Design Principles for the Development of Space Technology
Maturation Laboratories Aboard the International Space Station

by

Alvar Saenz-OTero
S.B., Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, 1998
S.B., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2000
MEng, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2000

Submitted to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
June 2005

(c)2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.

Doctoral Thesis

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acronyms and Notation
• Chapter 1 - Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Microgravity Research Aboard the ISS
• Chapter 3 - The MIT SSL Laboratory Design Philosophy
• Chapter 4 - The SPHERES Laboratory for DSS Research
• Chapter 5 - Microgravity Laboratory Design Principles
• Chapter 6 - Assessment of SPHERES
• Chapter 7 - Conclusions
• References
• Appendix A. NASA Technology Readiness Levels
• Appendix B. Microgravity Research Facilities
• Appendix C. Other Remote Research Facilities
• Appendix D. The International Space Station
• Appendix E. MIT SSL Previous Microgravity Experiemnts
• Appendix F. SPHERES Avionics Design
• Appendix G. SPHERES Software Design
• Appendix H. SPHERES Communications
• Appendix I. SPHERES Experimental Results

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