2014 Fall Intern Orientation at NASA Ames Research Center.

ISS017-E-013789 (19 Aug. 2008) --- Desert erosion in Libya is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 17 crewmember on the International Space Station. This detailed view (covering 13 kilometers) shows the classic patterns of an erosional desert landscape located 300 kilometers south of Libya's Mediterranean coast. Widespread indented patterns are low escarpments and stream terraces generated by stream erosion -- on those few occasions in any decade when enough rain falls for streams to flow. The only areas with active sediment deposition are the stream beds which appear in this image as sinuous zones with a distinct component of black minerals, resulting in a darker coloration than adjacent low escarpments. Sediment is transported into the area from a volcanic landscape immediately upstream to the west. Other stream-generated features are several relict stream banks, one of which even shows both of the original parallel banks. According to scientists, the ancient stream banks are preserved from erosion by various hardening cements (mainly calcium carbonate and gypsum) introduced by the streams when they were active, probably during wetter climates in the past two million years. Relict stream courses show prior positions of streams, and also provide Earth analogs for similar features on Mars. The lack of vegetation is the first indication of the great aridity of the region, but sand dunes also appear as sinuous lines oriented perpendicular to the dominant northeasterly wind direction (transverse dunes). Assuming the dominant wind direction remains the same, these transverse dunes are expected to move further to the southwest over time. Some of the dunes cross the river courses, showing how seldom the river flows.

Astronaut David C. Hilmers conducts the Microgravity Vestibular Investigations (MVI) sitting in its rotator chair inside the IML-1 science module. When environmental conditions change so that the body receives new stimuli, the nervous system responds by interpreting the incoming sensory information differently. In space, the free-fall environment of an orbiting spacecraft requires that the body adapts to the virtual absence of gravity. Early in flights, crewmembers may feel disoriented or experience space motion sickness. MVI examined the effects of orbital flight on the human orientation system to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms of adaptation to weightlessness. By provoking interactions among the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems and then measuring the perceptual and sensorimotor reactions, scientists can study changes that are integral to the adaptive process. The IML-1 mission was the first in a series of Shuttle flights dedicated to fundamental materials and life sciences research with the international partners. The participating space agencies included: NASA, the 14-nation European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the French National Center of Space Studies (CNES), the German Space Agency and the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DAR/DLR), and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). Both life and materials sciences benefited from the extended periods of microgravity available inside the Spacelab science module in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center, IML-1 was launched on January 22, 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery (STS-42 mission).