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
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.
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