ALBERT

Description: Molecular hybridization, monoclonal antibody, and electron microscopic analyses showed lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (strains Armstrong and WE) persistently infecting cells of the islets of Langerhans in BALB/WEHI mice. When monoclonal or monospecific antibody conjugated with two different fluorochrome dyes was used to mark insulin-containing beta cells or viral antigens, viral nucleoprotein was identified predominantly in beta cells. Electron microscopy confirmed these findings by showing virions budding from the beta cells. Persistent infection was associated with chemical evidence of diabetes (hyperglycemia, abnormal glucose tolerance, and normal or low-normal concentrations of insulin). Concentrations of cortisol and insulin-like growth factor in blood were normal, as was the level of growth hormone in the pituitary gland. The virus-infected islet cells showed normal anatomy and cytomorphology. Neither cell lysis nor inflammatory infiltrates were routinely seen. Thus a virus may persistently infect islet cells and provide a biochemical and morphological picture comparable to that of early adult-onset diabetes mellitus in humans.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Oldstone, M B -- Southern, P -- Rodriquez, M -- Lampert, P -- AG-04342/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- AI-09484/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1984 Jun 29;224(4656):1440-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6203172" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Genesis spacecraft, launched in 2001, traveled to a Lagrangian point between the Earth and Sun to collect particles from the solar wind and return them to Earth. However, during the return of the spacecraft in 2004, the parachute failed to open during descent, and the Genesis spacecraft crashed into the Utah desert. Many of the solar wind collectors were broken into smaller pieces, and the field team rapidly collected the capsule and collector pieces for later assessment. On each of the next few days, the team discovered that various collectors had survived intact, including three of four concentrator targets. Within a month, the team had imaged more than 10,000 fragments and packed them for transport to the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office within the ARES Directorate at JSC. Currently, the Genesis samples are curated along with the other extraterrestrial sample collections within ARES. Although they were broken and dirty, the Genesis solar wind collectors still offered the science community the opportunity to better understand our Sun and the solar system as a whole. One of the more highly prized concentrator collectors survived the crash almost completely intact. The Genesis Concentrator was designed to concentrate the solar wind by a factor of at least 20 so that solar oxygen and nitrogen isotopes could be measured. One of these materials was the Diamond-on-Silicon (DoS) concentrator target. Unfortunately, the DoS concentrator broke on impact. Nevertheless, the scientific value of the DoS concentrator target was high. The Genesis Allocation Committee received a request for approximately 1 cm(sup 2) of the DoS specimen taken near the focal point of the concentrator for the analysis of solar wind nitrogen isotopes. The largest fragment, Genesis sample 60000, was designated for this allocation and needed to be precisely cut. The requirement was to subdivide the designated sample in a manner that prevented contamination of the sample and minimized the risk of losing or breaking the precious requested sample fragment. The Genesis curator determined that the use of laser scribing techniques to "cut" a precise line and subsequently cleave the sample (in a controlled break of the sample along that line) was the best method for accomplishing the sample subdivision. However, there were risks, including excess heating of the sample, that could cause some of the implanted solar wind to be lost via thermal diffusion. Accidentally breaking the sample during the handling and cleaving process was an additional risk. Early in fiscal year 2013, to address this delicate, complicated task, the ARES Directorate assembled its top scientists to develop a cutting plan that would ensure success when applied to the actual concentrator target wafer; i.e., to produce an approximately 1 cm(sup 2) piece from the requested area of the wafer. The team, subsequently referred to as the JSC Genesis Tiger Team, spent months researching and testing parameters and techniques related to scribing, cleaving, transporting, handling, and holding (i.e., mounting) the specimen. The investigation required considerable "thinking outside the box," and many, many trials using nonflight wafer analogs. After all preliminary testing, the following method was adopted as the final cutting plan. It was used in two final end-to-end practice runs before being used on the actual flight target wafer. The wafer was oriented on the laser cutting stage with the 100 and 010 directions of the wafer parallel to the corresponding X and Y directions of the cutting stage. The laser was programed to scribe 31 lines of the appropriate length along the Y stage direction. The programed scribe lines were separated by 5 micron in the X direction. The laser parameters were set as follows: (1) The laser power was 0.5 watts; (2) each line consisted of 50 passes, with the Z position being advanced 5 micron per pass; and (3) 30 s would elapse before the next line was scribed to allow for wafer cool down from any possible heating via the laser. The ablated material that "stuck" in the "scribe-cut" was removed from the "cut" using an ultrasonic micro-tool. After all the ablated silicon was removed from the wafer, the wafer was repositioned in exactly the same orientation on the laser stage. The laser was focused using the bottom of the wafer channel, and the 31-line scribing pattern described above was reprogrammed using the Z position of the groove bottom as the starting Z value instead of the top wafer surface, which was used previously. Upon completion of the second set of scribes, the ultrasonic micro-tool was again used to clean out the cut. The wafer was remounted on the stage in exactly the same orientation as before. The laser was again focused on the bottom of the groove. This time, however, the laser was.programed to scribe only one line down the exact center of the channel. The final scribe line consisted of 100 passes with a Z advance of 5 micron per pass and with the laser power set at 0.5 watts. As mentioned above, the final cutting plan was practiced in two end-to-end trials using non-flight, triangular-shaped silicon wafers similar in size and orientation to the actual DOS 60000 target sample. The actual scribing of the triangular-shaped wafers required scribing two lines and cleaving (i.e. scribe-cleave, then scribe-cleave) to obtain the piece requested for allocation. Early in December 2012, after many months of experiments and practicing and perfecting the techniques and procedures, the team successfully subdivided the Genesis DoS 60000 target sample, one of the most scientifically important samples from the Genesis mission (figure 2). On December 17, 2012, the allocated piece of concentrator target sample was delivered to the requesting principal investigator.The cutting plan developed for the subdivision of this sample will be used as the model for subdividing future requested Genesis flight wafers (appropriately modified for different wafer types).

