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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- When the space shuttle Columbia tore to pieces over Texas, Alabama-based researchers lost medical and scientific experiments nurtured for years in laboratories.
Cindy Hutchens led an experiment at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville on the shuttle mission to convert crew member's urine and wastewater by distillation for eventual use on the International Space Station.
She said she and her colleagues had trained Columbia crew members Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Michael Anderson on the experiment twice at the Kennedy Space Center and once at the Johnson Space Center.
The shuttle tore to pieces 39 miles above Texas, in the last 16 minutes of a 16-day mission, killing the seven-member crew.
Researchers at Oakwood College, also in Huntsville, were awaiting data from their experiments aboard Columbia, said Ephraim T. Gwebu, director of research for the college. They were working with the Biospace Group in research on regenerating neurons, a process that could lead to better treatment for spinal cord injuries.
At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, scientists and engineers lost research into drugs to treat a variety of human ailments, from diabetes to AIDS.
Three thermal carriers containing thousands of experiments had been sent to the Columbia by the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering at UAB. Some experiments were UAB's, others were for pharmaceutical companies.
None of the data from UAB's experiments had been transmitted during the flight, said Michael D. Harrington, associate director of engineering at the center.
The containers themselves cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Harrington told The Birmingham News. ``But when you include the amount of science that has been done, the teams that were involved, ... the crew training and mission support that we've been providing these scientific endeavors, the loss is immeasurable.''
The UAB center's director, Larry DeLucas, flew on the Columbia in 1992. An associate with what was then the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, DeLucas conducted experiments and returned with 34 protein crystals for UAB researchers to study in designing drugs for fighting AIDS, cancer, diabetes and other diseases.
DeLucas said space research has made possible many everyday items such as cell phones, pagers and the satellites that make them work.
``We can't let a failure like this stop manned space flight,'' he said. ``Exploration of this type is dangerous, but it's worth it.''
DeLucas said he served on a committee with Columbia crew member Laurel Clark. ``She was very smart, a hard worker.''
The UAB center specializes in space experiments involving protein crystals. Harrington said the center also leases the carriers to companies and universities that need to conduct such experiments in near-zero-gravity conditions.
Harrington said UAB had engineering teams at the Kennedy Space Center waiting to take the experiments from the Columbia and bring some of the carriers to Birmingham. Investigators from Japan's space program and pharmaceutical companies were ready to study the results in UAB laboratories.
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