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ISS Public Telemetry Main Systems

Robotics

The Mimic telemetry primarily depicts the movements of the Solar Arrays, Outboard Truss, HRS Radiators, and Robotics.

Not highlighted are the Antennas

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EPS - Electrical Power Systems

The EPS screen depicts the telemetry relevant to the electrical power generation on the ISS

How high the sun is (solar beta angle), more extreme (positive or negative) means more sunlight (icon lights up when the sun is visible to the ISS)

Total Power Usage (not working currently)

Top: BGA Angle (angle of the solar array)

Middle: Electrical Current (not working)

Bottom: Solar Array Voltage

SARJ Angle (Solar Alpha Rotary Joint) Angle of the entire moving outboard truss (all four solar array wings)

Solar Array Wing (a pair of solar arrays) icon lights up when the array is in the sunlight

Solar Array Wing Name (even is the port “left” side and odd is the starboard “right” side)

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C&T - Command and Telemetry

The C&T screen provides information on the status of the communication systems

The ISS has six main antennas for primary communication:

SASA (S-Band Antenna Subassembly) the SASAs send and receive critical commands and telemetry over S-Band radio

SGANT (Space to Ground Antenna) the SGANTs send and receive payload and non-critical telemetry + video over Ku-Band radio

UHF (Ultra-High Frequency) the UHF antennas provide local audio communication to spacewalking astronauts

UHF

SGANT

SASA

The antenna icons emit a “radio wave” on this screen when they are in active use

(if the UHF antennas are on it means they might be in the middle of a spacewalk)

The SASAs are what provide us with all of the ISS telemetry

Touching an antenna opens a screen with more info

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C&T - Command and Telemetry (SGANT Screen)

The SGANT screen shows a live representation of the antenna elevation angle

The SGANT icon rotates along with the actual gimbal elevation angle of the antenna (if the angle is very high >105 or very low <105, the ISS will likely lose connection soon as the antenna needs to reset to acquire the next TDRS satellite

TDRS

Not currently working, but sometimes the exact TDRS satellite name is displayed here. The position of the TDRS is approximated at where in the sky is should appear relative to the ISS antennas

The ISS antennas don’t actually point towards Earth! The ISS moves too fast to directly talk to mission control, so it sends all data through the Tracking & Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS) which are in geostationary orbit above the ISS and receive the data and forward it to NASA

Transmission status

Elevation angle (0 degrees is pointed straight up, -90 is to the back of the ISS, +90 is facing directly forward)

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C&T - Command and Telemetry (SASA Screen)

There are two SASAs, typically only one is active at a time

Which SASA is primary

Not-off OK means the antenna is current on

Current Gimbal Angles (elevation is up down, azimuth is left right)

(the red text indicates the ISS is currently not communicating with the ground, which means this antenna does not have line of sight to a TDRS)

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C&T - Command and Telemetry (UHF Screen)

The UHF antenna is primarily used for voice communications with astronauts outside the ISS

If both UHF 1 and 2 are on (or rather Not Off OK) there is probably a spacewalk in progress

This is either Locked or Unlocked depending on if the receiver and transmitter are communicating properly

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ISS Info Screen

This screen gives basic info about the ISS, work in progress

The speed (orbital velocity) of the ISS is shown here along with the current altitude and the total mass of the entire ISS.

The mass is important to keep accurate so the thrusters can maintain proper control of the ISS orientation.

The station mode indicates the current operational ISS mode, standard is normal ops, but it also can be proximity operations (when a spacecraft is docking) or external operations (when a spacewalk or robotic operations are happening) along with some emergency modes and reboost mode (when the ISS is firing its thrusters to gain altitude)

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TCS - Thermal Control System

This screen shows the primary thermal control system information (the system that controls the heat levels on the ISS). The ISS has a port HRS and a starboard HRS.

Both radiators can independently rotate to maximize heat rejection (but they usually stay in roughly these angles). The rotation joint is called the TRRJ Thermal Radiator Rotary Joint

Loop A is on the starboard (right) side of the ISS and Loop B is on the port (left) side. Each loop has a pump module that controls how much coolant is flowing through the system and what temperature and pressure it flows at.

SW Mode is the TRRJ status, directed pos means it is holding the current position. Other modes include autotrack where it tries to maintain the optimal angle for heat rejection and shutdown when the motor is disabled so it doesn't move (and others)

The coolant is ammonia, which has a lower freezing point than water but it still needs to avoid getting too cold or it can rupture the fluid lines in the radiator.

