Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era (2011) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Conducting Microgravity Research: U.S. and International Facilities
3 Conducting Microgravity Research: U.S. and International Facilities
Pages 23-56
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 23... ...
Ground-based facilities for microgravity physical sciences include parabolic flights, drop towers, and sound ing rockets. In addition, space life science researchers require access to highly specialized ground facilities, for instance the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL)
|
From page 24... ...
† INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION The major intended purpose of the ISS is to provide an Earth-orbiting research facility that houses experi ment payloads, distributes resource utilities, and supports permanent human habitation for conducting science and research experiments in a microgravity environment. It is expected to serve as a world-class orbiting national and international laboratory for conducting high-value scientific research and providing access to microgravity resources for major areas of science and technology development.
|
From page 25... ...
Rack System was developed to provide ISS accommodations and resources such as power, data, and cooling to small, subrack payloads and is housed within ISPRs aboard the space station. An EXPRESS rack accommodates payloads originally fitted to shuttle middeck lockers and International Subrack Interface Standard drawer payloads, allowing previously flown payloads to evolve to flight on the ISS.
|
From page 26... ...
, Materials Science Research Rack (Active Rack Isolation System) ; MSS/AV, Mobile Servicer System/ Avionics; RSR, Resupply Stowage Rack; TCS, Thermal Control System; TeSS, Temporary Sleep Station; WORF, Window Observational Research Facility; ZSR, Zero-Gravity Stowage Rack.
|
From page 27... ...
SOURCE: Left: NASA, International Space Station Familiarization Training Manual, ISS FAM C TM 21109, June 3, 2004. Right: NASA, International Space Station Users Guide, ISS User's GuideRelease 2.0, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston Tex., 2000 3.2 right express rack from word.eps bitmap to operate optimally at −80°C (−112°F)
|
From page 28... ...
Columbus houses a Biolab, Fluid Science Laboratory, European Physiology Module, and European Drawer Rack. It is equipped with two video cameras and a monitor audio system, as well as an external payload facility.
|
From page 29... ...
Major ISS Facilities by Discipline Life Sciences Human Research Facility 1 The Human Research Facility 1 (HRF-1) 17 provides investigators with a laboratory platform to study how long-duration spaceflight affects the human body.
|
From page 30... ...
Laboratory's vibration.37 CIR experiments are conducted by remote control from the Telescience Support Center at NASA Glenn Research Center.38 The FIR39,40 is a fluid physics research facility, complementary to the CIR, that is designed to support inves tigations in areas such as colloids, gels, bubbles, wetting and capillary action, and phase changes in microgravity such as boiling and cooling. It uses the Active Rack Isolation System and is capable of incorporating different modules that support widely varying types of experiments.
|
From page 31... ...
Researchers may choose to activate the Canadian Space Agency-developed Microgravity Vibration Isolation Sub system (via magnetic levitation) to isolate the experiment from space station "g-jitter" perturbations.47 Components and equipment include optical and infrared cameras, multiple interferometers, illumination sources, two central experiment modules, a video management unit, storage, and a workbench.
|
From page 32... ...
It is designed to contain multiple JAXA subrack facilities. Components and equipment and subracks include a fluid physics experiment facility, protein crystallization research facility, solution crystallization observation facility, and image processing unit.
|
From page 33... ...
National Laboratory aboard the space station. Of the eight EXPRESS racks, one rack, EXPRESS-6, is used in part for crew galley purposes.
|
From page 34... ...
, along with typically seven crew members.71 It has been used to deliver entire modules and segments of the ISS and for logistics, resupply, and sample retrieval purposes, typically using the MPLM. The space shuttle is launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
|
From page 35... ...
-- In Development The Taurus II launch vehicle72 is currently under development through NASA's Commercial Orbital Trans portation Services program and has been awarded a Space Station Commercial Resupply Services contract for future resupply missions to the ISS.73 It is slated for its first launch in 2011. The Taurus II has a payload capacity of up to 7,000 kg to LEO.74 For ISS resupply missions, it will carry an uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft to deliver up to 2,700 kg of pressurized and unpressurized cargo.75 Taurus II missions are initially planned to be launched from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, but the rocket is compatible with many other U.S.
|
From page 36... ...
payloads into orbit economically.100 While specifically designed to place scientific Earth-observation satellites into polar orbits, Vega is slated to launch the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle in 2012 as a test vehicle for a comprehensive atmo spheric re-entry technology development and demonstration program.101 This test vehicle features a lifting-body configuration and will be used to test dynamic guidance and control technologies during re-entry. 102 While the Vega is not designed to directly support microgravity research, results from the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle are expected to transfer to the development of a crew and cargo transfer capability.
|
From page 37... ...
