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Insect Habitat (IHAB)

IHAB is one of Canada's contributions to the International Space Station (ISS). The IHAB facility will provide experimenters with a tool to investigate the effects of micro-gravity and space radiation on various species of insects.

The IHAB facility was designed by Routes to accommodate up to twenty-four specimen chambers. Each of these chambers has a high definition video camera for monitoring the development of the insects. An experimenter can control and monitor each of the chambers' relative humidity, temperature, illumination (a full spectrum daytime, or red night time for video), and gravity simulation through a centrifuge. Monitoring, reporting, and recording of the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, vibrations, and radiation levels are also provided.

The IHAB facility is a highly integrated, complex instrument. To accommodate the high frame rates for the video, a high data rate chain that could communicate over a rotary interface had to be designed, tested and built. This rotary interface also had to provide power and lower data chains. This was done successfully without the use of slip-rings, therefore eliminating a common failure point, and also providing a low friction rotary joint.  More details...

Routes also developed the Ground Support Equipment and the Crew Simulator for the IHAB facility.

Advanced Animal Habitat Ground Support Equipment

The Advanced Animal Habitat (AAH) is a research environment for laboratory rats and mice that will be orbiting for up to 90 days.  Orbitec is building the AAH as part of NASA’s Space Station Fundamental Biology Research Facility (SSFBRF) on the International Space Station.

Leveraging our work on the Insect habitat, ROUTES ASTROEngineering has been contracted by Orbitec to provide six sets of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) to support the development of the Advanced Animal Habitat.  The GSE simulates all the functionality and performance of the ISS Habitat Holding Rack (HHR).  The GSE also interfaces electrically, mechanically and thermally to the AAH for various engineering, calibration, I&T and verification testing.

Aquatic Research Facility (ARF)

ARF was built by CSA to study small aquatic animals in a micro-gravity environment. ARF originally flew on STS-77 in May 1996 with Marc Garneau. Each of the two ARF units consists of a 0-g and 1-g (spinning) carousels to compare the effects of micro-gravity and simulated 1-g gravity. The ARF units have temperature, lighting, and gravity control. NTSC quality video is provided for each of the 12 aquaria in the ARF unit.

Routes' involvement with ARF began in 1997, when we were contracted to perform a refurbishment of the hardware for a possible re-flight. This involved replacing the slip-rings used to communicate over the rotary interface of the carousels, replacing the optics of the cameras with ones that gave a better field of view, and depth of field. Routes also improved the lighting system, increasing the light intensity for better video imaging. Routes integrated additional electronics into the units to enhance the performance of the temperature, motor, and illumination control. A recalibration was performed for all the sensors to so that the ARF unit would be prepared for possible future flights.  More details...

Micro-Gravity Instruments

Microgravity Isolation Mount (MIM-II)

MIM-II built a second generation microgravity isolation mount called MIM-II. This device isolates microgravity critical experiments from unwanted shuttle microvribations. Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason has lead the design and development of the unit as well as test of its operation during his 1997 shuttle flight (STS-85).

Routes built and delivered three MIM-II units within a 6-month period to meet the July 1997 launch date.

Visit the CSA website for more information on MIM technology.