01 Alston interviewed in "clean room"
Dr. Jim Alston from Park Seed Company prepared seeds for space flight in one of NASA's "clean rooms" in the Langley Research Center (LARC). Here, he's being interviewed by a local TV news crew from Hampton, VA.
Park Seed Company and NASA prepare for 2006 Seeds in Space launch
Dr. Jim Alston from Park Seed Company prepared seeds for space flight in one of NASA's "clean rooms" in the Langley Research Center (LARC). Here, he's being interviewed by a local TV news crew from Hampton, VA.
Park Seed Company donated 6 million Cinnamon Basil seeds to be sent into space for their fouth "Seeds in Space" partnership with NASA. An equal quantity of seed are stored at the Park Seed national headquarters in Greenwood, South Carolina. The seeds that remain on Earth will be used as a control to compare with the space seeds after they return.
The process of preparing Park Seed's Cinnamon Basil seeds for space travel culminated in the third level "clean" room at Langley Research Center. At first, the technicians tried using a clean plastic cup to contain the seeds and pour them into the canisters and canister lids (shown here). However, the extremely low humidity in the "clean" room resulted in lots of static electricity being generated by the plastic. Dr. Jim Alston remembers seeing seeds "jumping everywhere as we tried to pour them from the plastic cup." In this picture, you can see stray seeds all over the cloth under the canister lid. "We finally changed from plastic cups to stainless steel containers, and that did the trick!" states Dr. Alston. Note that the technicians wear hair covers and their gloves are taped to their gowns, to keep things as clean as possible.
The Basil seeds destined for space travel were packed into special canisters for their journey. To get the most seeds possible into every canister, even the hollow lids were filled.
The level of seed in the space canister was carefully measured before the canister lid was applied. The technicians had to be sure that enough room remained to contain the O-ring and seed-filled canister lid without compressing and damaging the seeds.
Even something as simple as attaching the seed canister lids had to be carefully controlled to meet NASA's exacting standards. For the first step, the canister lid is screwed on "finger tight." Note the orange O-ring, which ensures an air-tight seal once the lid is fully tightened. Also, if you look closely, you can see a very small hole in the hexagonal "bolt" on top of the lid. Once all the filled canisters were loaded into their travel position, steel wires were threaded through the tiny holes, linking the canisters together and helping ensure that the lids would not be loosened by the vibrations of liftoff and space travel.
After the lid is attached, one technician holds the canister while a second one uses a torque wrench to bring the seal to a specified foot-pound torque target.
After initial lid-tightening, the assembled seed-filled canister was weighed. Every milligram of weight makes a difference when you are computing escape velocities and fuel requirements for space flight.
After being filled, weighed, and closed, the space-bound canisters were clamped to a work table. A special calibrated torque wrench was then used to apply the necessary pressure to fully tighten the lid onto the canister. According to Dr. Jim Alston of Park Seed Company, while one technician applied the wrench, a second technician monitored and documented the torque read-outs, and a THIRD technician monitored that activity. Nothing is left to chance with NASA projects!