104 The Japanese have successfully launched the HTV on resupply missions to the ISS. FREE-FLYERS Free-flyers are satellites that can be used for automated microgravity research in both biological and physical sciences, such as growing bacteria in space or exposing materials to the space environment, among many other uses.
|
From page 38... ...
Facilities for Life Sciences In addition to parabolic flights and sounding rockets (drop towers have not been routinely used by life scien tists) , space life sciences researchers use a range of specialized ground-based facilities to understand effects of the spaceflight environment on biological systems.
|
From page 39... ...
The technology developed for this facility could be scaled to support even larger and more complex simulations such as rendezvous and docking maneuvers for two independently operated vehicles, as well as terrestrial lander studies for various microgravity environments. Genome Research Facility (Fundamental Biology)
|
From page 40... ...
NASA Glenn Research Center Exercise Physiology and Countermeasures Project (Human Research Facility) 120 The Exercise Physiology and Countermeasures Project supports the lead project office at NASA JSC in developing exercise countermeasure prescriptions and exercise devices for space exploration that are effective, optimized, and validated to meet medical, vehicle, and habitat requirements.
|
From page 41... ...
The drop tower can accommodate experiments up to 350 kg." Zero Gravity Research Facility124 The Zero Gravity Research Facility provides a near-weightless or microgravity environment for a duration of 5.18 s by allowing the experiment vehicle to free-fall in a vacuum for a distance of 432 ft (132 m)
|
From page 42... ...
The center also works with the John Glenn Biomedical Engineering Consortium and receives grants from NASA Headquarters and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NASA Sounding Rocket Program, Wallops Flight Facility130 Sounding rockets carry scientific instruments into space along parabolic trajectories, providing nearly vertical traversals along their upleg and downleg, while appearing to "hover" near their apogee location.
|
From page 43... ...
Student experiments must be organized, designed, and operated by student team members alone. Reduced Gravity Research Program140 The NASA Reduced Gravity Research Program, operated out of JSC, provides NASA researchers with a free-fall environment via parabolic flights to simulate a microgravity environment for test and training purposes.
|
From page 44... ...
Marshall Space Flight Center also manages the MSG, which was launched to the ISS in June 2002. 142 NASA Space Radiation Laboratory The $34 million NSRL at BNL is the result of an agreement between the Department of Energy, which owns BNL, and NASA, which designed the NSRL and makes it available to investigators through a beamtime-requestbased approach.
|
From page 45... ...
European Ground-Based Facilities ESA has three types of ground-based microgravity facilities, but it also supports other facilities and environ ments on Earth that simulate the space environment. The three facility types are drop towers, parabolic flights, and sounding rockets.148 ESA also has two primary locations for human spaceflight research: one in Toulouse, France; the other in Cologne, Germany.
|
From page 46... ...
ESA Sounding Rockets ESA has been using sounding rockets for microgravity research since 1982.151 Today, the agency has four types of sounding rockets (from smallest to largest)
|
From page 47... ...
The center is in close contact with mission con trol centers in Houston and Moscow. In addition, it coordinates operations with the ISS Payload Operations and Integration Center at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
|
From page 48... ...
Spanish User Support and Operations Centre, Madrid, Spain The Spanish USOC164 is a center of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and acts on behalf of ESA as the point of contact for Spanish user teams developing experiments requiring a microgravity environment. The Spanish USOC is the Facility Support Center for the Fluid Science Laboratory, an ESA experimental payload on the ISS Columbus module.
|
From page 49... ...
Microgravity User Support Centre, Cologne, Germany DLR's primary microgravity research facility is the Microgravity User Support Centre, 166 which supports users in materials physics, aerospace medicine, and astrophysics. Specific tasks include preliminary research on functionally identical ground models of flight hardware, on-orbit operation of payloads, experiment analysis, and data archiving.
|
From page 50... ...
2005. International Space Station: Marshall Space Flight Center's Role in Develop ment and Operations.
|
From page 51... ...
Fact Sheet. Human Research Facility-2 (HRF-2)
|
From page 52... ...
2008. "International Space Station National Lab Status," presentation to the Biotechnology Utilization Planning for the International Space Station National Laboratory, November 13-14, 2008.
|
From page 53... ...
NASA. International Space Station.
|
From page 54... ...
1999. The International Space Station As a Free Flyer Servicing Node.
|
From page 55... ...
Zero Gravity Research Facility. Facility Overview.
|
From page 56... ...
International Space Station. Human Spaceflight and Exploration.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.