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GNC - Guidance Navigation and Control

The GNC system “steers” the ISS and determines its orientation (attitude)

Detailed health status of each of the 4 CMGs

“Saturation” percentage, the CMGs can only affect the ISS angular momentum up to a certain point until they need to “desat” or desaturate with the thrusters to reset

Current attitude (yaw pitch roll): 0,0,0 means the station is flying perfectly in line with its velocity vector. ISS typically flies in an attitude that minimizes natural torques so it doesn't require much work from the CMGs and thrusters to maintain orientation

The ISS navigation is controlled by thrusters and 4 giant spinning disks called CMGs Control Moment Gyroscopes. The CMGs use the combined angular momentum of constantly spinning masses (6600 RPM) to electrically steer the ISS without consuming any propellant.

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ECLSS - Environmental Control and Life Support Systems

ECLSS is the system that maintains the liveable atmosphere on the ISS

ISS typically maintains typical Earth room temperature and normal sea level pressures and normal Oxygen/Nitrogen levels

When a spacewalk is happening, this value will go to nearly zero

Nearly all the water on the ISS is recycled, this shows the tank levels for both clean and waste water

This shows the status of the oxygen generator and the rate of oxygen production

This shows the status of two of the ECLSS valves

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WRM - Water Recovery and Management

Nearly all the waste water on the ISS is recovered and made into clean water. The overall process and some system telemetry is shown on this screen

Current functions of the water processor are shown here

Throughout the day, the waste and clean water levels will change as waste is generated and turned back into drinkable water

The quantity of urine in the waste tank is shown here

The status of the urine processor is shown here, NORMAL state usually

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IATCS - Internal Active Thermal Control System

This system regulates the temperature inside the ISS modules and experiments.

The ISS modules have two separate thermal control loops, the Low Temperature LT loop and the Moderate Temperature MT loop which handle

The IATCS uses water for a coolant, because it has lower risk of freezing inside the ISS and is non-toxic (unlike the external ammonia coolant). The water transfers heat to the ammonia outside the modules in an Interface Heat Exchanger (IFHX)

The water quantities in each loop along with air conditioner states and temperatures are shown here for the thermal loops in the different modules

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EVA - Extravehicular Activity

The EVA screen is a work in progress, but it gives general overviews of the US and Russian EVA details. There are two human airlocks, one US and one Russian

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US EVA Screen

US EVA screen gives info about the airlock status and can show pressure changes during a US EVA. This screen is in work and only partially functional

The needle gauge shows the current pressure in the US crewlock (outer section of the airlock). When they are depressurizing the needle will follow along with the decreasing pressure. At roughly the yellow bar, the pressure change will pause for a leak check before continuing to vacuum.

Information about the current spacewalkers is currently not shown, but once a reliable way of determining that info is found it will be shown here

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US EMU Screen

The Extravehicular Mobility Unit is the US spacesuit used for spacewalks. This screen is a work in progress. This screen details the parts of the EMU.

The ISS transfers power to the spacesuits before a spacewalk which can be monitored here

All the spacesuit charger battery data is available but hasn’t been added to this screen yet.

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RS EVA Screen

We don’t have any telemetry from the Russian EVA systems but hopefully we find a data source to at least give info on the current Russian EVAs which will go on this screen. For the moment, there is nothing here.

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Orbit Screen

This screen gives all the data on where the ISS is and its current orbital characteristics. The ISS pass location is set to Houston TX for now but will be changeable in the future

Next time the ISS will be over the specified location

Attempts to predict whether the next ISS pass will be visible to someone (based on proximity to sunrise/sunset)

How many times ISS has circled the Earth today (in GMT timezone)

Total number of times ISS has gone around the Earth

This screen shows the current night side of Earth and the position of the Sun also

Current ISS location and ground track

ZOE Zone of Exclusion - region of Earth with limited satellite coverage, ISS will typically lose communication here

TDRS Satellite Locations

Orbit info, GPS coordinates, altitude, inclination, solar beta angle, and orbit period (92.8 minutes to circle the Earth)

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ISS Pass Screen

Work in progress, will give info on where to see the ISS when it flies over your location, partially working (for Houston)

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Orbit Data

This screen provides the raw orbital information for the ISS, both in state vector format and the actual keplerian elements

ISS orbit is approximately circular, very low eccentricity

Angle of the ISS orbit with respect to the Earth equator (also the highest/lowest latitude ISS will fly over)

Apogee is the highest point the ISS reaches along its orbit and perigee is the lowest

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ROBO - Robotics Screen

This screen provides general info on the Canadian/US Robotics Systems

The three main pieces of the Robotics system are the SSRMS, the MT/MBS, and the SPDM.

