Flight control of the Zarya module and the International Space Station following assembly with Unity will be conducted from locations in both the United States and in Russia, with the primary oversight for all operations resting with NASA.
Beginning with the launch of Zarya, a new NASA International Space Station Flight Control Room will be utilized. This new Mission Control Center at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, will become permanently staffed beginning with the launch of Unity on Dec. 3, about two weeks after Zarya's launch.
The primary command and control functions for Zarya will be at the Zarya flight control room located in Korolev, Russia, using the Russian communications system. The Zarya flight control room is located in the same control center as the Mir flight control room has been located.
NASA flight control operations will maintain oversight and approve all plans while the Russian flight control team will direct real-time ISS operations based on the approved plans. The station flight control team in Houston also will support Russian flight controllers as they perform command and control over the US systems. After Shuttle mission STS-98 in February 2000, when the U.S. Laboratory module is delivered along with the primary U.S. communications system, Station Flight Control in Houston will assume the direction of real-time flight operations activities as well and will have primary command and control functions.
A small NASA flight control team, designated the Houston Support Group, also will be stationed at the Korolev control center to facilitate communications and information exchange between Houston and Korolev. A small team of Russian controllers also will be stationed at the Houston Mission Control Center performing a similar function.
When fully staffed, the NASA station flight control room in Houston will contain about a dozen flight controllers, led by an International Space Station flight director. At times during early station operations, when there are no highly dynamic activities planned, staffing in the Station Flight Control room may be reduced. Following Shuttle mission STS-97 in December 1999, however, the Mission Control Center will be permanently staffed - by a full Flight Control Team when required, and by a Duty Officer at other times. The station flight control room is located just down the hall from the Space Shuttle flight control room in JSC's Mission Control Center.
Flight controller positions and their call signs in the International Space Station flight control room, Houston, include:
Flight Director (Flight)
Primary decision-making authority for station operations. Leads flight control team. May not be on duty during some quiescent station operations, but will be on call at all times to be available when determined necessary by the station duty officer.
Assembly and Checkout Officer (ACO)
The Station Assembly and Checkout Officer is responsible for integration of assembly and activation tasks for all ISS systems and elements and coordinating with station and shuttle flight controllers on the execution of these operations.
Attitude Determination and Control Officer (ADCO)
The Station Attitude Determination and Control Officer works in partnership with Russian controllers to manage the station’s orientation, controlled by the onboard Motion Control Systems. This position also plans and calculates future orientations and maneuvers for the station.
Communication and Tracking Officer (CATO)
The Station Communication and Tracking Officer (CATO) console position is responsible for management and operations of the U.S. communication systems, including audio, video, telemetry and commanding systems.
Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS)
The Station Environmental Control and Life Support Systems Officer is responsible for the assembly and operation of systems related to atmosphere control and supply, atmosphere revitalization, cabin air temperature and humidity control, circulation, fire detection and suppression, water collection and processing and crew hygiene equipment, among other areas.
Extravehicular Activity Officer (EVA)
The Station Extravehicular Activity Officer is responsible for all spacesuit and spacewalking-related tasks, equipment and plans.
Onboard, Data, Interfaces and Networks (ODIN)
The Station Command and Data Handling Systems Officer is responsible for the U.S. Command and Data Handling System, including hardware, software, networks, and interfaces with International Partner avionics systems.
Operations Support Officer (OSO)
The Station Operations Support Officer is the console operator that is charged with those logistics support funtions that address on-orbit maintenance, support data and documentation, logistics information systems, maintenance data collection and maintenance analysis.
Power, Heating, Articulation, Lighting Control Officer (PHALCON)
The Station Electrical Power Systems Officer manages the power generation, storage, and power distribution capabilities.
Robotics Operations Systems Officer (ROSO)
The Station Robotics Systems Officer is responsible for the operations of the Canadian Mobile Servicing System, which includes a mobile base system, station robotic arm, station robotic hand or special purpose dexterous manipulator. The ROSO officer represents a joint Canadian Space Agency-NASA team of specialists to plan and execute robotic operations.
