Mission STS-41-G
Mission description
Text version
The National Research Council mission crest for 41-G is commemorative of the first space flight by a Canadian Mission.
The design is based on Leonardo da Vinci's famous The Proportions of the Human Figure, the drawing of a man whose outstretched arms touch the perimeter of a square and whose feet, the circumference of a circle. In this case, the central figure and two others, free-floating behind it, denote weightlessness in zero-gravity. The three figures represent the different research areas involved in the experiments Garneau will conduct during the mission - space technology, space science and life sciences.
Patch STS-41-G. (Credit: Canadian Space Agency)
Launch
Date: October 5, 1984
Time: 7:03 a.m. EDT
Site: Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Landing
Date: October 13, 1984
Time: 12:26 p.m. EDT
Site: Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
Mission duration: 8 days 5 h 23 min 33 s
Flight number: STS-41-G
Orbiter vehicle: Challenger
Payloads: Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) Getaway Specials - 6 (GAS), compagnie cinématographique canadienne (IMAX), appareil photo grand format (LFC), Orbital Refueling System (ORS), Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications (Palette OSTA-3).
Marc Garneau conducted 10 experiments in three main categories: space technology, space science and life sciences. The space technology experiments involve two areas: important development tests for the NRCC Space Vision System experiment to be flown on a mission in early 1986 and tests to determine the effect of exposure to space on different advanced composite materials.
Each experiment were to be conducted on specific days of the mission. Besides conducting the experiments, Garneau did his share of housekeeping duties such as making meals and stowing and unstowing equipment. He also helped in any job that "needed three hands" such as taking notes for others and arranging for others to do the same for him.
The space science studies deal with the physical characteristics of thespace environment and of the earth's upper atmosphere. The life sciences component includes several experiments on human adaptation to space flight as preparation for the more detailed investigations on a mission in mid-1986.
Personal hygiene also took its share of time - hand-washing takes twice as long in space as it does on Earth and shaving with an electric shaver, up to three times longer. Even sleeping is different in a space environment. In order to get his eight hours of sleep each mission day, he had to attach himself to some spot in the mid-deck with Velcro to keep from floating freely.
Garneau used a combination of filling out check lists and spoke into a tape recorder to record the conditions under which the experiments are performed and their results.
All the equipment he needed for the 10 experiments fitted into one locker about half the size of a legal size filing cabinet drawer.
Mission STS-41-G crew
(Seated left to right) Jon A. McBride, pilot; mission specialists Sally K. Ride, Kathryn D. Sullivan, and David C. Leestma. Standing in the rear, left to right, are payload specialists Paul D. Scully-Power and Marc Garneau with crew commander Robert L. Crippen in the middle. (Credit: NASA)