HTV 3 Cargo Manifest

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HTV-3 Cargo Manifest

The H-II Transfer Vehicle 3 Spacecraft will deliver about 4,600 Kilograms of cargo to the International Space Station. This includes internal supplies as well as unpressurized Cargo delivered via the Unpressurized Logistics Carrier.

Image: NASA

The pressurized cargo is comprised of system equipment (61%), science hardware (20%), crew food (15%) and personal crew items (4%). HTV-3 carries eight HTV Resupply Racks that are filled with Cargo Transfer Bags. Most of these bags include CTBs filled with supplies for the Station Crew including food, beverages snacks and crew clothing was well as personal items and hygiene materials. Two spare parts for the Kibo Laboratory of the Space Station are part of HTV’s Cargo: one Catalytic Reactor needed for the Japanese Experiment Module Water Processing System and a Kibo Coolant Water Circulation Pump. Both of these units are needed for Kibo Laboratory Maintenance.

Several major ISS Utilization Payloads are part of HTV’s Cargo:
The Aquatic Habitat will house small fresh water fish. They will be monitored for several generations as they grow and adept to the space environment to understand the changes that occur in these small, model vertebrates. The Payload includes two transparent aquariums that have been specially designed for the Microgravity Environment. It includes environmental control systems as well as camera equipment to monitor the fish. The camera equipment consists of standard still cameras and infrared imagers. Aquatic Habitat will start actual science operations in 2013 with a study looking at skeletal changes of fish grown in microgravity.
A new Earth Observation Payload for the US Segment also arrives aboard HTV-3. The ISS-SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization Payload will further improve Earth Observation techniques in support of environmental management, humanitarian assistance and disaster assessment. The project is managed by NASA and USAID. It will operate from the Window Observation Facility in the Destiny Laboratory.

Being carried to ISS inside HTV is a JEM Small-Satellite Orbital Deployer along with five Cubesat that are planned to be deployed by the Japanese Robotic Arm later in 2012. Cubesats are small satellites with a mass of about 1 Kilogram. The five Microsats delivered on HTV3 are RAIKO, FITSAT-1, WE WISH, F-1 and TechEdSat.

The Unpressurized Cargo Carrier of HTV3 carries two external ISS Payloads accounting for 1,100 Kilograms of HTV’s Payload.

The SCaN Testbed, or Space Communications and Navigation Testbed, was designed and built at NASA’s Glenn Research Center over the last three years and will be active aboard ISS for about one year after being delivered by HTV3. ScaN provides a testbed for the development of Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology. The SDR devices are part of the ScaN Payload. SDR technology with software based communications and navigation functions provide ground mission planners the capability to change the functionality of the radio once on-orbit. Changing the operating characteristics of the radios offers future payload operators the opportunity of changing a mission in progress, adapting to new science opportunities and increased data return. The SCAN Tested will enable NASA to evaluate the SDR Technology for future use and tests its capabilities. The functions performed by the three radios include communication with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system in both S-Band and Ka-Band, receive Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) signals, and enable proximity communications between the International Space Station (ISS) and approaching vehicles.

Photo: NASA

SCaN Testbed

The flight hardware consists of a enclosure installed on a Flight Releaseable Attachment Mechanism. The SCAN Payload consists of five main components: the avionics system, the software defined radios, the radio frequency (RF) subsystem, the antenna pointing system, and heaters. Except for the five externally mounted antennas, most of the subsystems are installed on the inside of the enclosure.
The second external payload delivered aboard HTV-3 is the Multi-mission Consolidated Equipment (MCE) that consists of five small mission payloads dedicated to science and technology demonstrations. These investigation payloads include two atmospheric observation investigations that study lightening and resonant scattering from plasma and airglow. The IMAP payload is a visible light spectrometer that examines the energy and plasma activity and related global transportation near the rim of atmosphere. GLIMS looks at the spatial distribution of lightning and plasma phenomena and their discharge characteristics throughout the atmosphere during night passes. SIMPLE, REXJ and HDTV are three technology demonstration payloads. SIMPLE seeks to collect engineering data in orbit for inflatable space structures while REXJ demonstrates realtime ground control of a robotic system by providing validation data during robotic manipulation. HDTV is a high resolution TV camera that acquires data for evaluating how long a COTS-HDTV survives in the orbit environment for development of future Space HDRV systems.

Also riding inside HTV-3 is the Reentry Breakup Recorder REBR and the iBall which is also an Entry Recorder.

Photo: Aerospace Corporation

REBR

REBR records data regarding the thermal, acceleration, rotational and other stresses the vehicle experiences during its destructive re-entry process. This data is used to improve Re-Entry Simulation Models that show inaccuracies for the peak heating environment of re-entry. REBR has a mass of about 4 kilograms and is 31-centimeters in diameter. The REBR design consists of a sensor suite composed of a GPS receiver, temperature sensors, accelerometers and rate gyros, a pressure sensor, electronics, a commercially-available Iridium modem, a combination GPS/Iridium antenna, and batteries. The data that is acquired is stored inside the REBR memory and after entry, when the device is free falling towards Earth, it makes contact with the Iridium Satellite Fleet – making a ‘call’ home to transmit acquired information. REBRs have flown on previous ATV and HTV Missions.
i-Ball is a Re-Entry Data Recorder that will make its debut on HTV3. The Sensors is spherical in shape, has a diameter of 40 centimeters and includes two cameras that are expected to acquire footage of HTV’S fiery return to Earth and give insight in the destructive re-entry environment. Also, the device includes sensors for measuring temperature and accelerations.

In addition, i-Ball houses a GPS Transponder to track the device after re-entry during the final stages of its flight. Its final descent is decelerated by a parachute that is deployed before splashdown in the ocean. The Data Recorder was developed by IHI Aerospace Co. Ltd. And has a total mass of 15.5 Kilograms.