Thermal Operations and Resources (THOR)
The Station Thermal Operations and Resource Officer is responsible for the assembly and operation of multiple station subsystems which collect, distribute, and reject waste heat from critical equipment and payloads.
Trajectory Operations Officer (TOPO)
The Station Trajectory Operations Officer is responsible for the station trajectory. The TOPO works in partnership with Russian controllers, ADCO, and the U.S. Space Command to maintain data regarding the station's orbital position. TOPO plans all station orbital maneuvers.
Operations Planner (Ops Planner)
The Station Ops Planner leads the coordination, development and maintenance of the station's short-term plan, including crew and ground activities. The plan includes the production and uplink of the onboard station plan and the coordination and maintenance of the onboard inventory and stowage listings.
Ground Controller
Responsible for MCC systems and coordination with the ground to space communications network.
Monday, June 15, 2009
About the International Space Station
In partnership with the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada, Europe is sharing in the greatest international project of all time - the International Space Station (ISS). Once completed, the 450-tonne International Space Station will have more than 1200 cubic metres of pressurised space - enough room for seven crew and a vast array of scientific experiments.Europe, working through ESA, is exclusively responsible for two key Station elements: the European Columbus laboratory and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). The European Columbus laboratory represents a substantial part of the Station's research capability. Fitted with 10 interchangeable payload racks, Columbus is a multifunction laboratory that specialises in research into fluid physics, materials science and life sciences.
Europe's second biggest contribution is the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), a supply ship lifted into orbit by the Ariane-5 launcher.
The ATV carries up to 7.7 tonnes of cargo including provisions, scientific payloads and rocket propellant. Once docked, the craft can use its engines to boost the Station higher in its orbit, thus counteracting the faint drag from the Earth's atmosphere.
Apart from Columbus and the ATV, Europe's scientists and engineers are also contributing other elements, equipment and design skills across much of the ISS.
The DSM-R data management system, for example, has been a key part of the Station's 'brain' since its July 2000 launch aboard the Russian Zvezda Service Module.Europe will build two of the three nodes that link Station components, as well as the Cupola - a dome-like structure that will be the crew's panoramic window on space and a control room for astronauts operating Station equipment.
The European Robotic Arm will service payloads on a later Russian external platform and the Italian pressurised transfer modules - Leonardo, Raffaello and Donatello - will carry pressurised cargo to and from the Station.
In fact, European technology will play a part in most Station sections. Inside the United States Destiny research module, for instance, Europe will mount, among other equipment, a specialized material science rack and freezer units. The Japanese Experiment Module will also use a European freezer.
Europe also provides people. European astronauts have flown in space since 1983, and since 1998 the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne has concentrated on training men and women for future ISS missions. The first European to serve a tour of duty on the ISS, Umberto Guidoni, went on mission to the ISS in April 2001.Only a tiny fraction of the Europeans working on the ISS will ever visit space of course. Just because the ISS is growing into the brightest object in the night sky - after the Moon - it is easy to forget that much of the project's people and hardware are based not out in space but firmly on the ground.
European mission control centres direct onboard experiments, sharing Station command with Russia and the United States. The astronauts on the ISS will always be part of a much larger scientific team on Earth. 
Right now, Europe's participation in the ISS means that throughout ESA's Member States, thousands of Europe's brightest people at hundreds of universities and high-technology companies are working on the leading edge of 21st-Century science and engineering.
Once the Station is fully up and running, these people will be among the first to benefit from the space research facilities they have helped to build.The International Space Station
The International Space Station
The International Space Station is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. And when it is complete just after the turn of the century, the the station will represent a move of unprecedented scale off the home planet. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil.
More than four times as large as the Russian Mir space station, the completed International Space Station will have a mass of about 1,040,000 pounds. It will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long, with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power to six state-of-the-art laboratories.
The station will be in an orbit with an altitude of 250 statute miles with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This orbit allows the station to be reached by the launch vehicles of all the international partners to provide a robust capability for the delivery of crews and supplies. The orbit also provides excellent Earth observations with coverage of 85 percent of the globe and over flight of 95 percent of the population. By the end of this year, about 500,000 pounds of station components will be have been built at factories around the world.
