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The Italian Space Agency (ASI)-built Leonardo Multipupose Logistics Module is the first of three such pressurized modules that will serve as the International Space Station's "moving vans," carrying laboratory racks filled with equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the station aboard the Space Shuttle. |
In order to function as an attached station module as well as a cargo transport, the logistics modules also include components that provide some life support, fire detection and suppression, electrical distribution and computer functions. Eventually, the modules also will carry refrigerator freezers for transporting experiment samples and food to and from the station. Although built in Italy, the logistics modules, technically known as Multipurpose Logistics Modules (MPLMs), are owned by the U.S. and provided in exchange for Italian access to U.S. research time on the station.
The Leonardo module will be launched on Shuttle mission STS-100 in December 1999 on a mission that also will carry aloft the Canadian-built station robotic arm. On that flight, Leonardo will be filled with equipment and supplies to outfit the U.S. laboratory module, which will have been carried to the station on a preceding Shuttle flight.
Construction of ASI's Leonardo module began in April 1996 at the Alenia Aerospazio factory in Turin, Italy. Leonardo was delivered to Kennedy from Italy in August 1998 by a special Beluga cargo aircraft. The cylindrical module is approximately 21 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, weighing almost 4.5 tons. It can carry up to 10 tons of cargo packed into 16 standard space station equipment racks. Of the 16 racks the module can carry, five can be furnished with power, data and fluid to support a refrigerator freezer. Construction of the second module, named Raffaello, already has begun and it is scheduled to arrive at Kennedy in 1999. The third module, named Donnatello, is scheduled for delivery to Florida in 2000.
The Italian Space Agency chose the names of the modules because they denote some of the great talents in Italian history: Leonardo da Vinci, an extraordinary inventor-scientist, civil engineer, architect, military planner and weapons designer, and artist; Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, one of the greatest sculptors of all time and one of the founders of modern sculpture; and Raffaello Sanzio, an artist whose work stands alone for its visual achievement of human grandeur, both in clarity of form and ease of composition.
Canada is contributing an essential component of the International Space Station, the Mobile Servicing System, or MSS. This robotic system will play a key role in Space Station assly and maintenance, moving equipment and supplies around the Station, releasing and capturing satellites, supporting astronauts working in space, and servicing instruments and other payloads attached to the Space Station. Astronauts will receive robotics training to enable them to perform these functions with the arm. |
Mobile Base System (MBS)
A work platform that moves along rails covering the length of the Space
Station, the MBS will provide lateral mobility for the Canadarm as it
traverses the main trusses.
Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM)
The SPDM, or Canada Hand, is a smaller two-armed robot capable of handling
the delicate assly tasks currently handled by astronauts during
spacewalks.
Launches:
The Mobile Servicing System will be delivered and installed on the Space
Station in pieces: the arm on assly flight 6A in 1999; the base on UF-2
in 2000; the hand on UF-4 in 2002.