Atmospheric monitors aboard Atlantis surveyed Earth's envelope of swirling gases Tuesday while a French astronaut tested a type of aluminum pipe that might cool future spaceships.
Instruments in the shuttle cargo bay are scouring the atmosphere for dozens of gases, including the thin, invisible ozone layer that protects life on the planet from ultraviolet solar rays.NASA scientist Michael Gunson said his ozone monitor aboard Atlantis confirms what instruments on permanently orbiting satellites have already found - there's very little of the critical gas inside the Antarctic ozone hole.
The shuttle's orbital path takes it just south of Cape Horn to get a good look at the gaping hole, which is shrinking as it does every year at this time as air from the middle latitudes drifts southward.
Despite the shift, there is still two to three times less ozone inside the hole than outside, Gunson said Monday.
Gunson's instrument continued gathering information Tuesday, along with another monitor that maps ozone by measuring ultraviolet light bouncing off the atmosphere. A third ozone monitor failed a day after Thursday's launch.
The six shuttle astronauts answered questions from reporters in a space-to-ground news conference Tuesday - Election Day. When asked, all six raised a hand to indicate they had voted before the flight, including Frenchman Jean-Francois Clervoy.
"It's team spirit," Clervoy joked.