- Email: [email protected]
2.4 Challenging year ahead for the International Space Station
Shuttle and the international concluded.
rigorously characterize background could affect research data.
Space Station” he. .,.:
levels that
2003 is planned to be the final full year of assembly of the Station’s core structure, with orbital assembly of the complex scheduled to be well into the home stretch as the year draws to a close. Five NASA space shuttle flights are scheduled to launch more than 80 000 pounds of components, supplies and experiments destined for the Station. The shuttle missions will launch four new sections of the Station’s backbone, or truss, to extend its length from the present 134 feet to 310 feet by the end of 2003.
Additional information on Barbara Morgan and the lnternafional Space Station is available on the Internet at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/ Bios/htmlbios/morgan.htm and http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. Information on NASA’s extensive education programmes is available on the web at: http://education.nasa.gov/.
2.4 Challenging Year Ahead for the International Space Station
The new truss segments will include two new huge sets of solar array wings for the complex, totalling almost 6300 ft2 of surface area containing more than 65 000 individual solar power cells. The new truss segments include giant rotary joints to allow the tips of the Station’s backbone to move continuously, as the massive panels track the Sun. The increased power will allow scientific experiments to expand aboard the complex in the years to come, far surpassing any previous research capability in space.
[From NASA News, 20 December 20021 The coming year [2003] will be the most challenging ever for construction of the International Space Station. Already more than twothirds of the way through the assembly of its core structure, international crews face a full and busy construction schedule. 2003 will be about power for the ISS. Electricity-generating systems will almost triple in capacity during the next 12 months. The Stationcrew faces a unique challenge, while almost continuously rewiring their orbiting home and laboratory, the electrical work must be done while virtually all-household appliances and computers continue to run without inter“The year ahead will be the most ruption. complex so far in the history of the international Space Station and its construction in orbit,’ said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Station Program “The Station literally becomes a Manager. new spacecraft with each assembly mission, and that will be true next year with dramatic changes in the operations of its cooling and power systems as well as in its appearance: he added.
“Today’s station, after four years of orbital assembly, is unprecedented and spectacular,’ Gerstenmaier said. “But the complex in orbit today pales in comparison to what it is planned to become by early 2004 - a research facility with unmatched capabilities,” he said. Plans call for astronauts to conduct a record number of spacewalks next year for the Station’s assembly - 24, 18 of which while the shuttle is docked to the Station, and the remainder while the Station is flying solo. 2003 will be the third consecutive year to set a singleyear record for the number of spacewalks. The installation of the new truss segments and unfurling of the arrays will also require unprecedented robotic operations. Those operations will use both the shuttle and Station arms. The operations will rely heavily on the capabilities of the Station’s space railway to move the Station’s robotic arm along the truss to position the new components.
During 2003, three new research facilities will be delivered to the US Destiny Laboratory, bringing the total number of research racks on orbit to 10. Approximately 30 experiments are planned on board the Station in 2003. Crew members will conduct biology, physics, chemistry, ecology, medicine, and manufacturing experiments and also study long-term effects of space flight on humans. In addition, the continuous detailed measurement of the acceleration environment of the Station will be extended to
Three Expedition crews will live aboard Station during 2003, including the current pedition Six crew comprising Commander Bowersox, NASA Station Science Officer 77
the ExKen Don
Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, who were already onboard when the New Year was celebrated. Another 31 people, coming from at least five different countries, are set to visit the Station during 2003 aboard the shuttle and the Soyuz spacecraft taxi missions. The visitors include Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan (see 2.3 above).
wheels, but there are things we’d like to explore with legs that you can’t do with wheels,” commented Robert Hogg, engineer in JPCs Mobility Systems Concept Development Section. “Our aim is to make a small, capable robot that can explore varying terrain in different environments; in other words, go anywhere any time,” he said.
As NASA looks toward an exciting 2003, a tremendously successful year of Station assembly has closed. Four shuttle missions travelled to the Station in 2002, delivering almost 90 000 pounds of new components. The deliveries included three new segments of the truss backbone. The segments stretch 134 ft across the orbiting outpost and incorporate station “air conditioning”, thermal control systems and radiators. The flights also delivered key components of the first ‘space railroad’, a railcar that travels up and down a railway on the truss carrying a Canadian mobile base for the robotic arm. Also installed were two astronaut ‘handcars’ to ease the transport of spacewalkers and their gear up and down the railway. Astronauts conducted a record 22 spacewalks during 2002.
