Centrifuge Accommodations Module

CAM in the Tsukuba Space Center

The Centrifuge Accommodations Module ( CAM , German centrifuge accommodation module) was a planned module of the International Space Station and should provide controllable gravity for experiments and enable the following:

The exposure of biological samples to artificial gravity between 0.01 and 2 g
To create two different artificial gravity levels at the same time
To create partial and hyper-gravity environments for samples in order to explore deforming effects and the limits of gravity
Provision of short-term partial or hyper-gravity environments in order to research the effects of brief changes in gravity on samples
Simulation of earth conditions on board the ISS to isolate the effects of weightlessness on samples
Simulation of earth conditions to enable samples to recover from weightlessness
Allow local 1 g for samples in weightlessness

The CAM was to be brought to the ISS by the space shuttle around 2009/2010 and docked there to the Harmony module. The module would have belonged to the American segment of the station, but was built by Japan in return for shuttle transport services.

According to the construction plan of the station adopted on March 2, 2006, the CAM was no longer among the modules to be transported into space. This was due to the fact that the space shuttle fleet was decommissioned after 2011 and therefore could only complete a limited number of flights. Thus only the most important American modules as well as the modules of international partners were brought to the station.

The CAM is currently being shown in an outdoor exhibition at the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan.

Technical specifications

Length: 8.9 m
Diameter: 4.4 m
Mass: 10 t
Number of International Standard Payload Racks : 14 total, four contain experiment hardware

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Space Station User Guide - Centrifuge Accommodation Module