The SSRMS is the robotic arm

The MT/MBS is the train car and moving base that traveling along the truss carrying the arm and/or other payloads

The SPDM is the precision workpiece (if the SSRMS is the arm, the SPDM is the hand)

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MT/MBS Screen - Mobile Transporter / Mobile Base System

The MT/MBS is the train car system that rides along rails on the front of the ISS truss structure. The MBS provides mounting points for the Canadarm aka SSRMS Space Station Remote Manipulator System to attach to.

The MT has 8 stations or worksites it can stop at to connect to power/data

The position and velocity of the MT is shown here (it typically moves at a max of 2.5 cm/s)

The MCAS and POA are on the MBS and can hold payloads temporarily for the Arm to grab later

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SSRMS - Space Station Remote Manipulator System

The SSRMS or Canadarm 2 aka the Arm is the primary robotic arm on the ISS and can move payloads, ISS modules, and entire spaceships around the ISS

This shows which LEE (latching end effector, the part that grabs things) is the base. It also shows where the arm base is attached to (there are multiple spots around the ISS it can secure to and get power and data from).

This shows if the arm has secured a payload (released means its not holding anything)

The SSRMS is a 7 degree of freedom arm, meaning it has 7 different rotating joints, allowing it to maneuver all around the ISS in intricate movements.

The angles of each of the 7 joints are shown here.

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SPDM - Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator

The SPDM aka Dextre provides precision robotics manipulation and inspection capabilities to the SSRMS

The SPDM has two mini arms that each have 7 degrees of freedom, with all the joint angles for the mini arms shown here.

The SPDM hands can grab small payloads, and the central body can hold a payload also. The payload statuses are shown here.

The SPDM location is shown here, if the location says SSRMS Tip LEE that means it is attached to the arm and ready for some important work.

It’s frequently just stored on the MBS

The entire body of the SPDM can rotate, and that angle is shown here

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C&DH - Command and Data Handling

Work in progress, no telemetry here yet

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USOS - United Stated Orbital Segment

This screen provides the status of the different spacecraft currently attached to the US segment

The USOS (which includes some international modules too, the entire front half of the ISS is called the USOS) has four ports for spacecraft to attach to. Two are docking ports and two are berthing ports, docking is for vehicles that maneuver to the port themselves, berthing vehicles are grabbed by the SSRMS and positioned at the port.

The currently berthed / docked vehicles are shown here along with the mission, spacecraft type, spacecraft name, and arrival and planned departure date. Also noted is whether the spacecraft was carrying people to the ISS or Cargo

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Visiting Vehicles

This screen shows all of the visiting vehicles currently at the ISS, from every country

There are four ports on the Russian segment, and four ports on the US segment. Currently, a maximum of 8 vehicles can visit the ISS at once.

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ROS - Russian Orbital Segment

The ROS screen shows the currently docked Russian spacecraft

Progress spacecraft are Russian cargo vehicles and Soyuz spacecraft are Russian crewed vehicles

The currently docked vehicles are shown here along with the mission, spacecraft type, spacecraft name, and arrival and planned departure date.

Also noted is whether the spacecraft was carrying people to the ISS or Cargo

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Crew Screen

This screen shows who is currently on board the ISS along with the current expedition number and how long the ISS has been continuously staffed

Live timer showing how long there have been humans continuously living in space (most students today haven’t experienced a time when there were no humans living in space)

Shows how long this crewmember has been in space on the current mission and how long they’ve ever spend in space (including previous missions)

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Science Screen

Work in progress, this screen gives a general overview of some of the science performed on the ISS

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Science (Internal)

This screen gives an overview of some of the science racks on the US Lab (Destiny). Since there is no floor or ceiling, all four walls can be used for experiments.

Internal science payloads are installed in “racks” wall mounted cabinets that house all sorts of science experiments.

Work in progress - would like to provide info on every ISS science experiment currently in progress

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