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Current MSAD Archiving Strategy and Methods Recently, MSAD has begun implementing a data management and archiving plan whose key feature is the requirement to file a formal Experiment Data Management Plan (EDMP) for each microgravity flight experiment currently funded and manifested for orbital flight by MSAD. MSAD expects each PI to file an EDMP prior to approval of an experiment for flight. An example of the input form now used by MSAD for the EDMP is shown in the appendix. The essential elements of this new procedure are the following: ⢠The PI and NASA sign an agreement--the EDMP--detailing the responsibilities of each with respect to management of data and samples after the mission. ⢠The PI delivers the agreed-upon data to NASA after the mission. ⢠The data are stored at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the Lewis Research Center (LeRC), or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), depending on the type of flight experiment. ⢠The data are stored at the NASA center in a variety of formats, with little subsequent processing of received data. ⢠No on-line access to the stored data is developed. ⢠The data stored at the four centers are actively managed by the MSFC (which also manages the JSC data) and LeRC (which manages the JPL data), and investigators interested in acquiring available data can contact the data manager at either center. At present NASA has several main data archives covering different aspects of the MSAD research program. The MICREX is discussed above, and two of the archives located at LeRC are described here. The data produced by the two primary microgravity accelerometer systems developed by NASA are stored in archival form at LeRC. The first of these, the Space Acceleration Measurements System (SAMS), is capable of measuring the spectral power density of the acceleration environment along three axes aboard the space shuttle. The SAMS system permits on-board recording and near-real-time telemetry of the microgravity spectrum, including g-jitter over a spectral range from several hundred hertz down to relatively low frequencies of 1 Hz. The second accelerometer system, the Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE), is designed to measure the steady levels of the microgravity acceleration. Both SAMS and OARE data for the individual microgravity missions that carry these systems are currently available on CD-ROM with on-line access. Observational data from fluids and combustion experiments are also stored, in the form of film and video, at LeRC. First-generation copies of these data are produced in CD-ROM format and are cataloged on the World Wide Web. Copies are available for distribution upon request. To allow for analysis of the results of their microgravity experiments, PIs have traditionally been given exclusive access to the post-flight data and samples for 1 val of microgravity experiment data from the spacecraft, intermediate processing, and final delivery to the PI. There are no uniform policies for distribution and retention of unaltered space-processed samples, nor are there uniform requirements to preserve key microgravity facility components, such as sample cartridges and flight furnacesÃeven though some of these might be needed for replication of experiments in terrestrial runs performed after the mission.
