EXPRESS Logistics Carrier
Encyclopedia
An ExPRESS logistics carrier (ELC) is an unpressurized attached payload platform for the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS) that provides mechanical mounting surfaces, electrical power, and command and data handling services for Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs) as well as science experiments on the ISS. ("ExPRESS" stands for Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station.) The ELCs were developed primarily at the Goddard Space Flight Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...

 in Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt, Maryland
Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District...

, with support from JSC
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's center for human spaceflight training, research and flight control. The center consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres in Houston, Texas, USA...

, KSC
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...

, and MSFC
Marshall Space Flight Center
The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. The largest center of NASA, MSFC's first mission was developing the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo moon program...

. ELC was formerly called "Express Pallet" and is the unpressurized counterpart to the pressurized ExPRESS Rack. An ELC provides scientists with a platform and infrastructure to deploy experiments in the vacuum of space without requiring a separate dedicated Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

-orbiting satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

.

ELCs interface directly with the ISS integrated truss common attach system (CAS). The P3 Truss has two such attach points called Unpressurised Cargo Carrier Attachment System (UCCAS) mechanisms, one facing zenith (space facing) called UCCAS-1, the other facing nadir (earth facing) called UCCAS-2. Whereas the S3 Truss has four similar locations called Payload Attachment System (PAS) mechanisms, two facing Zenith (PAS-1 and PAS-2), and two facing Nadir (PAS-3 and PAS-4).

Description

The ELC is an un-pressurized attached payload project for the International Space Station (ISS) that provides mechanical mounting surfaces, electrical power, and command and data handling services for science experiments on the ISS. ("ExPRESS" stands for “expedite the processing of experiments to the Space Station”.)
The ELCs have a deck size of about 14 feet by 16 feet and spans the width of the space shuttle’s payload bay. Each one is capable of providing scientists with a platform and infrastructure to deploy experiments in the vacuum of space without requiring a separate dedicated Earth-orbiting satellite. Each carrier is capable of carrying 9,800 lbs. to orbit and will also serve as parking fixtures for spare ISS hardware which can be retrieved when needed.

Electrical subsystem ExPRESS carrier avionics (ExPCA)

Within the electrical subsystem of the ELC, the ExPRESS carrier avionics (ExPCA) provides electrical power distribution to experiments, and data interfaces to the ISS. Within the ExPCA, the ColdFire
Freescale ColdFire
The Freescale ColdFire is a microprocessor that derives from the Motorola 68000 family architecture, manufactured for embedded systems development by Freescale Semiconductor .-Instruction set:...

-based flight computer, software, and related electronics comprise its "flight controller unit" (FCU). The FCU runs the free open-source real-time operating system
Real-time operating system
A real-time operating system is an operating system intended to serve real-time application requests.A key characteristic of a RTOS is the level of its consistency concerning the amount of time it takes to accept and complete an application's task; the variability is jitter...

 (RTOS) RTEMS
RTEMS
RTEMS is a free open source real-time operating system designed for embedded systems....

 and provides the computing and communication resources as an ELC Command and Data Handling (C&DH) system with the following major goals:
  • Provide a low-rate data link (LRDL) interface to ISS to accept commands for the ELC and the resident experiments. The ExPCA is implemented as a remote terminal (RT) on the MIL-STD-1553
    MIL-STD-1553
    MIL-STD-1553 is a military standard published by the United States Department of Defense that defines the mechanical, electrical, and functional characteristics of a serial data bus. It was originally designed for use with military avionics, but has also become commonly used in spacecraft on-board...

     "ISS local bus." This interface also returns housekeeping telemetry
    Telemetry
    Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...

     from the ExPCA and resident experiments to the ISS.
  • Provide an LRDL from the ExPCA to the experiments resident on the ELC to forward commands from the ISS to the experiments and to receive telemetry from the experiments for transmission to the ISS. This is another MIL-STD-1553 interface, with the ExPCA acting as the Bus Controller (BC).
  • Provide a high-rate data link (HRDL) between the ELC and the ISS. This interface is implemented as a fiber optical data bus with a capacity of up to 95.0 Megabits per second (Mbit/s). The primary function of this interface is the return on high-volume experiment Science data from the resident experiments to the ISS.
  • Provide an Ethernet
    Ethernet
    Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

     Local Area Network
    Local area network
    A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...

     (LAN) between the ELC and the resident experiments up to 6.0 Mbit/s per experiment. The primary function of this interface is the return of science experiment data from to the ISS, relayed through the HRDL.
  • Support six analog input channels at each ExPA (ExPRESS payload adapter) location.
  • Support six discrete command channels at each ExPA location.


Manifested on ELC-2 was the first ELC-based payload, Materials for ISS Experiment (MISSE-7).

ELC launch schedule

ELC-1 and ELC-2 were transported to the International Space Station by on mission STS-129
STS-129
-Crew seat assignments:-Mission payload:-ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2:The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is with a volume of 30 meters cubed...

 in November 2009. ELC-4 launched on mission STS-133 Discovery
STS-133
STS-133 was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station. It was Discoverys 39th and final mission. The mission launched on 24 February 2011, and landed on 9 March 2011...

 on 24 February 2011 and was installed on the station on 27 February. ELC-3 launched on mission STS-134 Endeavour
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...

 on 16 May 2011 and was installed on the station on 18 May.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, also designated AMS-02, is a particle physics experiment module that is mounted on the International Space Station. It is designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. Its experiments will help researchers study the formation of...

 occupies the mounting location intended for ELC-5 on the ISS truss.
Launch date Mission Shuttle ELC
16 November 2009 STS-129
STS-129
-Crew seat assignments:-Mission payload:-ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 and 2:The primary payload of STS-129 was the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier and the ELC-2. The mass capacity of each ELC is with a volume of 30 meters cubed...

