SpaceX cargo ship reaches International Space Station

Astronauts plucked a commercial cargo ship from orbit on Wednesday and attached it to the International Space Station, marking the reopening of a U.S. supply line to the orbital outpost following the space shuttles' retirement last year.

After a 2-1/2 day trip, Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo ship positioned itself 33 feet away from the $100 billion research complex, a project of 15 countries, which has been dependent on Russian, European and Japanese freighters for supplies.

Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide then used the space station's 58-foot-long (17.7-meter) robotic arm to grab hold of a grapple fixture on the side of the capsule at 6:56 a.m. EDT (1056 GMT) as the spacecraft flew 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California in northwest Mexico.

"Looks like we tamed the Dragon," commander Sunita Williams radioed to Mission Control in Houston.

"We're happy she's on board with us. Thanks to everybody at SpaceX and NASA for bringing her here to us. And the ice cream," she said.

The Dragon's cargo includes a freezer to ferry science samples back and forth between the station and Earth. For the flight up, it was packed with chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream, a rare treat for an orbiting crew.

Williams and Hoshide attached the capsule to a docking port on the station's Harmony connecting module at 9:03 a.m. EDT (1303 GMT).

It is expected to remain docked to the station for about 18 days while the crew unloads its 882 pounds (400 kg) of cargo and fills it with science experiments and equipment no longer needed on the outpost.

The flight is the first of 12 planned under a $1.6 billion contract NASA placed with privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to deliver cargo to the station.

The U.S. space agency's second supplier, Orbital Sciences Corp, plans to debut its Antares rocket later this year. A demonstration run to the station is planned for February or March.

NASA also is working with SpaceX, Boeing Co and privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp to design space taxis that can fly crew to and from the station, with the goal of breaking Russia's monopoly on those flights by 2017.

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New 3-D camera for space missions

On behalf of European Space Agency (ESA), Thales Alenia Space, SINTEF and Terma are now completing a study identifying alternatives to the cameras currently deployed on spacecrafts and space rovers.

Both ESA and NASA are on the lookout for better and less resource intensive camera systems for current and future space missions.

In the previous decades many applications involving traditional cameras and 2-D-based imaging have been launched. The two agencies are now exploring the 3rd dimension for new high-quality camera systems that will give new opportunities in solving space missions.

From 2-D to 3-D cameras

The cameras currently used in space resemble the digital cameras in our mobile telephones, the main difference being they are of significant better quality. Cameras are used everywhere in space, from docking of space stations, during navigation on foreign planets and also for the safe landing of spacecrafts.

In these scenarios, 3-D data is required for operations, even though the cameras are incapable of providing it themselves. Instead, 3-D images are created by mounting several cameras together in so-called stereo configurations, and using complex computations to measure the third dimension. These computations are both power-hungry and potentially unreliable, making them less attractive for space usage.

Strength and weaknesses

Cameras that provide full 3-D images became fully mature around 2000. Such cameras obtain the 3-D data by emitting a coded light signal, and measuring the time it takes from the signal is emitted until it is reflected back to the camera (Time-Of-Flight measurement).

Numerous measurement principles and technologies exist for obtaining these measurements. A core part of the consortium's activity has therefore been to map and detail the strengths and weaknesses of each technology, and how the technologies relate to different space missions.

Broad basis of experience

French-Italian Thales Alenia Space has significant experience with space missions, and has mapped the requirements for the new 3-D camera. Based on these requirements, SINTEF has evaluated a wide range of time-of-flight technologies, to determine their relative strengths and weaknesses in such a setting. This work has been based on SINTEF's long-time experience in working with 3-D sensors for the industry.

Building a prototype

"Shortly the requirement and technological study will be delivered to ESA, and in the course of next year, a prototype breadboard 3-D camera will be built. The next step then will be to test and evaluate the prototype," says Henrik Schumann-Olsen of SINTEF ICT.

The Danish company Terma, specialist in space sensor manufacturing, will build the first bread-board prototype around the most promising technologies, which then will be tested and evaluated by ESA and all three companies.

Possibilities in automation, inspection and navigation

The technology itself has also wide potential for use on ground in industrial settings. The real-time 3-D measurements enabled by time-of-flight technology have potential to open up new applications both within industrial automation, inspection and navigation, and the relative low cost of the technology can allow for wide-spread adoption.

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