SPACE CENTER May 18, 2001 VOL.40, NO.9 LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS Sunny days! At-a-GLANCE • The protective suit includes a white jacket, pants, gloves and headgear, Thanks to NASA space-based technology, child with including goggles. • The external garments protect the four rare skin diseases can now play in the daylight child’s sensitive skin from more By Melissa Davis HED, but also for children with other such a debilitating condition.” than 99.9 percent of the sun’s disorders that affect the body’s ability to Haines said it has been a privilege hazardous UV rays. ardi Hicks couldn’t naturally cool itself. to be part of the technology transfer • Underneath the protective Earth- keep from laughing It is estimated that several thousand effort at JSC. bound spacesuit, the child wears a Cas he ran around in children around the world suffer from vari- “To have been a small part of making the bright sunshine. ous defects that cause either extreme a child’s life more enjoyable in such a small cooling support system, His mother Samantha sensitivity to light or problems in cool- basic, but meaningful, way makes me necessary because full-body UV Hicks couldn’t keep ing their bodies. feel very humbled, thankful for my own suits can get warm. from crying as The HED Foundation began in blessings and also very proud of our • The cooling unit has no moving she watched her 1986 when Moody sought help agency and our folks here at JSC having parts, using four gel packs in a 8-year-old son play from NASA in finding a cooling been involved.” I outside in the daylight. garment for her nephew, who suf- vest-like garment. The gel packs Cardi suffers from four fered from HED. The foundation For more information about can supply cooling for two to four rare skin diseases that for also provides cooling garments to the HED Foundation, visit: hours and can be recharged in a years forced him to stay out children with multiple sclerosis, www.hedfoundation.org refrigerator in about 30 minutes. of spina bifida, cerebral palsy and the sun and its potentially other disorders. For more information about • Through an agreement with JSC’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. In 1997, JSC, seeking a the Office of Technology Transfer Office of Technology Transfer and However, that has all changed broader use for spacesuit and Commercialization, visit: Commercialization, NASA and the thanks to NASA and the Hypo- JSC NASA 2001e12105 technology, offered Moody the http://technology.jsc.nasa.gov/index.htm HED organization have worked hidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia photo by James Blair concept for the UV block- together since 1997 providing suits (HED) Foundation. ing garment. The first three suits to children who need them. On April 23 at Regents Park, Cardi distributed were prototypes pro- received a special UV blocking suit that vided by NASA to the • The suits are designed to cost less was developed from NASA space-based foundation. The foundation than $2,000 and are now available technology. The suit allows him to go has since provided more in various colors. outside protected from harmful light. than 15 additional UV The little boy from Magnolia, Texas, blocking suits. was all smiles when presented with the suit While Moody by HED foundation Founder and President works many hours Cardi Hicks, who Sarah Moody as members of JSC’s Office running the not-for- suffers from four of Technology Transfer and Commercial- profit HED skin diseases, can now ization looked on. His mother thanked the Foundation, she is play in the sun thanks to NASA and the two organizations for giving her son a quick to share the Hypohidrotic Ectodermal chance to live a much fuller life. limelight. “I’m only the Dysplasia (HED) “It’s a very special endeavor for us to tool,” she said. “If it had Foundation. At left, have been involved in,” said David Haines, not been for NASA Cardi was recently a member of the Office of Technology technology...these chil- presented a special UV blocking suit, which Transfer and Commercialization. dren would have to live was developed from NASA Although Cardi was covered from head their lives in the dark.” space-based technology, to toe in the white garment once he was The predicament of by Sarah Moody, HED suited up, there was no stopping the giddi- children like Cardi deeply Foundation's founder and ness of a child finally set free to play in the touches JSC’s Haines, who president. At right, Cardi is being suited up by his sunlight. has three children–ages mother Samantha Hicks, The UV blocking suits give children 4, 5 and 7. left; HED Foundation's like Cardi freedom to be fun-loving and “As a parent of three Sarah Moody and Cardi's active for the first time in