MERLIN (refrigerator)
Microgravity Experiment Research Locker/Incubator was designed by University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering to operate as a hardmounted, single middeck locker equivalent within the ISS EXPRESS rack, the Space Shuttle, SpaceX Dragon, and Cygnus (spacecraft). It is used to provide a temperature controlled environment for scientific experiments between -20 °C and 48.5 °C. MERLIN is also used to Support Crew Galley Operations.
Description
- MERLIN is cooled using Thermoelectric elements, and can be cooled to -20 °C while using ISS water supply or -10 °C while only being air cooled. Resistive heating elements are used to provide an incubation capacity up to 48.5 °C.
- MERLIN contains temperature sensor connections inside the payload volume, for monitoring sample temperature, for up to 12 sensors.
- The internal sample volume is ~.
Additional Cold Stowage
MERLIN is one of multiple units available for storage on the ISS and/or transportation to and from the ISS.- Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS
- * +4 °C to -80 °C
- GLACIER (General Laboratory Active Cryogenic ISS Experiment Refrigerator)
- * +4 °C to –160 °C
- Polar (Research Refrigerator for ISS)
- * +4 °C to -95 °C