Although the stereotypical scientist stays in the lab, most researchers spend at least some time studying their subject out in the field. Geologists visit volcanoes, botanists retreat to rain forests, and oceanographers swim the seas. But in the absence of accessible rides to space, astrophysicists and planetary scientists have been forced to watch their experiments leave Earth without them.
That is about to change as the rise of commercial launch providers such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic creates new opportunities for scientists hoping to do their work in space. Most of these opportunities involve suborbital flights—which are sufficient to leave the bulk of Earth’s atmosphere and to experience long periods of microgravity-simulating free fall yet not powerful enough to orbit Earth. Last month NASA selected planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to conduct an experiment, funded by the agency, onboard a commercial spacecraft’s suborbital flight. Stern’s launch date remains uncertain. But he anticipates flying on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo by 2022.
Far from merely being a form of wish fulfillment for starry-eyed researchers, Stern says, sending scientists to space alongside their experiments can have practical benefits, too—such as reducing costs. For example, automating the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System (SWUIS) experiment he will operate on his journey would be “significantly more expensive” than simply flying a human operator, Stern says.
Directly involving scientists can also yield better results by allowing for faster and more flexible responses to any contingencies, good or bad, that may occur during an experiment. “Throughout the history of science, the people being involved with the experiments leads to discoveries and greater knowledge,” says Steven Collicott, a researcher at Purdue University and head of the Suborbital Applications Research Group, whose members are industry experts committed to enhancing the opportunities and experience of suborbital flight. “There’s a long history of serendipitous discoveries.”
When a scientist designs and works with an experiment, “she understands immediately if something’s not working right,” says Dan Durda, also at SwRI. “Catching that in real time is an incredibly important part of the way the scientific process works.”
Putting a scientist in the driver’s seat also provides the opportunities for maximizing the scientific research. “If you fly with your experiment, you’re there to observe what’s happening right now and, boom, you can immediately change your experiment’s parameters so you augment your scientific return,” says Julie Brisset, a researcher at the University of Central Florida, who has accompanied experiments on pseudo spaceflights—that is, on airplanes that offer brief bursts of microgravity conditions by flying in parabolic trajectories.
