The Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) is a new type of solar panel that rolls open in space like a party favor and is more compact than current rigid panel designs. The ROSA investigation tests deployment and retraction, shape changes when the Earth blocks the sun, and other physical challenges to determine the array’s strength and durability. Research OverviewThe Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) is an innovative new solar array design that uses high strain one-piece composite slit-tube booms. The stored strain energy of the booms enforces the deployment actuation, and the booms provide the array's deployed structural stiffness and strength.Operational Requirements and ProtocolsROSA is stowed in the trunk of the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule during launch. Once on orbit, the ISS robotic arm removes ROSA from the Dragon trunk and temporarily stows it on an ELC. When ROSA operations are ready to begin, the ROSA is picked up by the ISS robotics arm and located in its operations location. The ROSA operations are conducted while attached to the SSRMS/SPDM for a duration of 7 days. During initial deployment of the array, video is required. Data are recorded using embedded sensors on the experiment. Testing is activated and commanded via the ground controllers (ROBO).
About NICERNASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER, mission is an International Space Station payload that will provide high-precision measurements of neutron stars – objects containing ultra-dense matter at the threshold of collapse into black holes. NICER will also test — for the first time in space — technology that relies on pulsars as navigation beacons. The technique may eventually guide human exploration to the distant reaches of the solar system and beyond.Although NICER’s standalone research offers definitive improvements to existing scientific understanding, NICER’s data will have significant synergy with existing and future missions that can further expand our understanding of the universe.NICER will launch in early 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard the SpaceX-11 ISS Commercial Resupply Services flight.
NICER's X-ray Timing Instrument (XTI) offers an unprecedented combination of capabilities to view the emissions of neutron stars in “soft” X-ray light (less energetic than the X-rays typically used for medical imaging). A bundle of 56 co-aligned optics and X-ray sensors, the instrument represents an innovative configuration of flight-proven components, minimizing risk and meeting the science investigation’s demands of fast timing and the ability to measure the energies of detected X-ray photons....NICER will operate from the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 on the ISS after launch, extraction from the transfer vehicle and installation. NICER is planned for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard the SpaceX-11 ISS Commercial Resupply Services flight, currently scheduled for February 2017. The baseline mission lifetime is 18 months. The NICER team anticipates initial science results by late summer 2017.
Teledyne Brown is developing the Multiple User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), an Earth imaging platform, as part of the company’s new commercial space-based digital imaging business. MUSES hosts earth-viewing instruments (Hosted Payloads), such as high-resolution digital cameras, hyperspectral imagers, and provides precision pointing and other accommodations. It hosts up to four instruments at the same time, and offers the ability to change, upgrade, and robotically service those instruments.
The first instrument placed aboard will be the DLR’s DESIS hyperspectral instrument, which has the capacity to distinguish slight variations in the reflectance of sunlight from the Earth surface (in the visible through near-infrared spectrum) when pointed over a geo- graphic area. An image spectrometer is able to distinguish very subtle changes in the reflectance spectrum for distinguishing plant species or whether the forest is undergoing some sort of stress due to drought or pests. Fine variations in surface reflectance can give immense amounts of information just not possible with picture, such as you would take with an off-the-shelf digital camera.
ROSA (Roll-Out Solar Array) is an external payload on CRS-11QuoteThe Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) is a new type of solar panel that rolls open in space like a party favor and is more compact than current rigid panel designs. The ROSA investigation tests deployment and retraction, shape changes when the Earth blocks the sun, and other physical challenges to determine the array’s strength and durability. Research OverviewThe Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) is an innovative new solar array design that uses high strain one-piece composite slit-tube booms. The stored strain energy of the booms enforces the deployment actuation, and the booms provide the array's deployed structural stiffness and strength.Operational Requirements and ProtocolsROSA is stowed in the trunk of the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule during launch. Once on orbit, the ISS robotic arm removes ROSA from the Dragon trunk and temporarily stows it on an ELC. When ROSA operations are ready to begin, the ROSA is picked up by the ISS robotics arm and located in its operations location. The ROSA operations are conducted while attached to the SSRMS/SPDM for a duration of 7 days. During initial deployment of the array, video is required. Data are recorded using embedded sensors on the experiment. Testing is activated and commanded via the ground controllers (ROBO).ROSA is built by Deployable Space Systems
The current launch planning date is NET 4/14/2016
ROSA (Roll-Out Solar Array) is an external payload on CRS-11
NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR) is an external payload on CRS-11
MUSES (Multi-User System for Earth Sensing) is an external payload on CRS-11
That looks like quite an array of expensive, complex and one-off hardware there!! The various owners (and NASA) must be VERY, very confident these payloads will arrive safely to all decide to go up on the same flight.
