<title>Orbital express space operations architecture program</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The goal of the Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture program is to validate the technical feasibility of robotic, autonomous on-orbit refueling and reconfiguration of satellites to support a broad range of future U.S. national security and commercial space programs. Refueling satellites will enable frequent maneuvers to improve coverage, change arrival times to counter denial and deception, and improve survivability, as well as extend satellite lifetime. Electronics upgrades on-orbit can provide performance improvements and dramatically reduce the time to deploy new technology. The Orbital Express advanced technology demonstration will design, develop, and test on orbit a prototype servicing satellite (ASTRO), a surrogate next generation serviceable satellite (NEXTSat). The elements of the Orbital Express demonstration will be tied together by non-proprietary satellite servicing interfaces (mechanical, electrical, etc.) that will facilitate the development of an industry wide on-orbit servicing infrastructure. NASA will apply the sensors and software developed for autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations to enable future commercial resupply of the International Space Station.

Vision-based localization for on-orbit servicing of a partially cooperative satellite

“…In particular, a camera-based tracking software (called Vis-STAR) which relies on image correlation algorithm, was used in DARPA's Orbital Express [21] as a redundant rendezvous sensor in addition to laser range finder [22]. The client of the Orbital Express (NEXTsat) was designed for on-orbit servicing, which provides markers to aid visual tracking.…”

Autonomous Release of a Snagged Solar Array: Technologies and Laboratory Demonstration

“…These arms have a reach of 1.2 m, a payload capacity of 12 kg, a bandwidth of 10 Hz, and a positional capability of 1 mm. In contrast to the six-DOF servicing arm flown on ETS-VII [13], the two-DOF ROKVISS servicing arm flown on the International Space Station [14], and the six-DOF servicing arm flown on Orbital Express [15,16], the PA-10/7C arms have seven degrees of freedom, allowing three-axis position and orientation control of the end effector with an extra degree of freedom for flexibility in path planning to avoid obstacle contact. The kinematics of these arms is identical to that of the 7-DOF flight arm developed for the Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits/Front-end Robotics Enabling Near-term Demonstration program [10].…”

“…Every proposed servicing vehicle uses some level of autonomy and robotics to perform its mission, be it to provide additional fuel for life extension, replace electronics boxes, reposition or dispose of a dead satellite, or grapple a satellite for servicing and/or component assembly. Whereas some recent on-orbit missions demonstrated utilization of single robot arms for relatively simple tasks [13][14][15][16], the vast majority of these future missions will require multiple robot arms to successfully perform their functions.…”

SPHERES interact—Human–machine interaction aboard the International Space Station

“…The goal of the Orbital Express (Shoemaker & Wright, 2003) mission, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and launched in 2007, was to validate the technical feasibility of robotic on‐orbit servicing, including autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations, capture, docking, and fuel transfer. The experiment was composed of two satellites, the servicer ASTRO, which featured a robotic manipulator, and a surrogate target satellite, called NextSat.…”