Like a real spider, this robot has feeler-like antennae, which help it detect various obstacles. The first prototype is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. Future versions could be one-tenth that size. Equipped with cameras that can pan and survey its surroundings, the spider-bot has six legs and uses a tripod-walking gait to balance while in motion. In the future, depending on the kind of work it must perform, spider-bots could have eight, 12 or even 50 legs. Hogg led the team of researchers developing the microrobot, which recently underwent its first demonstration. Small radio packages were dropped from a larger rover, and one was turned off. A spider-bot was successfully directed to navigate simulated Martian terrain to take the place of the ‘broken’ radio.
The final segment of the Station’s backbone is scheduled for launch in January 2004. It will boost the completed length of the truss to 354 feet. The Station’s mass will then approach a half-a-million pounds.
It is possible to envisage multiple spiderbots weaving an entire communications network without the need of an existing infrastructure, such as a satellite. Each robot would continuously collect data from the environment and transmit the information over short distances from one spider-bot to the next. The data could be shared by all the spider-bots, allowing each one to know what is collected elsewhere.
2.5 Unravelling the Web of Planetary Mysteries
Development of the spider-bot is true to NASA’s vision to create evolvable hardware with many uses. “In the old days, if one instrument failed an entire mission might be at risk,” said Neville Marzwell, manager, Advanced Concepts and Technology Innovations at JPL. “The new approach is to have structures or robots that are reconfigurable, adjustable and flexible [enough] to stand on their own,” Marzwell said. “Evolvable, reconfigurable structures are the key to changing the paradigm for future space missions by increasing their functionality while reducing cost by becoming a multi-use robot or system,” he said.
[From NASA News, 18 December 20021 Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Ca., have created a microrobot reminiscent of the childhood character Charlotte from ‘Charlotte’s Web’. Dubbed ‘spider-bot’ for its spider-like appearance, this high-technology microrobot may one day chart the terrain on other planets and explore smaller bodies, such as comets, asteroids or the Moon. Spider-bots may also help with maintenance and repairs on the international Space Station. On the Earth, they might fill in for humans by investigating hazardous materials or taking soil measurements on farms. “Traditional
rovers
have
very
The next big step in the development of the spider-bot is for tools to be attached to the
efficient 78
rigorously characterize background could affect research data.
Space Station” he. .,.:
levels that
2003 is planned to be the final full year of assembly of the Station’s core structure, with orbital assembly of the complex scheduled to be well into the home stretch as the year draws to a close. Five NASA space shuttle flights are scheduled to launch more than 80 000 pounds of components, supplies and experiments destined for the Station. The shuttle missions will launch four new sections of the Station’s backbone, or truss, to extend its length from the present 134 feet to 310 feet by the end of 2003.
Additional information on Barbara Morgan and the lnternafional Space Station is available on the Internet at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/ Bios/htmlbios/morgan.htm and http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. Information on NASA’s extensive education programmes is available on the web at: http://education.nasa.gov/.
2.4 Challenging Year Ahead for the International Space Station
The new truss segments will include two new huge sets of solar array wings for the complex, totalling almost 6300 ft2 of surface area containing more than 65 000 individual solar power cells. The new truss segments include giant rotary joints to allow the tips of the Station’s backbone to move continuously, as the massive panels track the Sun. The increased power will allow scientific experiments to expand aboard the complex in the years to come, far surpassing any previous research capability in space.
[From NASA News, 20 December 20021 The coming year [2003] will be the most challenging ever for construction of the International Space Station. Already more than twothirds of the way through the assembly of its core structure, international crews face a full and busy construction schedule. 2003 will be about power for the ISS. Electricity-generating systems will almost triple in capacity during the next 12 months. The Stationcrew faces a unique challenge, while almost continuously rewiring their orbiting home and laboratory, the electrical work must be done while virtually all-household appliances and computers continue to run without inter“The year ahead will be the most ruption. complex so far in the history of the international Space Station and its construction in orbit,’ said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Station Program “The Station literally becomes a Manager. new spacecraft with each assembly mission, and that will be true next year with dramatic changes in the operations of its cooling and power systems as well as in its appearance: he added.
