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As a weather fan, I actually like all these cloud images.  There's a lot of learning that can be done with the different weather and cloud images from all over the world.  I'm eager to start exploring them myself.

8.1.8 Messages Sent to the Crew During STS-76
Several messages were sent from the KidSat Gateway to the crew during the STS-76 mission via the daily "Uplink," which is a text messages of the revised plans for the upcoming day, changes to the flight plan, changes to procedures and comments about the events of the preceding day.  Below are two of these messages:
  "KidSat Mission Operations has received a total of 182 images, and they're unbelievable.  The schools are really enjoying them, and the targeting accuracy has been excellent.  Justin Moresco, Mission Gateway Chief and undergraduate student as UCSD, says 'It's hard to believe this is really happening.  We've worked so long and hard to finally come to this point.  The whole project has been a fantastic experience, but these last few days have been incredible.  Thanks!!!' Two images (Southeastern coast of Lake Superior and the Southern tip of India) have been included in message 31."
  "We're ecstatic!  The three participating middle schools have each selected about 35-45 images.  You'll be happy to know that we hit all of our target sites precisely.  We'd especially like to thank you for the help in getting our last images down after the docking."

8.2 The Second Mission: STS-81
On January 12, 1997, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis shuttle took off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-B.  STS-81 was Atlantis' 18th flight and the 91st mission flown since hte initiation of the Space Shuttle Program.  This was the fifth of nine planned missions to Mir and continued the cooperative effort between the United States and Russia to further space exploration.  STS-81 came to a close as Atlantis landed on January 22, 1997, at Kennedy Space Center. During STS-81, Atlantis flew at an altitude of approximately 400 km (240 miles) and at an inclination of 51.6°.

This ten-day flight help the distinction of transferring the largest number of items to and from Mir to date.  Some of the items transferred included 1,400 pounds of water; 1,138 pounds of U.S. science equipment; 2,206 pounds of Russian logistics equipment; and 268 pounds of miscellaneous items.  This mission also included several experiments in advanced technology, Earth sciences, fundamental biology, human life sciences, microgravity, and space sciences.  Experiments to help plan and develop the International Space Station, commercial technology, and human and biological processes of Earth-based sciences were also performed.  Astronauts replenished materials for experiments being performed on the Mir station and collected experiment samples and data for analysis back on Earth.

8.2.1 KidSat Operation
Improvements were made to the KidSat Flight System for the STS-81 mission including the ability to track down and fix bugs in the camera interface driver; the addition of new features to support testing; the capacity for crew interfacing and the ability to enter a command onboard; and the introduction of a thumbnail image display for the most recent pictures taken by the camera.

Unlike the STS-76 mission, the images were transferred from the shuttle Thinkpad to an OCA computer at JSC.  Then the images were automatically transferred to a Windows NT computer also located at JSC so that the images could be sent by FTP to JPC.  During the first part of the mission, there was a KidSat student who would make sure that there were images to be transferred over from the Windows NT

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