The AERCam Sprint Free Flyer
Description: The Autonomous Extravehicular Activity Robotic Camera Sprint (AERCam Sprint) is an experiment planned to demonstrate the use of a prototype free-flying television camera that could be used for remote inspections of the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS). The AERCam Sprint free-flyer is a 14-inch diameter, 35-pound sphere that contains two television cameras, an avionics system and 12 small nitrogen gas-powered thrusters. Astronaut Winston E. Scott, STS-87 mission specialist, will release the sphere, which looks like an over-sized soccer ball, during a planned Extravehicular Activity (EVA). It will then fly freely in the forward cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Columbia for about half an hour. The free-flyer will be remotely controlled by astronaut Steven W. Lindsey, pilot, from Columbia's aft flight deck using a hand controller, two laptop computers and a window-mounted antenna.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: S97-08329
Date: July 24, 1997
The AERCam Sprint Free Flyer
Description: The Autonomous Extravehicular Activity Robotic Camera Sprint (AERCam Sprint) is an experiment planned to demonstrate the use of a prototype free-flying television camera that could be used for remote inspections of the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS). The AERCam Sprint free-flyer is a 14-inch diameter, 35-pound sphere that contains two television cameras, an avionics system and 12 small nitrogen gas-powered thrusters. Astronaut Winston E. Scott, STS-87 mission specialist, will release the sphere, which looks like an over-sized soccer ball, during a planned Extravehicular Activity (EVA). It will then fly freely in the forward cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Columbia for about half an hour. The free-flyer will be remotely controlled by astronaut Steven W. Lindsey, pilot, from Columbia's aft flight deck using a hand controller, two laptop computers and a window-mounted antenna.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: S97-08329
Date: July 24, 1997