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This paper describes the current United States Laboratory (USL) outfitting following the transition from Space Station Freedom to International Space Station (ISS). The ISS USL is outfitted with eleven systems racks, an optical quality nadir window for earth viewing experiments and accommodations for thirteen International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs). The international payloads utilize this outfitting in a “shirt sleeve” environment by sharing allocated system resources and flight crew time to perform long term microgravity experiments. These systems resources include Command and Data Handling, 120 Vdc power, liquid and air cooling, audio and video communication, space vacuum and location dependent levels of microgravity. The ISS USL outfitting configuration, user interfaces, systems performance and environmental conditions are included in this ICES paper.

Advanced life support systems require computer controls which deliver a high degree of reliability and autonomy and meet life support criteria. Such control systems must allow crewmembers on long-term missions to perform their scientific and engineering duties while minimizing interactions with life support systems. Control systems must be the “brains” of life support systems providing air, water, edible biomass, and recycling services. They must establish and maintain life support components in an optimized manner, providing self-sufficient infrastructures independent of Earth-based resupply. The CELSS (Controlled Ecological Life Support System) Breadboard Project has implemented such a computerized component of a future mission. The Universal Networked Data Acquisition and Control Engine (UNDACE) is the software interface between humans and hardware controlling plant growth experiments.

This paper describes the current USL outfitting with design and development changes incorporated during the past year. The International Space Station (ISS) USL is outfitted with eleven systems racks, an optical quality nadir window for earth viewing experiments and accommodations for thirteen International Standard Payload Racks (ISPRs). International payloads utilize this outfitting in a “shirt sleeve” environment by sharing allocated system resources and flight crew time to perform long term microgravity experiments. Recent changes in Command and Data Handling, 120 Vdc power, liquid and air cooling, audio and video communication, space vacuum and microgravity systems resources are included. User interfaces, systems performance and environmental conditions, in addition to the ISS USL outfitting configuration, are also updated in this ICES paper.

With the upcoming technology demonstration projects such as the Reusable Launch Vehicle, easily portable data acquisition systems for ground testing are the need of the hour. The existing data acquisition systems used in ISRO scenario tends to be bulky or to be of higher capability based on the number parameters to be acquired, which makes them underutilized. To tackle this problem, a novel approach to implement a data acquisition system on BeagleBone®️ Black, a Single Board Computer (SBC) was conceived. With this approach the number of components utilized would be reduced as we make use of ADCs present in the BeagleBone computer. Also, the size of the hardware setup is significantly reduced as the chosen SBC fits into the palm of our hands. To protect the data acquisition components from common mode voltages, an isolation amplifier is utilized. The acquired parameters are digitized and broadcasted.