infinities(13)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:12:51 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: This is how we work with NASA. As the government agency, NASA is responsible for the total program. The technical scope, the operations, and the ground team and crew. We at Boeing are their prime contractor. We are responsible for the design, which we do to NASA requirements. We ensure it is safe, assembleable --which means you can take it up piece by piece, and that it is operable. This means you can turn it on. NASA will then be responsible for managing the station as an orbiting laboratory.
MsgId: *infinities(14)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:14:22 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: Can you address the problems of designing something on Earth that you must be sure can be assembled to work in space. How can you know what you're doing is correct?
MsgId: *infinities(15)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:16:57 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: That is one of the more difficult problems of a program like this one, which is constrained in terms of cost and schedule. Ideally, you would like to have the chance to build and assemble the entire station on the ground, take it apart, and then reassemble it in orbit. But we are not able to do that. It isn't practicle. So using the best techniques of digital integraion --using computer design-- and integrating already-available hardware, we gain high confidence.
MsgId: *infinities(16)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:17:21 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: Has this sort of thing been done before?
MsgId: *infinities(17)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:18:13 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

No, it hasn't. That's why, as in every project for space, attention to detail is important.
MsgId: *infinities(18)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:18:46 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: Does this seem, to you, like an undue risk.
MsgId: *infinities(19)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:21:26 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: Assembling this for the first time in space adds an element of program risk. Understanding that risk is important to make sure that we have adequately tested all critical interfaces. Even though I might not have seen my tenth stage tested directly with the second or third stage, I will have simulated that interaction.
MsgId: *infinities(20)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:22:31 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: Can you describe the of scope of the station after all construction?
MsgId: *infinities(21)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:24:16 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: The station will far surpass any orbiting capability we have had in the past. It will be international in nature, which means multiple countries will be working together for the first time in a common program. There will be multiple laboratories all linked together in a single structure. Each laboratory will have unique capabilities, but also meeting the requirement of sharing a common infrastructure.
MsgId: *infinities(22)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:28:03 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

BUCHLI: The crew will have habitability accommodations in two areas of the station. One will be a habitability module designed for crew needs, to include dining, sleeping, exercise, recreation, and bathroom. That's the US module. The Russian Service module will provide habitability for three crew members, possibly four, and pretty much the equivalent of what the US module provides.
MsgId: *infinities(23)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:28:59 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: I've heard it said that our technical prowess is so advanced that we don't need the other nations --except for political ends. Do you think this is true?
MsgId: *infinities(24)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:30:26 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: Both the Russians and Americans have the capacity to design something of this magnitude. But that is not what this station is about. It is about the need to share not just technologies, but also cost and ideas, and in so doing, to have a more diversified and robust program. Hopefully, this will lead to future joint space ventures up the road.
MsgId: *infinities(25)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:32:11 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: Would you define your design as state-of-the-art?
MsgId: *infinities(26)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:35:38 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: ISS is state-of-the-art as far as an assembled space station with advanced capabilities. As far as pushing technology envelopes with it's design, that isn't the case. In most instances, we are using proven technologies and not incurring additional risks to the project with untested technologies. Remember, our goal is to built a world class orbiting laboratory, capable of supporting multiple scientific experimenters and providing a test-bed for technology demonstation.
MsgId: *infinities(27)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:36:40 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: How will this lab be different than anything that has come before, in terms of YOUR design?
MsgId: *infinities(28)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:39:27 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: This laboratory will be unique in the sense that it will have multiple experiment racks of a common design. Experiments can be brought up and integrated into the US and other partner's labs. There will be four major laboratory modules, including US, Russsian, European, and Japanese. OMNI: What about the microgravity experiments?
MsgId: *infinities(29)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:45:02 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: For microgravity we have done something unique. Microgravity experiments involve the study of processes without any gravity-driven effects. For example, in material processing, internal lattice structures are greatly affected by gravity. Material formed without the effect of gravity could have greatly different physical properties.
MsgId: *infinities(30)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:50:07 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: In the past, it's been difficult to build a space lab free from the effects of gravity. But on ISS, we have developed an active isolation system that does the job to a greater degree than ever before possible. We're down to 10-6 G. This is an engineering system called active rack isolation system. Basically, it literally floats the entire rack away from the laboratory structure using a series of connecting rods and a dynamic feedback. Whenever a series of accelerometers attached to these rack systems senses a disturbance, the ARIS system removes those disturbances and keeps the experiments isolated.
MsgId: *infinities(31)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:51:08 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: If it works like we plan, it will give the folks who do microgravity experiments levels of microgravity they have not had in the past.
MsgId: *infinities(32)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:51:43 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: What about experiments that are conducted outside the lab?
MsgId: *infinities(33)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:53:48 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: We have experiment locations external to the laboratories, on the truss structure, and an exposed facility attached to the Japanese module. This provides capability for literally multiple sensors, both earthlooking and deepspace-facing, and potentially, areas for studying the effects of a space environment on prototype electronics.
MsgId: *infinities(34)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:54:41 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: If you were blue-skying about the next generation space station, beyond ISS, what would you suggest?
MsgId: *infinities(35)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:56:00 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

Buchli: I would like to see us develop a manned vehicle that moves us closer to deep space travel. What we need is new engine technology, but also, a capability for developing a closed environment life-support system. This would be a self-sustained space craft that can function for months and years without resupply.
MsgId: *infinities(36)
Date: Sun Oct 5 21:57:10 EDT 1997
From: OMNI_and_Jim_Buchli At: 168.100.204.58

OMNI: How close are we to that dream?
Buchli: Within our solar system, we can see that within our lifetime. From the standpoint of deep space travel beyond our solar system, we'll have to develop a propulsion breakthrough that doesn't exist today, and I don't know how long that will take.


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