COMPONENT REPAIR EXPERIMENT – 1, STATION DETAILED TEST OBJECTIVE
17012U (CRE-1, SDTO 17012U)
Research Area: Technology Development and Demonstration: Spacecraft and
Orbital Environments
Expedition(s): 18
Principal Investigator(s): ● John W. Easton, National Center for Space Exploration
Research, Cleveland, Ohio
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The Component Repair Experiment -1, SDTO 17012U (CRE-1) is an incremental step toward
providing an electronics repair capability during future long-duration space missions.
Implementation of repair capabilities can help reduce the burden of replacement hardware.
Specifically, CRE-1 demonstrates the physical steps of component-level electronics repair
conducted by crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS). These physical
processes all have a direct gravitational dependence (such as the soldering process itself) or an
indirect, operational dependence on the gravity environment (such as placing, aligning, and
securing small replacement parts). Therefore, the repair processes must be demonstrated in a
relevant environment as part of a repair cap ability development.
EARTH BENEFITS
Development of improved toolsets, procedures,
and training methods can help enable in-the-field
repairs by deployed US military forces, thereby
assisting in reducing the logistical support
requirements of US forces.SPACE BENEFITS
The current strategy for electronics' repair aboard
the ISS calls for replacement of failed hardware
that relies on spares provided by resupply flights
from Earth. For future exploration missions
beyond low-Earth orbit, this logistical support will
be much more constrained. Repairing electronics at the lowest component level could
potentially ease the logistical burden by minimizing the upmass and volume of required spares.
Implementation of such a strategy on the ISS could serve as a test bed for future operations as
well as offer additional options for actual contingency maintenance. Before such a strategy can
be adopted, data must be gathered about the practicality of performing such repairs in
microgravity. CRE-1 serves to advance the state of knowledge and experience involved in
manual component-level electronics repair by demonstrating such repairs in an operational
environment.
RESULTS
The results of the CRE-1 operations show a great deal of potential for future astronauts to
perform low-level electronics repair during a mission. Each crew member was able to remove
ISS018E035796 – Astronaut Sandra Magnus
removing conformal coating during the CRE-1
experiment. NASA image.