FREESTAR, which stands for Fast Reaction Experiments Enabling Science Technology Applications and Research, was a payload of six separate experiments on the Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. It was mounted on a crossbay

Hitchhiker Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads have ...

Multipurpose Equipment Support Structure in the Shuttle's payload bay during the

STS-107 STS-107 was the 113th flight of the Space Shuttle program, and the 28th and final flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 16, 2003, and during its 15 days, 22 hours, 20 minutes ...

flight, which ended with the disintegration of ''Columbia'' during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Although data was lost in the re-entry, much of the data collected while in space, such as that from MEIDEX, had already been transmitted to ground stations.

Experiments

The six experiments were:

Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX)

The primary mission of the MEIDEX payload was to study the temporal and spatial distribution and physical properties of atmospheric desert dust over

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and the Atlantic

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

n regions. The aim was achieved by a remote sensing experiment operated by the astronauts aboard the shuttle. Also, MEIDEX accomplished diverse secondary science objectives by performing slant visibility observations, sea-surface reflectivity observations, desert surface observations and observations of Transient Luminous Events, better known as sprites. MEIDEX also made the first space observation of a glory.

Shuttle Ozone Limb Sounding Experiment-02 (SOLSE-02)

SOLSE-2 was a hyperspectral imaging

spectrometer A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomenon where the ...

built at the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

that demonstrated a new technique to measure the vertical distribution of

ozone Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

in the atmosphere. The first demonstration flight of SOLSE-1 was on

STS-87 STS-87 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center on 19 November 1997. It was the 88th flight of the Space Shuttle and the 24th flight of '' Columbia''. The mission goals were to conduct experiments u ...

in 1997. Once proven over a wider range of viewing conditions, the SOLSE-2 technique was incorporated to routinely measure ozone by the next generation of

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ge ...

s, including the

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), is a suite of instruments built by Ball Aerospace that measure the global distribution of ozone and, less frequently, how it is distributed vertically within the stratosphere. The suite flies on the Suomi NPP ...

(OMPS), that was launched in 2011.

Critical Viscosity of Xenon-2 (CVX-2)

The Critical Viscosity of Xenon-2 Experiment measures the viscous behavior of

xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

– a heavy, inert gas used in flash lamps and ion rocket engines – at its critical point. The data from the CVX-2 experiment was believed lost in the disaster. The hard drive that carried its data, a Seagate ST9385AG 2.5" hard drive with 400 MB storage capacity, was found and believed to be melted beyond recognition. In 2008, however, a data recovery specialist cleaned the hard drive's storage platters and rebuilt them into a new hard drive. They were able to recover 99% of the data, saving the experiment.

Solar Constant Experiment-3 (SOLCON-3)

The SOLCON instrument is designed to accurately measure the

solar constant The solar constant (''GSC'') is a flux density measuring mean solar electromagnetic radiation (total solar irradiance) per unit area. It is measured on a surface perpendicular to the rays, one astronomical unit (au) from the Sun (roughly the ...

and identify variations in the value during a

solar cycle The solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun's surfa ...

. SOLCON measures the solar

irradiance In radiometry, irradiance is the radiant flux ''received'' by a ''surface'' per unit area. The SI unit of irradiance is the watt per square metre (W⋅m−2). The CGS unit erg per square centimetre per second (erg⋅cm−2⋅s−1) is often used ...

in space to avoid perturbations by the atmosphere of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. It is also used as a reference to construct a long-duration time series of the solar irradiance. This data will ensure continuity of the solar constant level obtained by instruments mounted on free flyers, over climate time-scale duration.

Space Experiment Module (SEM)

The SEM is made up of 11 separate student experiments from schools across the United States and is the 14th flight of a SEM on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

Low Power Transceiver (LPT) experiment

The Low Power

Transceiver In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. The ...

is a compact, flexible device that can be configured to perform custom communications and navigation functions in terrestrial, airborne and space applications.

References

External links

NASA.gov
Flight activity requirements

SOLSE Lost – Saturday, February 1, 2003

STS-107, Crew Worked Directly With Goddard Team
NASAN.gov
Sprites and Elve from MEIDEX
NASA.gov
Interactions of mineral dust and sea salt with clouds; some results from the MEIDEX campaign {{STS-107 NASA programs Space Shuttle program