Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
Janet L. Anderson
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
janet.l.anderson@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-241
EARTH-OBSERVING CAMERA TO LAUNCH TO INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
WASHINGTON -- A remote-controlled Earth-observing camera system called
ISERV will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS)
aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's third H-II Transfer
Vehicle (HTV-3) this week. Once installed, the system will be
directed by researchers on the ground to acquire imagery of specific
areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies.
ISERV Pathfinder is a new imaging instrument designed and built at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The HTV-3
launch is scheduled for 10:06 p.m. EDT July 20 from the Tanegashima
Space Center in southern Japan.
ISERV stands for the International Space Station SERVIR Environmental
Research and Visualization System. The space station provides
researchers a unique perspective through global observations from
space. SERVIR is a Spanish acronym meaning "to serve." Also known as
the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System, the program
provides satellite data and tools to environmental decision makers in
developing countries. SERVIR is a partnership between NASA and the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
ISERV will be installed in the Window Observational Research Facility
(WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory. The system is intended to
help scientists gain operational experience and expertise and inform
the design of a more capable system in the future. Ideally, a future
operational system will be able to monitor disasters on Earth.
"ISERV came about because officials in developing countries are
sometimes unable to acquire the images they need to address
environmental threats and provide post-disaster assessments," said
Nancy Searby, capacity building program manager for the SERVIR
program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The SERVIR team
approached NASA's ISS and Earth Science Applied Sciences Program with
the concept of acquiring the needed imagery from the ISS. The ISERV
test bed payload is a result of that collaboration."
The ISERV system, based on a modified commercial telescope and driven
by custom software, will use the Earth-facing Destiny science window
to obtain images of Earth's surface. It will then transmit the data
to scientists on the ground.
"Images captured from ISERV on the ISS could provide valuable
information back here on Earth," said Dan Irwin, SERVIR program
director at Marshall. "We hope it will provide new data and
information from space related to natural disasters, environmental
crises and the increased effects of climate variability on human
populations."
ISERV is the first of an envisioned series of space station
Earth-observing instruments, each to feature progressively more
capable sensors. Future sensors could be mounted on the exterior of
the station for a clearer, wider view of Earth. ISERV development was
funded as a collaboration between NASA's Human Exploration and
Operations Directorate and the Science Mission Directorate's Earth
Science Division Applied Sciences Program.
The team at the Payload Operations Center at Marshall is creating
computer-based materials for training the space station crew to
assemble and install ISERV in the WORF rack. Normal operations aboard
station are set to begin in November.
"The addition of ISERV will enhance the growing set of tools aboard
the station to monitor Earth," said Julie Robinson, International
Space Station program scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston. "It reaffirms the station's commitment to helping solve
global issues."
SERVIR consists of a coordination office and student research
laboratory at Marshall and active hubs located in Kenya and Nepal as
well as a network affiliate in Panama. The coordination develops
application prototypes for the SERVIR website, and integrates new or
relevant technologies from NASA and other scientific research partner
organizations into the system to meet the needs of the host
countries. SERVIR's primary technical work occurs at the hubs, which
are staffed by in-country and in-region experts. The hubs coordinate
with other international and national organizations in their
respective regions regarding climate change, environmental
monitoring, disasters, weather and mapping, among others.
SERVIR, jointly funded by NASA and USAID, is part of the Earth Science
Division's Applied Sciences Program in NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. Four other NASA field centers work with
Marshall on the program: Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md.; Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.; the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Va.
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station For more information about SERVIR, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/servir
