Establishment of the Unmanned Space Experiment Infrastructure for the Wide Range of User's Demands

Paper number

IAC-06-A2.3.06

Author

Dr. Koichi Ijichi, Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Hiroshi Kanai, Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Shuji Nakamura, Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Tatsuro Ono, Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), Japan

Year

2006

Abstract

In the morning of the May 30, 2003, the returned capsule of the USERS Spacecraft was splashed down at open sea east of the Ogasawara Islands and successfully recovered the onboard experiments after over the 8 months of the on-orbit experiment. This was the moment when the Unmanned Space Experiment Infrastructure with long duration and better micro-gravity environment capability has been established. The Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System (USERS) Project was started on 1995 to establish the self-return unmanned space experiment means to promote the space utilization. The USERS Spacecraft consists of the Service Module and the Reentry Module, and return capsule of the Reentry module carried the experiment and recovered. Throughout the successful first flight from 2002 to 2003, not only the spacecraft performances, but also the methodologies and the system for the orbit operation to splash down at designated area, and the search and recovery.

The merit of the unmanned space experiments are: 1) Longer and better micro-gravity environment, and 2) relaxation of the safety constraints towards the astronaut, so that this experiment infrastructure will provide the space utilization community with more chance and means to fulfill the demands.

After the demonstration of the performances and the functions with the first flight, the study work to widen the applicable range of the users field has been started. By the investigation of the applicability field of the current system, some issues were found to accommodate the life science experiment. The issues were late accessibility before the launch, the early accessibility after the recovery, and the wide band data down link capabilities, such as, for the video monitoring capability of the on board life. The preliminary system study to arrange those options has been done. The study also revealed that such life science experiment did not require the long duration experiment in general. This indicated the hint to reduce the system cost, and the preliminary system study was followed.

Finally, the necessary options list to accommodate the wide range of the demands was defined. In parallel to the system improvement study, the Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System Utilization Guide has been also prepared for the potential users.

The paper and the presentation will include the system overview, study results of the improvement of the established recovery system, applicable field of the system, etc. to initiate the discussion between demands and the provision of the unmanned space experiment.

Abstract document

IAC-06-A2.3.06.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-06-A2.3.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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