U.S. Role and Contributions
The United States has the responsibility for developing and ultimately operating major elements and systems aboard the station. The U.S. elements include three connecting modules, or nodes; a laboratory module; truss segments; four solar arrays; a habitation module; three mating adapters; a cupola; an unpressurized logistics carrier and a centrifuge module. The various systems being developed by the U.S. include thermal control; life support; guidance, navigation and control; data handling; power systems; communications and tracking; ground operations facilities and launch-site processing facilities.
International Contributions
The international partners, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency, and Russia, will contribute the following key elements to the International Space Station:
· Canada is providing a 55-foot-long robotic arm to be used for assembly and maintenance tasks on the Space Station.
· The European Space Agency is building a pressurized laboratory to be launched on the Space Shuttle and logistics transport vehicles to be launched on the Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
· Japan is building a laboratory with an attached exposed exterior platform for experiments as well as logistics transport vehicles.
· Russia is providing two research modules; an early living quarters called the Service Module with its own life support and habitation systems; a science power platform of solar arrays that can supply about 20 kilowatts of electrical power; logistics transport vehicles; and Soyuz spacecraft for crew return and transfer.
In addition, Brazil and Italy are contributing some equipment to the station through agreements with the United States.
ISS Phase One: The Shuttle-Mir Program
The first phase of the International Space Station, the Shuttle-Mir Program, began in 1995 and involved more than two years of continuous stays by astronauts aboard the Russian Mir Space Station and nine Shuttle-Mir docking missions. Knowledge was gained in technology, international space operations and scientific research.
Seven U.S. astronauts spent a cumulative total of 32 months aboard Mir with 28 months of continuous occupancy since March 1996. By contrast, it took the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet more than a dozen years and 60 flights to achieve an accumulated one year in orbit. Many of the research programs planned for the International Space Station benefit from longer stay times in space. The U.S. science program aboard the Mir was a pathfinder for more ambitious experiments planned for the new station.
For less than two percent of the total cost of the International Space Station program, NASA gained knowledge and experience through Shuttle-Mir that could not be achieved any other way. That included valuable experience in international crew training activities; the operation of an international space program; and the challenges of long duration spaceflight for astronauts and ground controllers. Dealing with the real-time challenges experienced during Shuttle-Mir missions also has resulted in an unprecedented cooperation and trust between the U.S. and Russian space programs, and that cooperation and trust has enhanced the development of the International Space Station.
Research on the International Space Station
The International Space Station will establish an unprecedented state-of-the-art laboratory complex in orbit, more than four times the size and with almost 60 times the electrical power for experiments — critical for research capability — of Russia's Mir. Research in the station's six laboratories will lead to discoveries in medicine, materials and fundamental science that will benefit people all over the world. Through its research and technology, the station also will serve as an indispensable step in preparation for future human space exploration.
Examples of the types of U.S. research that will be performed aboard the station include:
· Protein crystal studies: More pure protein crystals may be grown in space than on Earth. Analysis of these crystals helps scientists better understand the nature of proteins, enzymes and viruses, perhaps leading to the development of new drugs and a better understanding of the fundamental building blocks of life. Similar experiments have been conducted on the Space Shuttle, although they are limited by the short duration of Shuttle flights. This type of research could lead to the study of possible treatments for cancer, diabetes, emphysema and immune system disorders, among other research.
· Tissue culture: Living cells can be grown in a laboratory environment in space where they are not distorted by gravity. NASA already has developed a Bioreactor device that is used on Earth to simulate, for such cultures, the effect of reduced gravity. Still, these devices are limited by gravity. Growing cultures for long periods aboard the station will further advance this research. Such cultures can be used to test new treatments for cancer without risking harm to patients, among other uses.
