The recent delivery of cargo and scientific experiments brought one particularly interesting experiment - CATS.
The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System investigation uses a light detection and ranging system to measure the location, composition and distribution of pollution, dust, aerosols, smoke and other particulates in Earth’s atmosphere. By gaining further data regarding cloud and aerosol coverage, scientists will be able to create a better model of the Earth’s climate feedback processes.
CATS had been mounted inside the SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft since it first docked at the station on 12 January. On 22 January, Ground controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center used one of the space station’s robotic arms, called the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, to extract the instrument from the capsule. The CATS instrument was then passed to a second arm, called the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System, which is controlled by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Japanese-controlled arm installed the instrument to the Space Station’s Japanese Experiment Module, making CATS the first NASA-developed payload to fly on the Japanese module.
The instrument has now been powered up and is currently sending health and status data back to NASA’s Goddard Space Center. With scientists excited by the science this instrument could discover, it won’t be long until scientific data will be streaming down to Earth.
What else was delivered to the ISS by SpaceX? Find out HERE!
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The Cloud-Aerosol Transport System investigation uses a light detection and ranging system to measure the location, composition and distribution of pollution, dust, aerosols, smoke and other particulates in Earth’s atmosphere. By gaining further data regarding cloud and aerosol coverage, scientists will be able to create a better model of the Earth’s climate feedback processes.
CATS had been mounted inside the SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft since it first docked at the station on 12 January. On 22 January, Ground controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center used one of the space station’s robotic arms, called the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, to extract the instrument from the capsule. The CATS instrument was then passed to a second arm, called the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System, which is controlled by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Japanese-controlled arm installed the instrument to the Space Station’s Japanese Experiment Module, making CATS the first NASA-developed payload to fly on the Japanese module.
The instrument has now been powered up and is currently sending health and status data back to NASA’s Goddard Space Center. With scientists excited by the science this instrument could discover, it won’t be long until scientific data will be streaming down to Earth.
What else was delivered to the ISS by SpaceX? Find out HERE!
OTHER NEWS
Google & Fidelity invest $1 billion to SpaceX
Hubble eyes third type of galaxy
Atlas V successfully launches MUOS-3 satellite
Dawn takes new images of Ceres