Assessment of Spheres

This chapter starts by presenting an overview of the programs supported by SPHERES and the results obtained to date in several operational environments. Next, the chapter uses the design framework presented in Chapter 5 to make an assessment of the design of SPHERES with respect to the microgravity laboratory design principles. Although the framework is applied to an existing design, the application of the design framework to the SPHERES testbed illustrates the process which would take place in iterating the design through one full cycle of the design framework. It demonstrates the ability of the framework to capture all the features expected in a successful microgravity laboratory by identifying issues not considered in the initial design. Lastly, the evaluation framework is applied to the SPHERES testbed. The evaluation provides insight into how future ISS evaluators must consider the success of a mission and balance it with the need to utilize the ISS correctly.