· Life in low gravity: The effects of long-term exposure to reduced gravity on humans – weakening muscles; changes in how the heart, arteries and veins work; and the loss of bone density, among others – will be studied aboard the station. Studies of these effects may lead to a better understanding of the body’s systems and similar ailments on Earth. A thorough understanding of such effects and possible methods of counteracting them is needed to prepare for future long-term human exploration of the solar system. In addition, studies of the gravitational effects on plants, animals and the function of living cells will be conducted aboard the station. A centrifuge, located in the Centrifuge Accommodation Module, will use centrifugal force to generate simulated gravity ranging from almost zero to twice that of Earth. This facility will imitate Earth’s gravity for comparison purposes; eliminate variables in experiments; and simulate the gravity on the Moon or Mars for experiments that can provide information useful for future space travels.
· Flames, fluids and metal in space: Fluids, flames, molten metal and other materials will be the subject of basic research on the station. Even flames burn differently without gravity. Reduced gravity reduces convection currents, the currents that cause warm air or fluid to rise and cool air or fluid to sink on Earth. This absence of convection alters the flame shape in orbit and allows studies of the combustion process that are impossible on Earth, a research field called Combustion Science. The absence of convection allows molten metals or other materials to be mixed more thoroughly in orbit than on Earth. Scientists plan to study this field, called Materials Science, to create better metal alloys and more perfect materials for applications such as computer chips. The study of all of these areas may lead to developments that can enhance many industries on Earth.
· The nature of space: Some experiments aboard the station will take place on the exterior of the station modules. Such exterior experiments can study the space environment and how long-term exposure to space, the vacuum and the debris, affects materials. This research can provide future spacecraft designers and scientists a better understanding of the nature of space and enhance spacecraft design. Some experiments will study the basic forces of nature, a field called Fundamental Physics, where experiments take advantage of weightlessness to study forces that are weak and difficult to study when subject to gravity on Earth. Experiments in this field may help explain how the universe developed. Investigations that use lasers to cool atoms to near absolute zero may help us understand gravity itself. In addition to investigating basic questions about nature, this research could lead to down-to-Earth developments that may include clocks a thousand times more accurate than today’s atomic clocks; better weather forecasting; and stronger materials.
· Watching the Earth: Observations of the Earth from orbit help the study of large-scale, long-term changes in the environment. Studies in this field can increase understanding of the forests, oceans and mountains. The effects of volcanoes, ancient meteorite impacts, hurricanes and typhoons can be studied. In addition, changes to the Earth that are caused by the human race can be observed. The effects of air pollution, such as smog over cities; of deforestation, the cutting and burning of forests; and of water pollution, such as oil spills, are visible from space and can be captured in images that provide a global perspective unavailable from the ground.
· Commercialization: As part of the Commercialization of space research on the station, industries will participate in research by conducting experiments and studies aimed at developing new products and services. The results may benefit those on Earth not only by providing innovative new products as a result, but also by creating new jobs to make the products.
Assembly in Orbit
By the end of this year, most of the components required for the first seven Space Shuttle missions to assemble the International Space Station will have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center. The first and primary fully Russian contribution to the station, the Service Module, is scheduled to be shipped from Moscow to the Kazakstan launch site in February 1999.
Orbital assembly of the International Space Station will begin a new era of hands-on work in space, involving more spacewalks than ever before and a new generation of space robotics. About 850 clock hours of spacewalks, both U.S. and Russian, will be required over five years to maintain and assemble the station. The Space Shuttle and two types of Russian launch vehicles will launch 45 assembly missions. Of these, 36 will be Space Shuttle flights. In addition, resupply missions and changeouts of Soyuz crew return spacecraft will be launched regularly.
The first crew to live aboard the International Space Station, commanded by U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd and including Russian cosomonauts Yuri Gidzenko as Soyuz Commander and Sergei Krikalev as Flight Engineer, will be launched in early 2000 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They, along with the crews of the first five assembly missions, are now in training. The timetable and sequence of flights for assembly, beyond the first two, will be further refined at a meeting of all the international partners in December 1998. Assembly is planned to be complete by 2004.
The International Space Station is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. And when it is complete just after the turn of the century, the the station will represent a move of unprecedented scale off the home planet. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil.
More than four times as large as the Russian Mir space station, the completed International Space Station will have a mass of about 1,040,000 pounds. It will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long, with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power to six state-of-the-art laboratories.
