A different kind of cargo transfer

An update sent in late today by Colleen Boggs, ATV Cargo Operations Engineer at ATV-CC.

The crew did a different kind of cargo transfer today by removing hardware related to the Laser Infra-Red Imaging Sensors (LIRIS) rendezvous experiment. This experiment was used for the first time on ATV-5 during rendezvous and docking. The LIRIS hardware stores raw data from rendezvous which will be analysed after return to ground.

This new experiment hardware includes the Lidar recorder, camera recorder, and camera power control unit, which are installed in one of the rack sectors typically used for dry cargo bags.

We created new crew procedures that involved reaching in with one hand between two rack shelves to disconnect cables and remove screws… sometimes where the crew cannot easily see!

So lots of pictures were incorporated into the procedures to help orient Alex Gerst, in addition to his on-ground training (done earlier) at EAC in Cologne. With the hardware removed, Alex taped up the loose cables left behind and put the items into bubble wrap bags for their return back to Earth. We will have two pieces of removed hardware full of data going down on the next Soyuz (38S) and one piece with SpaceX for ground teams to analyse.

We’re looking forward to seeing pictures from the activity!