(iss052e046674) Peggy Whitson with JEM Internal Ball Camera

The Int-Ball, also known as the JEM Internal Ball Camera, is an experimental, autonomous, self-propelled, and maneuverable

ball camera A ball camera or camera ball is a spherical camera, one version of which has been designed to be thrown into the air to take panoramic pictures from a height or in an inaccessible or dangerous location. Several models of "throwable ball cameras" ha ...

that is deployed in the Japanese Kibō module of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

. It was delivered aboard

SpaceX CRS-11 SpaceX CRS-11, also known as SpX-11, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, launched successfully on 3 June 2017. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX. The mission utilized a Falcon ...

on June 4, 2017. The Int-Ball is intended to perform some of the photo-video documentation workload aboard the ISS. The Int-Ball was designed by the

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

and is controlled and monitored by a team of JAXA ground controllers. The Int-Ball naturally floats in the station's zero-gravity environment, allowing it to maneuver freely within the ISS. It weighs , is in diameter, and is propelled by an array of 12 small electric fans mounted on the ball's outer surface. The unit shares many similarities with Earth-based drone motion control and drone camera systems. The Int-Ball's motion control system is capable of executing a rotation on any axis, and is also capable of overall movement in any general direction. The internal structural elements and outer body of the Int-Ball system were produced using

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...

. The simulated "eyes" modeled on the exterior of the ball represent the direction of the "gaze" of the Int-Ball, which is in fact a single camera lens situated in the approximate center of the two "eyes". The Int-Ball system was designed with the hope of reducing or eliminating the amount of time spent by astronauts aboard the ISS in photo-video documentation activities, which have been estimated to consume approximately 10% of the astronauts' work time. The robotic photo-video documentation duties that the Int-Ball performs have been likened by some to the types of responsibilities that the fictional R2-D2 of the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' movie series appeared to undertake.

References

{{Use mdy dates, date=December 2018 JAXA International Space Station Space photography and videography 2017 robots

See also

References