their lives. “The small, very active children doctor, Bas Nair, M.D. UV suit/cooling garment is an outstanding myself it is hard to imagine example of NASA-developed technology what life would be like for with a meaningful real-life application here one of these precious ones not on earth,” Haines said. to be able to run and play HED is a medical disorder characterized outside,” he said. “It is also by the lack of sweat glands. The HED very sobering to realize the JSC NASA 2001e12102 photo by James Blair Foundation works not only to improve the implications for the rest of quality of life for children suffering from the family in accommodating JSC NASA 2001e12096 photo by James Blair STS-100 Astronaut Special delivers David Walker tribute to Canadarm2. remembered. George Abbey. Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 & 5 2 May 18, 2001 SPACE CENTER Roundup investigations to the station, more than any previous flight. The experiments carried aboard the Space Shuttle range from the first plant growth research to be Reaching our conducted aboard the complex to studies of space radiation. The crew –composed of space fliers from NASA, Canada, Russia and the Destiny European Space Agency–was the most diverse international crew ever flown aboard the Space Shuttle. Its members represented more nations than has any other single crew. Kent Rominger, a Navy captain and a veteran of four past shuttle flights– including one previous ISS assembly mission–was Endeavour’s commander. Jeff Ashby, a Navy captain and veteran of one shuttle flight, was the pilot. Mission specialists included NASA astronauts STS100-E-5239 (April 22, 2001) Astronaut Chris A. Hadfield, STS-100 mission specialist representing the Canadian Space Agency, stands on one Parazynski and John Phillips. Canadian-built robot arm to work with another one. Called Canadarm2, the newest addition to the ISS was ferried International crew members, also up to the orbital outpost by the STS-100 crew. Hadfield’s feet are secured on a special foot restraint attached to mission specialists, included Hadfield, the end of the Remote Manipulator System arm, which represents one of the standard shuttle components for European Space Agency astronaut the majority of the 100-plus STS missions thus far. The two EVAs by STS-100's crewmembers lasted a total of 14 hours, 50 minutes. There have been 64 in Shuttle Program history and 20 devoted to ISS assembly. Umberto Guidoni and Russian Aviation and Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air hen Space Shuttle Endeavour Agency, is longer, stronger, more flexible performed two space walks to install Force. During Endeavour’s mission, and its crew of seven glided to a and more capable than the shuttle’s the Canadarm2 on the exterior of the Guidoni became the first European Space W landing at Edwards Air Force robotic arm. The installation and check- station’s Destiny Lab. Agency astronaut to enter the orbiting ISS. Base on May 1, it concluded a successful out of the new ISS arm involved the most The Endeavour crew also helped STS-100 was the ninth shuttle mission 4.9 million-mile journey to deliver and complex and intricate space robotics transfer more than 6,000 pounds of to visit the space station. JSC staff and install Canadarm2 to the International operations ever performed. supplies and equipment from the Italian the public at Ellington Air Force Base Space Station (ISS). Mission specialists Chris Hadfield, a Space Agency-supplied Raffaello welcomed the crew home on May 2. I Canadarm2, a new-generation robotic colonel in the Canadian Air Force, and Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. For more information, visit: arm supplied by the Canadian Space NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski Endeavour carried nine scientific http://Spaceflight.nasa.gov/ February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 June 2001 Discovery Endeavour Atlantis STS-102-5A.1 Atlantis STS-98-5A MPLM1 STS-100-6A Expedition II Crew MPLM2 STS-104-7A U.S. Destiny replaces Station Robotic Arm ISS Joint Airlock Laboratory Module Expedition I Crew M Astronaut Hadfield is pictured on the aft flight deck of the Endeavour during an his- toric event. A Canadian ‘handshake in space’ occurred at 4:02 p.m. (CDT), April 28, 2001, as the Canadian-built space station robotic arm– operated by Expedition II flight engineer Susan J. Helms– transferred its launch cradle over to Endeavour’s robotic arm, with Hadfield at the controls. The exchange of the pallet from station arm to shuttle arm marked the first ever robot-to-robot transfer in space. STS100-E-5901 (April 28, 2001) M STS100-E-5283 (April 23, 2001) M Flight Control JSC2001-E-1219 (April 19, 2001) photo by Robert Markowitz Astronaut James S.