CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A true rocket scientist might become the second person in history to make seven space flights on Thursday, when shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to lift off.
Franklin Chang-Diaz first flew into space in 1986. He was the first Hispanic American to make the trip.
Astronauts are typically standouts in their field, but Chang-Diaz shines even among them.
In his six flights to date, he has been flight engineer, science officer and payload commander.
"He is known and well-respected for consummate knowledge of shuttle systems," commander Ken Cockrell said. "He knows my job, he knows Paco's (pilot Paul Lockhart's) job. He's also a guy that takes to space very well, by all accounts.
"And he puts together a pretty good meal. I'm expecting a good use of menu items on the shuttle."
But there's one thing Chang-Diaz has missed out on so far. He has never gone outside the shuttle.
He's going to get the chance on this mission, making his first, second and third spacewalks.
He's fairly nonchalant about the spacewalking business, however, saying he's just happy to fly again.
The rest of his job centers around a lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston where he works on a plasma rocket engine. The technology could get a spacecraft to Mars in 39 days. Plasma is essentially a charged gas, sort of like what's inside the sun.
Chang-Diaz uses hydrogen plasma that's heated to temperatures up to a million degrees. "You can imagine at those temperatures, there's no material nozzle that could withstand those types of temperatures," he said.
Instead of a traditional nozzle, the team uses a magnetic field to direct the propulsion.
The lab is ready to put a prototype on the International Space Station, which is slowly falling toward Earth because of atmospheric drag. One small rocket could keep the station aloft.
Rockets on the station currently give it a boost once in a while and on this trip, Endeavour may fire its engines three different times to put the station in a slightly higher orbit.
Chang-Diaz's rocket would fire all the time, and it would save a huge amount of money for the reboost, he said.
Here's how: The oxygen generators on board split water molecules into breathable oxygen and hydrogen. Instead of being dumped overboard, waste hydrogen could be redirected to serve as the rocket's fuel.
This would constantly produce one-tenth of a pound of thrust.
"That's all the ISS needs," Chang-Diaz said.
By comparison, the Saturn 5 rockets that went to the moon produced 7.75 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
Funding to get the technology on board is an issue, however. The commercial sector is interested in getting involved with the project, he said. The lab would be ready to deploy a demonstration engine in 2004 or 2005.
Nuclear propulsion and nuclear power got a boost in next year's budget.
Chang-Diaz, a naturalized American from Costa Rica, said that will actually help his and other new propulsion technologies.
The nuclear power developed could eventually provide electricity for his plasma engine.
"It's a beautiful platform for testing these types of devices."
Chang-Diaz claims to be similar to most people who grew up in the 1950s.
He watched the Soviet Union launch the Sputnik satellite when he was 7 years old.
After graduating high school, he immigrated to the United States to see whether he could become an astronaut.
Without knowing English, he moved in with a distant relative in Hartford, Conn.
He only had $50, and he came alone.
"In my case, it worked out," he said. "I do feel that the country remains very much the land of opportunity."
He repeated his last year of high school to learn English. Then, he got a scholarship to the University of Connecticut.
In 1977, he finished his doctoral degree.
Three years later he became an astronaut, the first Hispanic American to do so.
"My countrymen became very much attracted to what I was doing," Chang-Diaz said. "I ended up turning into a bit of a role model for the youth of Costa Rica. I still feel they look after me to fulfill their dreams."
In addition to all of his other credits, Chang-Diaz might also be the first person in space with braces. They were put on his teeth about three weeks ago, happening to coincide with his shuttle flight. Talking still hurts, he said.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2002 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
advertisement