“Today’s station, after four years of orbital assembly, is unprecedented and spectacular,’ Gerstenmaier said. “But the complex in orbit today pales in comparison to what it is planned to become by early 2004 - a research facility with unmatched capabilities,” he said. Plans call for astronauts to conduct a record number of spacewalks next year for the Station’s assembly - 24, 18 of which while the shuttle is docked to the Station, and the remainder while the Station is flying solo. 2003 will be the third consecutive year to set a singleyear record for the number of spacewalks. The installation of the new truss segments and unfurling of the arrays will also require unprecedented robotic operations. Those operations will use both the shuttle and Station arms. The operations will rely heavily on the capabilities of the Station’s space railway to move the Station’s robotic arm along the truss to position the new components.
During 2003, three new research facilities will be delivered to the US Destiny Laboratory, bringing the total number of research racks on orbit to 10. Approximately 30 experiments are planned on board the Station in 2003. Crew members will conduct biology, physics, chemistry, ecology, medicine, and manufacturing experiments and also study long-term effects of space flight on humans. In addition, the continuous detailed measurement of the acceleration environment of the Station will be extended to
Three Expedition crews will live aboard Station during 2003, including the current pedition Six crew comprising Commander Bowersox, NASA Station Science Officer 77
the ExKen Don
Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin, who were already onboard when the New Year was celebrated. Another 31 people, coming from at least five different countries, are set to visit the Station during 2003 aboard the shuttle and the Soyuz spacecraft taxi missions. The visitors include Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan (see 2.3 above).
wheels, but there are things we’d like to explore with legs that you can’t do with wheels,” commented Robert Hogg, engineer in JPCs Mobility Systems Concept Development Section. “Our aim is to make a small, capable robot that can explore varying terrain in different environments; in other words, go anywhere any time,” he said.
As NASA looks toward an exciting 2003, a tremendously successful year of Station assembly has closed. Four shuttle missions travelled to the Station in 2002, delivering almost 90 000 pounds of new components. The deliveries included three new segments of the truss backbone. The segments stretch 134 ft across the orbiting outpost and incorporate station “air conditioning”, thermal control systems and radiators. The flights also delivered key components of the first ‘space railroad’, a railcar that travels up and down a railway on the truss carrying a Canadian mobile base for the robotic arm. Also installed were two astronaut ‘handcars’ to ease the transport of spacewalkers and their gear up and down the railway. Astronauts conducted a record 22 spacewalks during 2002.
Like a real spider, this robot has feeler-like antennae, which help it detect various obstacles. The first prototype is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. Future versions could be one-tenth that size. Equipped with cameras that can pan and survey its surroundings, the spider-bot has six legs and uses a tripod-walking gait to balance while in motion. In the future, depending on the kind of work it must perform, spider-bots could have eight, 12 or even 50 legs. Hogg led the team of researchers developing the microrobot, which recently underwent its first demonstration. Small radio packages were dropped from a larger rover, and one was turned off. A spider-bot was successfully directed to navigate simulated Martian terrain to take the place of the ‘broken’ radio.
The final segment of the Station’s backbone is scheduled for launch in January 2004. It will boost the completed length of the truss to 354 feet. The Station’s mass will then approach a half-a-million pounds.
It is possible to envisage multiple spiderbots weaving an entire communications network without the need of an existing infrastructure, such as a satellite. Each robot would continuously collect data from the environment and transmit the information over short distances from one spider-bot to the next. The data could be shared by all the spider-bots, allowing each one to know what is collected elsewhere.
2.5 Unravelling the Web of Planetary Mysteries
Development of the spider-bot is true to NASA’s vision to create evolvable hardware with many uses. “In the old days, if one instrument failed an entire mission might be at risk,” said Neville Marzwell, manager, Advanced Concepts and Technology Innovations at JPL. “The new approach is to have structures or robots that are reconfigurable, adjustable and flexible [enough] to stand on their own,” Marzwell said. “Evolvable, reconfigurable structures are the key to changing the paradigm for future space missions by increasing their functionality while reducing cost by becoming a multi-use robot or system,” he said.
[From NASA News, 18 December 20021 Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Ca., have created a microrobot reminiscent of the childhood character Charlotte from ‘Charlotte’s Web’. Dubbed ‘spider-bot’ for its spider-like appearance, this high-technology microrobot may one day chart the terrain on other planets and explore smaller bodies, such as comets, asteroids or the Moon. Spider-bots may also help with maintenance and repairs on the international Space Station. On the Earth, they might fill in for humans by investigating hazardous materials or taking soil measurements on farms. “Traditional
rovers
have
very
The next big step in the development of the spider-bot is for tools to be attached to the
efficient 78