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the international space station is

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always looking at cost-effective ways of

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performing research in space

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and a new payload that arrived at the

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station on spacex4 is proving that

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we're going to head out next to the

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payload operations integration center at

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the marshall space flight center in

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huntsville alabama where lori meigs

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is on hand to tell us more about that

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lori

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rabbit scat is an instrument that will

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measure ocean wind speed and direction

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and could help with weather forecasting

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and improve that and hurricane

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monitoring it was installed on the iss

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just this week and will undergo

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checkouts later today prior to its

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launch on spacex4 i caught up with the

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project systems engineer from the jet

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rapid scat is a very unique mission we

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are taking engineering model and flight

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spare parts that were from a mission

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that launched in 1999 we took them out

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of storage we put a commercial interface

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onto those parts and tested it and we

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are able to then provide big mission

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science at a very small fraction of what

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it usually costs to do that type of

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mission we have a small team a very

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short schedule a very small amount of

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money and we're getting really big

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science out of this and we're going to

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be the first payload put on the space

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station that's actually assembled in two

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pieces and once we're installed we'll

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start to rotate our antenna so we're the

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first rotating

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rotating radar on the outside of the

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space station right so when you say

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installed you're installing outside the

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station yes we are installed outside on

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the columbus module it's called the sdx

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location and it's a site that faces

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basically out to space and since we're

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trying to measure ocean wind speed and

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direction we need to look down and so

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one of the first things we had to figure

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out is how to see the oceans from that

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spot and so we basically built a

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two-part payload and so the first part

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installs on the columbus module and that

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gives us a base to install our second

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part of the payload to look downward

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towards we call it nader why do we need

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to use the platform of the iss to study

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ocean winds

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well there are a few reasons that we use

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the space station one is practicality we

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were given a free launch a free ride to

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space we were given a platform that gave

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us power

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that gave us a stable place from which

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we can make the measurements and we have

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that location for two years

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and so it really is saving us quite a

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bit of money and it's allowing us to

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actually do this science but there are

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also great science benefits to using the

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space station orbit most of the

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scatterometers that have been put into

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orbit so far have been in what's called

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a sun synchronous orbit and that means

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that they see the same spot on earth at

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the same time each time they visit it so

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they'll be measuring ocean vector winds

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but only at one particular local time of

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day

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on the space station orbit we actually

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sample many different times of day and

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so over a period of about two months

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we'll fully sample all of the times of

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day so we'll be able to say something

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not just about ocean winds but how ocean

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winds vary over the course of a day and

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that's really exciting and one more

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thing we get to do from a science uh

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standpoint is because we're flying at a

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lower altitude and at all of these

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different times of day we will under fly

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the other scatterometers that are in

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orbit that are each measuring at their

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own single time of day so that we can

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for the first time better compare them

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to each other because we'll measure the

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same place at the same time as each of

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the other scatterometers in space which

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will let us see

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if they get different measurements is it

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because they're looking at different

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times of day or is it because the

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instruments are different and so by

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being able to we call it cross

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calibrating those instruments we're

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adding value to the entire constellation

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of scatterometers in space what will we

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use this data for

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rapidscat data is going to be used for

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quite a few things will be used to help

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improve weather forecasting will also be

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used to help

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monitor and track severe storms like

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hurricanes and so getting the space

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station's orbit which gives us great

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coverage over the tropics in fact we can

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cover everything between plus and minus

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57 degrees latitude we'll be able to get

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coverage of that region about every two

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days which will give us a lot of extra

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data points which will help us improve

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the weather forecast it'll help us

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improve severe storm tracking and it's

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also going to help us understand about

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the ocean atmosphere interface so

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there's a great wealth of science and

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applications to come from rapid scat

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and taking a live look into the payload

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operations integration center you see a

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little pink in there the signs are lit

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up pink it's

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pink it up msfc day and they're picking

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it up in the poic we are encouraging

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everyone to wear pink and increase

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awareness of the importance of early

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breast cancer detection and we're taking

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selfies and taking photographs and

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posting them on our marshall twitter

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site so you might want to check that out

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remember awareness plus early detection

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equals saved lives and we thank the

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folks in there for showing their support

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today and the hard work that they're