Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 Daily Science Update for April 9, 1997

Tuesday April 8, 9:28 a.m. CDT Huntsville ,AL

Science operations have ended aboard the space shuttle Columbia, bringing the activities of MSL-1 to a premature end. The crew landed Monday afternoon at 2:33 p.m. EDT at the Kennedy Space Center.

Scientists were clearly disappointed at the shortened mission, however even with the challenges of a shortened flight, much science was still obtained. "These people worked really hard to squeeze every drop of science we could out of the mission," remarked Mission Scientist Dr. Mike
Robinson early this morning.

How much science did we actually get? Well, that's not as easy to answer as you might think. It is trivial to compare how many experiment runs planned against how many accomplished, but that number simply doesn't tell the story.

Science is more than checking boxes and completing functional objectives.

"It's like grading a Van Gogh painting based on the number of brush strokes; it simply doesn't make sense." Dr. Robinson remarked at the April 7 press conference. The five-step scientific method we all learned in grade school describes a *process* to a better understanding, not a grocery list.

Science really is like uncovering a picture. Each experiment run is designed to peel away a tiny bit of the covering to reveal more details of what lies beneath. On MSL-1 we didn't get to take as many attempts at peeling away the covering as we would have liked. However, it is important to remember that even if every single experiment run had been completed, the whole picture, in its finest detail, still wouldn't be realized. That's the nature of science.

From what we did get to peel away, we learned that the picture beneath - the science - is beautiful and exciting, and that more attempts to peel away the wrapping are extremely important. That's why the MSL-1 scientists, despite the disappointment at the shortened mission, are very
excited about what we did obtain.

If MSL-1 were a five-star restaurant, we only got to stay for the appetizer. That hardly means the food was bad - in fact it was delicious.

We just would have liked to stay for the whole meal.

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Author: John Horack
Curator: Bryan Walls
NASA Official: John M. Horack