 (ISS
ISS
The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...

 ULF3)
Atlantis ELC-1 and ELC-2
24 February 2011 STS-133
STS-133
STS-133 was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station. It was Discoverys 39th and final mission. The mission launched on 24 February 2011, and landed on 9 March 2011...

 (ISS
ISS
The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...

 ULF5)
Discovery ELC-4
16 May 2011 STS-134
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...

 (ISS
ISS
The ISS is the International Space Station.ISS may also refer to:* I See Stars, an American electronic rock band* ISS A/S, a Danish service company* Idea Star Singer, a Malayalam music reality show by Asianet TV...

 ULF6)
Endeavour ELC-3

Locations and components

ELC-1

ELC-1 is located on the P3 truss
Integrated Truss Structure
the Integrated Truss Structure forms the backbone of the International Space Station, with mountings for unpressurized logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, and other equipment.-History:...

 at the UCCAS-2 (nadir, earth facing) site. ELC-1 weighs approx. 13,840 lbs.
  • FRAM-1 (top side) Latching End Effector (LEE) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-2 (top side) Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-3 (top side) empty
  • FRAM-4 (top side) Battery Charger Discharge Unit (BCDU) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-5 (top side) Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG #104) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-6 (keel side) Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA #2) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-7 (keel side) Pump Module (PM #7) launched on ELC-1
  • FRAM-8 (keel side) empty Note: * OPALS Payload (will arrive in late 2012)
  • FRAM-9 (keel side) Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) launched on ELC-1





ELC-2

ELC-2 is located on the S3 truss
Integrated Truss Structure
the Integrated Truss Structure forms the backbone of the International Space Station, with mountings for unpressurized logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, and other equipment.-History:...

 at the PAS-1 (zenith, space facing) site, alongside AMS-2 at PAS-2. ELC-2 weighs approx. 13,400 lbs.
  • FRAM-1 (top side) empty (CTC-3 moved to FRAM-2 for a test of the SPDM December 22/23, 2011)
  • FRAM-2 (top side) Cargo Transport Container-3 (CTC-3) launched on ELC-2 (moved from FRAM-1 – see above)
  • FRAM-3 (top side) MISSE-8 replacing MISSE-7 (which was launched on ELC-2)
  • FRAM-4 (top side) High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT) (Oxygen depleted) replaces the one launched on ELC-2
  • FRAM-5 (top side) Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG #102) launched on ELC-2
  • FRAM-6 (keel side) Pump Module (PM #5) launched on ELC-2
  • FRAM-7 (keel side) empty
  • FRAM-8 (keel side) Mobile Transporter Trailing Umbilical System-Reel Assembly (MT TUS-RA) launched on ELC-2
  • FRAM-9 (keel side) Nitrogen Tank Assembly (NTA #3) launched on ELC-2





ELC-3

ELC-3 is located on the P3 truss
Integrated Truss Structure
the Integrated Truss Structure forms the backbone of the International Space Station, with mountings for unpressurized logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, and other equipment.-History:...

 at the UCCAS-1 (zenith, space facing) site. ELC-3 weighs 14,023 lbs.
  • FRAM-1 (top side) Cargo Transport Container-5 (CTC-5) launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-2 (top side) Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM) Arm launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-3 (top side) SCAN Testbed (will arrive in July 2012 via HTV-3)
  • FRAM-4 (top side) S band Antenna Sub-System Assembly #3 (SASA) launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-5 (keel side) Ammonia Tank Assembly (ATA) launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-6 (keel side) High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT) launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-7 (keel side) S band Antenna Sub-System Assembly #2 (SASA) launched on ELC-3
  • FRAM-8 (keel side) Space Test Program-Houston 3 (STP-H3) DOD experiment launched on ELC-3





ELC-4

ELC-4 is located on the S3 truss
Integrated Truss Structure
the Integrated Truss Structure forms the backbone of the International Space Station, with mountings for unpressurized logistics carriers, radiators, solar arrays, and other equipment.-History:...

 at the PAS-4 (nadir, earth facing) site, along side ESP-3 at PAS-3. ELC-4 weighs 8,235 lbs.
  • Heat Rejection System Radiator (HRSR) launched on the top side of ELC-4
  • FRAM-1 (keel side) empty
  • FRAM-2 (keel side) Cargo Transport Container-2 (CTC-2) delivered to ISS by HTV-2 (EP) via SPDM held by the SPDM since its initial delivery by the HTV-2
  • FRAM-3 (keel side) robotic refueling mission (RRM) added by STS-135 since delivery the RRM was held by the SPDM till it was moved here.
  • FRAM-4 (keel side) empty
  • FRAM-5 (keel side) Flex hose rotary coupler (FHRC) delivered to ISS by HTV-2 Exposed Pallet (EP) via SPDM






See also

  • External Stowage Platform
    External Stowage Platform
    External Stowage Platforms are key components of the International Space Station . Each ESP is an external pallet that can hold spare parts, also known as Orbital Replacement Units , for the space station. As a platform it is not pressurized, but does require electricity to power the heaters of...

  • Integrated Cargo Carrier
    Integrated cargo carrier
    Integrated Cargo Carriers were unpressurized flat bed pallet and keel yoke assemblies carried in the Space Shuttle payload bay, but were never removed during flight. Note that External Stowage Platforms 1 thru 3 and ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 thru 4 were of similar construction but were intended...

  • Scientific research on the ISS
    Scientific research on the ISS
    Scientific Research on the International Space Station is a collection of experiments that require one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit. The primary fields of research include human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology...

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