NASA astronaut Kevin Ford Expedition 34 commander conducts a session of the SPHERES VERTIGO investigation.

Inside the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Kibo lab on the Earth-orbiting International Space Station, NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, Expedition 34 commander, conducts a session of the ongoing SPHERES-VERTIGO investigation. SPHERES stands for Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites. Each satellite is an 18-sided polyhedron that is 0.2 meter in diameter and weighs 3.5 kilograms. The prism-shaped device (called Goggles) which is easily seen hooked up to the polyhedron on the right in this picture is called Visual Estimation and Relative Tracking for Inspection of Generic Objects (VERTIGO).