Value and Emergence of Space Robotics

 Lots to learn here, using robotics in constrained and specific contexts. 

ACM NEWS

Space Robots Prepare to Grapple and Repair Satellites in Orbit

February 9, 2023

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory robotics engineer John Kinch prepares Robotic Arm System #2 for kinematic calibration.

Navy Resource Lab RSGS program manager William Vincent said using "algorithms that use relative pose data produced by the [RSGS] spacecraft, along with models of the servicing vehicle and the client spacecraft," will provide DARPA's spacecraft with "auton

Credit: Sarah Peterson/U.S. Navy

If a satellite in Earth orbit runs out of fuel or malfunctions, it becomes a serious threat to other satellites. Without enough fuel to keep it in its assigned orbital position or maneuver accurately, it can collide with other satellites, putting them out of action and creating hazardous space debris. What is really needed is a space-based equivalent of a tow truck, one that can visit and robotically refuel or repair satellites.

However, such a technology has not been available. 

This is all set to change next year, however, when the U.S. Defense Department's  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working with military contractor Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), hopes to launch just such a spacecraft for the first time. The RSGS (Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites) space vehicle will be the first general purpose "servicer" satellite, one designed to rendezvous with a troubled satellite and use two precision robot arms to capture and repair/refuel it in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).

At some 35,800 km. (more than 22,000 miles) above the Earth, satellites in GEO hover over a fixed spot on the ground, enabling them to deliver 24/7 the valuable services on which people depend, like TV, Internet, telephone, global positioning, and weather, as well as remote sensing and military spysat data.

How will DARPA's robotic spacecraft perform its cosmic choreography without colliding with its target satellite and making its own shower of hypersonic debris? We asked William Vincent, RSGS program manager at NRL, whose team is developing the onboard algorithms and robotic arms for the spacecraft, how they are doing it.  ... '   (much more detail at link)