IRELAND DOESN'T have a formal space programme but that hasn't stopped our researchers taking part in shuttle research. A scientist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (Dias) flew his first experiment on the Challengerin April, 1984.
“We have had about 20 space experiments and 12 have used the shuttle. We have used Russian and Japanese spacecraft as well,” says Prof Denis O’Sullivan, an emeritus professor at the Dias.
“Nasa has been exceedingly helpful to us.”
Ireland’s involvement began in the late 1970 when Nasa asked for ideas for experiments that could be flown on shuttle missions. O’Sullivan joined colleague Alex Thompson and put forward an idea.
It involved a way to study cosmic rays coming in from deep space, the heaviest ones including lead and uranium, he explains. “It was an international competition and we won the competition.”
They devised a large flat collector that could be unfurled after being carried into orbit by the shuttle. This would be struck by cosmic rays, leaving behind tell-tale tracks that could tell the scientists about the nature and frequency of heavy cosmic rays.
"At that time it was the biggest cosmic ray experiment in the world," O'Sullivan says. It was meant to be left in orbit for about a year but its retrieval was delayed and then the Challengerdisaster caused a prolonged halt to shuttle launches.
It was left in place even after flights resumed but a huge solar flare occurred. There were fears that the flare might push the experiment out of orbit, causing it to crash to earth, so schedules were changed and the Columbiaplucked it out of orbit in January 1990.
At that stage it had been in space for six years, says O’Sullivan. “We got far more data than we had expected.” It was a coincidence that the two shuttles involved with the experiment were both lost in later accidents.
He currently has experimental detectors on board the International Space Station, delivered there by shuttles. Only last November some of these were replaced by the crew of the shuttle Atlantis.
The shuttle programme played a vital role, O’Sullivan says. “It has been part of a huge advance in the sciences.” . The shuttle programme “was well worthwhile and in terms of astronomy it helped to make major advances”.
Dick Ahlstrom