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Facility/Payload OverviewSpace Acceleration Measurement System-II (SAMS-II) is an ongoing study of the small forces (vibrations and accelerations) on the International Space Station (ISS) resulting from the operation of hardware, crew activities, dockings and maneuvering. Results generalize the types of vibrations affecting vibration-sensitive experiments. Investigators seek to better understand the vibration environment on the ISS.
Facility Manager(s)
Information Pending
Facility Developer
ZIN Technologies Incorporated, Cleveland, OH, United States
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Expeditions Assigned2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19/20, 21/22, 23/24, 25/26, 27/28, 29/30, 31/32
Previous ISS MissionsSAMS, the precursor to SAMS-II flew on numerous shuttle flights since STS-40, including STS-107 (Columbia) which was lost in 2003. SAMS-II has been operating on ISS since Expedition 2.
Space Acceleration Measurement System-II (SAMS-II) measures vibrations from vehicle acceleration, systems operations, crew movements, and thermal expansion and contraction. Multiple Remote Triaxial Sensor (RTS) systems directly monitor individual experiments. Each RTS is capable of measuring between 0.01 Hz to beyond 300 Hz of vibration, also known as g-jitter. The RTSs consist of two components: the RTS sensor enclosure (SE) and the RTS electronics enclosure (EE). The RTS-SE, placed as close to the experiment as possible, translates the g-jitter into a digital signal. The RTS-EEs provide power and command signals for up to 2 RTS-SEs and receive the g-jitter data from the RTS-SEs. The RTSs are linked together by the Interim Control Unit (ICU), which coordinates the various RTS systems being used throughout the station. Eventually, the ICU will be replaced by a full-fledged Control Unit (CU), which will allow on board data analysis and direct feedback and will permit crew to control the measurement parameters. The main component of the ICU is a computer. Once the ICU receives the measurements from the RTS systems, it checks the data for completeness, and then sends the data to the SAMS-II Ground Operations Equipment in the TeleScience Center at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH.
SAMS-II measures subtle vibrations that affect only certain types of experiments and is not operational all the time. SAMS-II operates from the Glenn Research Center Telescience Support Center as needed. The ICU laptop has the capacity to save up to ten hours of data from five sensors working at maximum frequency range. This capacity is intended to act as a backup if downlink services are interrupted.
One of the major goals of the ISS is to provide a quiescent low-gravity environment to perform fundamental scientific research. However, small disturbances aboard the ISS impact the overall environment in which experiments are being performed. Such small disturbances need to be measured in order to assess their potential impact on the experiments. The Space Acceleration Measurement System - II (SAMS-II) is used on board the ISS to do just that.
SAMS-II measures accelerations caused by vehicle, crew, and experiment disturbances. SAMS-II measures the vibratory/transient accelerations, which occur in the frequency range of 0.01 - 400 Hz. The sensors measure the accelerations electronically and transmit the data to the Interim Control Unit (ICU) located in the EXPRESS Rack drawer. Data is collected from all the sensors and downlinked to the TeleScience Center at Glenn Research Center. The acceleration data is processed and made available to the microgravity scientific community at Principal Investigator Microgravity Services.
SAMS-II measures vibratory acceleration disturbances in microgravity and non-microgravity modes of ISS operations. Current data indicate that ISS is not meeting its microgravity mode design requirement, and that there is no clear reduction in these disturbances during crew sleep periods (DeLombard et al. 2005).
SAMS-II has collected over 3.4 terabytes of acceleration data, much of which have been processed and analyzed to characterize the reduced gravity environment on board the ISS in order to help science teams understand the ISS environment. SAMS-II, began to have some computer difficulties at the beginning of Expedition 12 (October 2005); the harddrive was replaced at the end of Expedition 14 (April 2007) and SAMS-II functions nominally on an as-needed basis.
Information Pending