VSET Problem 1 - International Space Station
Submitted by:
International Space Station: Research Program Office, Code 804.G

Introduction
Experiment Science
The Questions
Useful Links

1. Introduction
1. The ISS

Assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) began in late 1998 and will continue until completion sometime around 2006. During its assembly and over its nominal 10-year lifetime, the ISS will serve as an orbital platform for the United States and its International Partners to make advances in microgravity, space, life, and earth sciences, as well as in engineering research and technology and commercial product development. All of these activities will aid in understanding the basic biological, chemical, and physical processes that affect our daily lives, our home planet, our exploration of space, and our most fundamental concepts about the universe.

2. The U.S. Laboratory Module

The U.S. Lab, named "Destiny", is the module where a significant portion of the pressurized U.S. research will take place. This module was launched and attached to the on-orbit ISS in early 2001. Destiny will have internal interfaces to accommodate the resources needed for equipment and experiment racks. The side of Destiny that faces Earth nearly all the time contains a 20-inch diameter fused silica circular window of very high optical quality.

3. The WORF

An internal experiment rack facility called the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) will be placed behind the window in "Destiny" to provide power, data, and mounting services for experiments. The WORF is designed to provide necessary services for accommodation of experiments that could view the Earth through the 20-inch optical window. This facility provides a means to mount a variety of science payloads that will perform geologic, climatologic, atmospheric, and geographic research. The WORF provides mounting accommodations, experiment cooling systems, electrical power, experiment command interfaces and science telemetry interfaces to return data to the ground for experimenter analysis.

Additional details on the ISS and the WORF can be found at:
http://rpo-iss.gsfc.nasa.gov/
look under: Documentation --> ISS General --> Either "ISS User’s Guide" or "Attached Payload and Optical Window Accommodations For The ISS"

2. Experiment Science

The ISS research topic that we have chosen is to perform remote monitoring of a coral reef off the coast of The Bahamas (Longitude = 75 deg W, Latitude = 23 deg N). In order to monitor the health and status of the reef, we will use a camera to obtain pictures of the reef over an extended period of time, say over one year. The intent is to analyze the pictures to monitor long term and seasonal trends.

The experiment device we have chosen is the Superstar 2048 Digital Camera to use in monitoring the reef. The Superstar 2048 specification lists a full resolution square picture frame of 2048 x 2048 pixels. We can assume that we are able to fit this camera with a real nice fixed focal length lens set at infinity that provides a fixed field of view of 5 degrees x 5 degrees for ground targets. The camera’s digital data will be telemetered to the ground for analysis within three hours of each imaging operation, thereby allowing the camera to reuse its image storage area. The Superstar 2048 will be mounted in the WORF so that it is able to view the Earth through the 20-inch window. To simplify the problem, we are going to make some assumptions. Let’s assume that our camera will be located at the origin of the ISS coordinate system which is used to determine the ISS position in the website mentioned below and that the ISS window is pointed directly down at the Earth whenever we are taking our pictures (that is, with no pointing errors). Of course these things are not exactly true, however, they do represent reasonable assumptions without sacrificing significant accuracy and intent of the problem. There may be other "reasonable" assumptions that you will want to use.

We would like to obtain as many usable pictures as possible of the reef. We will assume that only one image can be taken over the subject coral reef when the ISS is in the proper orbit position. Additional images need to wait until another orbital pass over the site. Since the camera’s exposure sensitivity is equivalent to ISO 100, we will need to limit picture taking to only daylight passes over the reef. We will also assume that cloud cover will obscure the coral reef 50% of the time (not very realistic, but it makes it easier to plan to take pictures each available pass knowing that half of them will not be usable). We can also assume that the on-board astronauts will change out the camera battery on a regular basis so as not to impact science data.

The only thing left to consider is how much do you know about coral reefs? A few research questions should take care of that.

3. The Questions(Answer all ten questions before moving to The Problem)

1. What is the composition of a coral reef?
2. What are the types of coral reefs?
3. What range of colors might you find in coral reefs?
4. Name some of the things that adversely affect the health of a coral reef and why.
5. Why are coral reefs important?
6. From camera pictures, what characteristics of a coral reef could you monitor over a period of a year?
7. How would you determine these characteristics? Include quality and quantity.
8. What is the full ground surface area of each photo? (Please provide your results in the metric system). Show the analysis and any assumptions you used to determine this.
9. What is the approximate minimum area (resolution) of the coral reef surface that the camera can detect? Show this analysis too. Can you see a boat? What kind of boat might it be?
10. How many useful daylight pictures can we obtain of the coral reef in one year (365 days)? How did you determine this?
4. The Problem

   1. How would you, as a researcher, develop new measurement techniques, criterions, materials, and technologies necessary to build a more effective system for evaluation in a new investigation?
      1. What would you study?
      2. What would you design and build?
      3. What technologies would be included?
   2. Use this Abstract Outline given for developing your report

Note: Websites that provide helpful data:

For locating details about the ISS and WORF Payloads:
http://rpo-iss.gsfc.nasa.gov

For locating the position of the ISS:
http://www.station.nasa.gov 
(eg., "Where is the station")

For coral reef information, try:
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Coral/home.html
http://manta.uvi.edu/coral.reefer/
http://www.coralreef.noaa.gov/
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/marlin/index.html