NASA opens on the ISS space “hotel” for robots.

A complex air conditioning system is used to maintain comfortable living conditions at the International Space Station. It consists of thousands of meters of pipes, and sometimes leaks from outer space occur. To eliminate them, special robots were developed, and so that they did not occupy a precious place on the ISS, in NASA, they developed a special space “hotel” for them.

In December, the SpaceX commercial mission delivered storage for mission-critical robotic instruments (RiTS) to the ISS. Inside are two robotic external leak locators (RELL). The main task of such devices is to detect gas leaks at the station, NASA reported.

Why do you need a “hotel” for robots.

The ISS already has two RELL blocks. However, the process of their deployment is too long and requires a special crew to mount the unit from the outside.

After going into space, RELL needs 12 hours before it can begin to work efficiently. During this time, self-cleaning of the sensitive instrument from fumes on the ISS takes place. There have been times when deploying RELL took weeks or even months. The new space storage solves this problem, since the robots are essentially located outside the station, and their launch requires only the availability of a free robotic arm Dextre.

NASA reports that for all instruments stored inside a kind of “hotel”, thermal and physical protection from cosmic radiation, as well as tiny particles flying past the ISS, will be provided. This will always keep the robots in working condition.

To install the storage, astronauts will need to go into outer space. Once it is mounted on special external rails, RELL will always be available and ready to go. In the future, they plan to use this technology for flights to the Moon and Mars, allowing them to install the necessary tools in the shortest possible time.