14 Jul 2015

The Italian tool involved in the Antares explosion last 28 October has been found intact and fully functional

“Post fata resurgo” (I arise from death) was the motto of the Phoenix, which was reborn from its own ashes. The story of theDrain Brain instrument - which miraculously survived the explosion of an orbiter rocket 42 metres high and weighing 240 metric tonnes - inevitably reminds us of the Greek (or more accurately, Egyptian) legend. But let’s tell the story from the beginning.
Nine months ago, at exactly 11.22 pm (Italian time) on 28 October last year, the Antares rocket built by the Orbital Science Corporation took off from its launch pad in Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch went as planned, except for a 24 hour delay caused by the presence of a ship within the security perimeter.
The mission was the third of its kind for this "private sector" rocket, and involved bringing the Cygnus CRS-3 cargo capsule to the ISS, carrying 2200 kg of material for the astronauts, including two scientific instruments for Samantha Cristoforetti: Wearable Monitoring and Drain Brain, two of the five human research experiments conducted by the Italian Space Agency for the Futura mission.
But only a few seconds after lift-off, the lower part of the rocket exploded in flight, leaving it to collapse onto the launch pad. Here, the solid and liquid fuel ignited to cause a second, gigantic explosion and fire which enveloped the Earth station structures for several minutes.
This is all common knowledge (the instruments for the experiments were rebuilt and correctly brought to the ISS with a later launch in January 2015). What not everybody knows, however, is that some time ago NASA informed ASI that they had found the burnt case of one of the two experiments (Drain Brain) on the beach near the launch zone, and agreed to send the material to the scientific institute at Ferrara University, where the experiment was originally developed.
Now came the second surprise. When they opened the case, which was unmistakably burnt, Professor Paolo Zamboni's team found the instrument perfectly intact (see photo). Surprise turned into amazement when the instrument turned on correctly at the first attempt, without showing any sign of the disastrous accident it was involved in.
As Salvatore Pignataro, program manager of the experiment and director of the Futura mission, explained: "A series of circumstances, some accidental and others not (such as the position of Cygnus at the top of the Antares rocket and the protection provided by the PCM pressurised cargo model and Nomex bag, as well as the fact that it fell on the beach) clearly protected the payload". "Also, the requirements for ISS equipment, including scientific instruments, are very strict and encourage developers to build exceptionally high quality products, both from an engineering and technological point of view", he continued
Apart from the Drain Brain instrument, the Pressurised Cargo Module (PCM) and Nomex bag were also built in Italy. The latter, created by Kayser Italia in Leghorn, was provided to developers by the Italian Space Agency. The Cygnus PCM, on the other hand, was designed and built in Thales Alenia Space Italia's facilities in Turin.

The experiment
Following the accident, Ferrara University quickly built another instrument using the spare parts available. With developers coordinated and supported by the Italian Space Agency as part of the UtISS industrial contract with Kayser Italia, the new instrument was loaded onto another cargo rocket and reached the Space Station in January 2015, allowing Prof. Zamboni's experiment to go ahead according to the planned scientific protocol. Running for around ten hours on board and operated by Samantha Cristoforetti, Drain Brain recorded precious data on blood flow from the brain in microgravity conditions, data which is already available for analysis by researchers.
Drain Brain was one of eight experiments in the ASI research plan for the Futura Mission that were successfully performed during the seven months of the mission. The Italian Space Agency is the only agency in the world, apart from the five ISS partners, that has direct access to the ISS for their scientific and technological experiments - thanks to the bilateral agreement with NASA for supplying logistics modules, which also grants ASI the opportunity to send Italian astronauts on board the station. Mr Pignataro, who has been managing ASI's use of the ISS since 2003, explained that "From 2001 to today, with around 0.6% of the resources of the segment operated by the Americans (USOS, US Operated Segment), ASI has completed around 50 independent experiments, another dozen in collaboration with ISS partner agencies, and a further ten which are still underway, including the Futura Mission data which researchers are still analysing".