Description: This paper describes the hardware used and the experience gained during the Space Shuttle extravehicular activities (EVAs) or 'spacewalks' of 1984. Seven EVAs on four missions were conducted with objectives including hardware verification, satellite repair, hydrazine transfer, and satellite retrieval. The hardware used on these flights fall into two categories - general EVA hardware (e.g. the Manned Maneuvering Unit) and mission-unique hardware (e.g. apogee kick motor capture device, used to retrieve the WESTAR VI and PALAPA B-2 satellites). The successful completion of the mission objectives resulted in an increased knowledge of EVA operations and a broader base of Space Shuttle capabilities which are applicable to future operations.

Description: The majority of surface particles were found to be 〈 5 microns in diameter with increasing numbers close to the optical resolution limit of 0.3 microns. Acceleration grid EDS results show that the majority of materials appear to be from the SRC shell and SLA materials which include carbon-carbon fibers and Si-rich microspheres in a possible silicone binder. Other major debris material from the SRC included white paint, kapton, collector array fragments, and Al. Image analysis also revealed that SRC materials were also found mixed with the Utah mud and salt deposits. The EDS analysis of the acceleration grid showed that particles 〈 1 m where generally carbon based particles. Chemical cleaning techniques with Xylene and HF in an ultrasonic bath are currently being investigated for removal of small particles by the Genesis science team as well as ultra-pure water megasonic cleaning by the JSC team [4]. Removal of organic contamination from target materials is also being investigated by the science team with the use of UV-ozone cleaning devices at JSC and Open University [5]. In preparation for solar wind oxygen analyses at UCLA and Open University [1, 2], surface particle contamination on three Genesis concentrator targets was closely examined to evaluate cleaning strategies. Two silicon carbide (Genesis sample # 60001 and 60003) and one chemical vapor deposited (CVD) 13C concentrator target (60002) were imaged and mosaic mapped with optical microscopes. The resulting full target mosaic images and particle feature maps were subsequently compared with non-flight, but flight-like, concentrator targets and sample return capsule (SRC) materials. Contamination found on the flown concentrator acceleration grid was further examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) for particle identification was subsequently compared with the optical images from the flown targets. Figure 1 show that all three targets imaged in this report are fully intact and do not show any signs of material fractures. However, previous ellipsometry results and overview imaging of both flown SiC targets show a solar wind irradiation gradient from the center focal point to the outer edge [3]. In addition, due to the hard landing, each target has experienced varying degrees of impacts, scratches, and particle debris from the spacecraft and Utah impact site.

Description: Micrometeorites are constantly arriving at the Earth's surface, however, they are quickly diluted by the natural and anthropogenic back-ground dust. The successful collection of micromete-orites requires either the employment of a separation technique (e.g. using magnets to separate metal-bearing micrometeorites from deepsea sediments [e.g. 1,2] and dissolved pre-historic limestones and salts [e.g. 3,4]), or an approach that limits contamination by terrestrial dust (e.g. collecting from ice, snow and well water in polar regions - locations where the terrestrial dust flux is so low that micrometeorites repre-sent the major dust component [e.g. 5-7]). We have recently set up a micrometeorite collection station on Kwajalein Island in the Republic of the Marshall Is-lands in the Pacific Ocean, using high volume air samplers to collect particles directly from the atmosphere. Collecting at this location exploits the considerably reduced anthropogenic background; Kwajalein is 〉1000 miles from the nearest continent and for much of the year, trade winds blow from the northeast at 15 to 20 knots providing a continuous stream of oceanic aerosol for sampling. By collecting directly from the atmosphere, the terrestrial age of the particles, and hence weathering they experience, is minimal. We therefore anticipate that the Kwajalein col-lection may include particles that are highly susceptible to weathering and either not preserved well or not found at all in other collections. In addition, this collection method allows for particle arrival times to be constrained so that collections can be timed to correlate with celestial events (e.g. meteor showers). Here we describe the collections and their preparation and report on the initial results.

Description: The Genesis mission was the first mission returning solar material to Earth since the Apollo program [1,2]. Unfortunately the return of the space craft on September 8, 2004 resulted in a crash landing, which shattered the samples into small fragments and exposed them to desert soil and other debris. Thus only small fragments of the original collectors are available, each having different degrees of surface contamination. Thorough surface cleaning is required to allow for subsequent analysis of solar wind material embedded within. An initial cleaning procedure was developed in coordination with Johnson Space Center which focused on removing larger sized particulates and a thin film organic contamination acquired during collection in space [3]. However, many of the samples have additional residues and more rigorous and/or innovative cleaning steps might be necessary. These cleaning steps must affect only the surface to avoid leaching and re-distribution of solar wind material from the bulk of the collectors. To aid in development and identification of the most appropriate cleaning procedures each sample has to be thoroughly inspected before and after each cleaning step. Laboratory based total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometry lends itself to this task as it is a non-destructive and surface sensitive analytical method permitting analysis of elements from aluminum onward present at and near the surface of a flat substrate [4]. The suitability of TXRF has been demonstrated for several Genesis solar wind samples before and after various cleaning methods including acid treatment, gas cluster ion beam, and CO2 snow jet [5 - 7]. The latter one is non-invasive and did show some promise on one sample [5]. To investigate the feasibility of CO2 snow jet cleaning further, several flown Genesis samples were selected to be characterized before and after CO2 snow application with sample 61052 being discussed below.