The station will be in an orbit with an altitude of 250 statute miles with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This orbit allows the station to be reached by the launch vehicles of all the international partners to provide a robust capability for the delivery of crews and supplies. The orbit also provides excellent Earth observations with coverage of 85 percent of the globe and over flight of 95 percent of the population. By the end of this year, about 500,000 pounds of station components will be have been built at factories around the world.
U.S. Role and Contributions
The United States has the responsibility for developing and ultimately operating major elements and systems aboard the station. The U.S. elements include three connecting modules, or nodes; a laboratory module; truss segments; four solar arrays; a habitation module; three mating adapters; a cupola; an unpressurized logistics carrier and a centrifuge module. The various systems being developed by the U.S. include thermal control; life support; guidance, navigation and control; data handling; power systems; communications and tracking; ground operations facilities and launch-site processing facilities.
International Contributions
The international partners, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency, and Russia, will contribute the following key elements to the International Space Station:
· Canada is providing a 55-foot-long robotic arm to be used for assembly and maintenance tasks on the Space Station.
· The European Space Agency is building a pressurized laboratory to be launched on the Space Shuttle and logistics transport vehicles to be launched on the Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
· Japan is building a laboratory with an attached exposed exterior platform for experiments as well as logistics transport vehicles.
· Russia is providing two research modules; an early living quarters called the Service Module with its own life support and habitation systems; a science power platform of solar arrays that can supply about 20 kilowatts of electrical power; logistics transport vehicles; and Soyuz spacecraft for crew return and transfer.
In addition, Brazil and Italy are contributing some equipment to the station through agreements with the United States.
ISS Phase One: The Shuttle-Mir Program
The first phase of the International Space Station, the Shuttle-Mir Program, began in 1995 and involved more than two years of continuous stays by astronauts aboard the Russian Mir Space Station and nine Shuttle-Mir docking missions. Knowledge was gained in technology, international space operations and scientific research.
Seven U.S. astronauts spent a cumulative total of 32 months aboard Mir with 28 months of continuous occupancy since March 1996. By contrast, it took the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet more than a dozen years and 60 flights to achieve an accumulated one year in orbit. Many of the research programs planned for the International Space Station benefit from longer stay times in space. The U.S. science program aboard the Mir was a pathfinder for more ambitious experiments planned for the new station.
For less than two percent of the total cost of the International Space Station program, NASA gained knowledge and experience through Shuttle-Mir that could not be achieved any other way. That included valuable experience in international crew training activities; the operation of an international space program; and the challenges of long duration spaceflight for astronauts and ground controllers. Dealing with the real-time challenges experienced during Shuttle-Mir missions also has resulted in an unprecedented cooperation and trust between the U.S. and Russian space programs, and that cooperation and trust has enhanced the development of the International Space Station.
Research on the International Space Station
The International Space Station will establish an unprecedented state-of-the-art laboratory complex in orbit, more than four times the size and with almost 60 times the electrical power for experiments — critical for research capability — of Russia's Mir. Research in the station's six laboratories will lead to discoveries in medicine, materials and fundamental science that will benefit people all over the world. Through its research and technology, the station also will serve as an indispensable step in preparation for future human space exploration.
Examples of the types of U.S. research that will be performed aboard the station include:
· Protein crystal studies: More pure protein crystals may be grown in space than on Earth. Analysis of these crystals helps scientists better understand the nature of proteins, enzymes and viruses, perhaps leading to the development of new drugs and a better understanding of the fundamental building blocks of life. Similar experiments have been conducted on the Space Shuttle, although they are limited by the short duration of Shuttle flights. This type of research could lead to the study of possible treatments for cancer, diabetes, emphysema and immune system disorders, among other research.
· Tissue culture: Living cells can be grown in a laboratory environment in space where they are not distorted by gravity. NASA already has developed a Bioreactor device that is used on Earth to simulate, for such cultures, the effect of reduced gravity. Still, these devices are limited by gravity. Growing cultures for long periods aboard the station will further advance this research. Such cultures can be used to test new treatments for cancer without risking harm to patients, among other uses.
