EMS Technologies To Supply Microgravity Vibration Isolation System

STATION NEWS

They spent billions building a microgravity science lab, then they put humans in it to bounce around, so they then needed to spend millions more trying to figure out a way to dampen all those bumps from ruining the microgravity environment that cost all those billions of dollars to create

Montreal - Oct 07, 2003
EMS Technologies has been awarded, through its Space & Technology, a contract extension from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to complete the design, development, manufacturing and test of the electronics for the Microgravity Vibration Isolation System (MVIS) for CSA's subsequent delivery to ESA (the European Space Agency).

MVIS will be used on ESA's Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) on the International Space Station. The value of the contract extension is $1.7 million CAD and is in addition to the $5.1 million CAD previously awarded. EMS responsibilities under the contract include participation in system-level definition and design; the design, manufacturing and test of the electronics and power boards; and participation in system integration.

EMS's new powerful ESP603 rad-hard space computer is at the heart of the MVIS electronics. The ESP603 meets the computationally intensive and digital signal-processing requirements of the MVIS unit.

The processor is responsible for the real-time control of the vibration isolation system, health monitoring, data storage, and user interface communication. In addition, the performance level of the board will enable it to also perform real-time analysis of the vibration data.

Alan L. Haase, senior vice president and general manager, Space & Technology/Montreal, commented that, ``The Canadian Space Agency has played a key role in the development of technologies and products for applications in space. EMS' rad-hard space computer is a perfect example of such technology development, and is a very appropriate solution to the problem of data processing in the environment of the International Space Station.''

The background technology for MVIS is the Microgravity vibration Isolation Mount (MIM), which has been developed over the past 10 years by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The MIM technology has the capability to isolate experiments from vibrations inherent in manned flight systems such as those on the ISS.

This technology offers a low-vibration microgravity environment that greatly improves the efficiency and quality of experiment operations. The MVIS Project is adapting the MIM technology into the core design of the Fluid Sciences Laboratory (FSL) of the European Space Agency (ESA).

This collaboration with ESA will provide Canadian scientists with privileged access to ESA's world-class Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), and thus meet Canada's research needs in microgravity fluid physics. It will also enable Canada to remain the world leader in microgravity isolation systems.

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