The NICER Mission: A Partnership in Science and Technology on the ISS Host- Jan VrtilekSpeaker- Keith Gendreau (Goddard)Feb 4, 2016The Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) is an X-ray astrophysics mission of opportunity that will reveal the inner workings of neutron stars, cosmic lighthouses that embody unique gravitational, electromagnetic, and nuclear-physics environments. NICER achieves this objective by deploying a high-heritage instrument as an attached payload on a zenith-side ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC) aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NICER offers order-of-magnitude improvements in time-coherent sensitivity and timing resolution beyond the capabilities of any X-ray observatory flown to date. Through a cost-sharing opportunity between the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) NICER will also demonstrate how neutron stars can serve as deep-space navigation beacons to guide humankind out of Earth orbit, to destinations throughout the Solar System and beyond. I will overview the NICER mission, discuss our experience working with the ISS, and describe the process of forging a partnership between SMD and STMD.
The ROSA engineering development unit is sized to provide nominally 20 kW of electrical power per array – enough for exciting new missions such as redirecting an asteroid to lunar orbit to enable in-depth studies by astronauts and commercial venturers. The solar array is configured for launch stows into a cylindrical volume less than two feet in diameter. Once the spacecraft is positioned, the arrays roll out to their full size, 20 feet by 45 feet. The very large solar array is able to be stowed so compactly because its solar cells are mounted on an innovative flexible blanket which is much thinner than the traditional rigid panels in current use.
Quote from: gongora on 02/04/2017 01:06 amROSA (Roll-Out Solar Array) is an external payload on CRS-11This is fascinating - I can't find basic information on this however.The DSS homepage says of a picture that is also used by NASA to talk of this '10-15kW'.Aha!https://www.nasa.gov/content/administrator-bolden-visits-company-rolling-out-new-solar-array-technology/ has some more info.QuoteThe ROSA engineering development unit is sized to provide nominally 20 kW of electrical power per array – enough for exciting new missions such as redirecting an asteroid to lunar orbit to enable in-depth studies by astronauts and commercial venturers. The solar array is configured for launch stows into a cylindrical volume less than two feet in diameter. Once the spacecraft is positioned, the arrays roll out to their full size, 20 feet by 45 feet. The very large solar array is able to be stowed so compactly because its solar cells are mounted on an innovative flexible blanket which is much thinner than the traditional rigid panels in current use.A report on near term space capabilities gives ROSA up to 150W/kg performance - which seems implausible unless this is the one with the lens structures, which it seems it is not.The CRS11 manifest would of course give the weight, but I don't think it's been listed.As some context - DS1 got 42W/kg, Dawn 80W/kg, and ISS panels are now around 27W.Even if it is one of their more 'pedestrian' array designs - it would enable development of the more exotic arrays the company has designed.As well as the more obvious launch cost issues, lighter solar panels make for sportier ion drive vehicles.
A report on near term space capabilities gives ROSA up to 150W/kg performance - which seems implausible unless this is the one with the lens structures, which it seems it is not.The CRS11 manifest would of course give the weight, but I don't think it's been listed.As some context - DS1 got 42W/kg, Dawn 80W/kg, and ISS panels are now around 27W.Even if it is one of their more 'pedestrian' array designs - it would enable development of the more exotic arrays the company has designed.As well as the more obvious launch cost issues, lighter solar panels make for sportier ion drive vehicles.
I read that it's not a new Dragon for this flight, but the reuse of CRS-4. That's true ?http://spacenews.com/spacex-to-reuse-dragon-capsules-on-cargo-missions/
On Salo's ISS manifest, I see the date for this flight is currently April 9. How reliable is that date?
NASA pulled rank and the CRS-10 date stuck forcing Echostar to move after. Is this a common occurrence? In other words, is the CRS-11 date more sticky such that if there are delays, then other satellites planned to be launched before would move after?