· Life in low gravity: The effects of long-term exposure to reduced gravity on humans – weakening muscles; changes in how the heart, arteries and veins work; and the loss of bone density, among others – will be studied aboard the station. Studies of these effects may lead to a better understanding of the body’s systems and similar ailments on Earth. A thorough understanding of such effects and possible methods of counteracting them is needed to prepare for future long-term human exploration of the solar system. In addition, studies of the gravitational effects on plants, animals and the function of living cells will be conducted aboard the station. A centrifuge, located in the Centrifuge Accommodation Module, will use centrifugal force to generate simulated gravity ranging from almost zero to twice that of Earth. This facility will imitate Earth’s gravity for comparison purposes; eliminate variables in experiments; and simulate the gravity on the Moon or Mars for experiments that can provide information useful for future space travels.
· Flames, fluids and metal in space: Fluids, flames, molten metal and other materials will be the subject of basic research on the station. Even flames burn differently without gravity. Reduced gravity reduces convection currents, the currents that cause warm air or fluid to rise and cool air or fluid to sink on Earth. This absence of convection alters the flame shape in orbit and allows studies of the combustion process that are impossible on Earth, a research field called Combustion Science. The absence of convection allows molten metals or other materials to be mixed more thoroughly in orbit than on Earth. Scientists plan to study this field, called Materials Science, to create better metal alloys and more perfect materials for applications such as computer chips. The study of all of these areas may lead to developments that can enhance many industries on Earth.
· The nature of space: Some experiments aboard the station will take place on the exterior of the station modules. Such exterior experiments can study the space environment and how long-term exposure to space, the vacuum and the debris, affects materials. This research can provide future spacecraft designers and scientists a better understanding of the nature of space and enhance spacecraft design. Some experiments will study the basic forces of nature, a field called Fundamental Physics, where experiments take advantage of weightlessness to study forces that are weak and difficult to study when subject to gravity on Earth. Experiments in this field may help explain how the universe developed. Investigations that use lasers to cool atoms to near absolute zero may help us understand gravity itself. In addition to investigating basic questions about nature, this research could lead to down-to-Earth developments that may include clocks a thousand times more accurate than today’s atomic clocks; better weather forecasting; and stronger materials.
· Watching the Earth: Observations of the Earth from orbit help the study of large-scale, long-term changes in the environment. Studies in this field can increase understanding of the forests, oceans and mountains. The effects of volcanoes, ancient meteorite impacts, hurricanes and typhoons can be studied. In addition, changes to the Earth that are caused by the human race can be observed. The effects of air pollution, such as smog over cities; of deforestation, the cutting and burning of forests; and of water pollution, such as oil spills, are visible from space and can be captured in images that provide a global perspective unavailable from the ground.
· Commercialization: As part of the Commercialization of space research on the station, industries will participate in research by conducting experiments and studies aimed at developing new products and services. The results may benefit those on Earth not only by providing innovative new products as a result, but also by creating new jobs to make the products.
Assembly in Orbit
By the end of this year, most of the components required for the first seven Space Shuttle missions to assemble the International Space Station will have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center. The first and primary fully Russian contribution to the station, the Service Module, is scheduled to be shipped from Moscow to the Kazakstan launch site in February 1999.
Orbital assembly of the International Space Station will begin a new era of hands-on work in space, involving more spacewalks than ever before and a new generation of space robotics. About 850 clock hours of spacewalks, both U.S. and Russian, will be required over five years to maintain and assemble the station. The Space Shuttle and two types of Russian launch vehicles will launch 45 assembly missions. Of these, 36 will be Space Shuttle flights. In addition, resupply missions and changeouts of Soyuz crew return spacecraft will be launched regularly.
The first crew to live aboard the International Space Station, commanded by U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd and including Russian cosomonauts Yuri Gidzenko as Soyuz Commander and Sergei Krikalev as Flight Engineer, will be launched in early 2000 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They, along with the crews of the first five assembly missions, are now in training. The timetable and sequence of flights for assembly, beyond the first two, will be further refined at a meeting of all the international partners in December 1998. Assembly is planned to be complete by 2004.
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