<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.

Laboratory experiments of resident space object capture by a spacecraft–manipulator system

“…Previously flown and experimentally tested spacecraft-manipulator systems have exhibited substantially more benign mass and inertia ratios than the ones found in the spacecraft-manipulator system used for this set of experiments. The Space Shuttle orbiters with their Shuttle Remote Manipulator System [23], the International Space Station (ISS) with its Space Station Remote Manipulator System [24], the ETS-VII [25], and the Orbital Express [26,27] exhibited mass ratios ranging from ∼222 for the ISS down to ∼15…”

Flight Testing of Multiple-Spacecraft Control on SPHERES During Close-Proximity Operations

“…Although there exists a significant amount of literature covering the different aspects of autonomous docking [10,11] as well as past autonomous docking missions [12][13][14][15][16][17][18], no attempts have been made to date to perform an autonomous docking on orbit while avoiding an obstacle. This paper presents the first of such an attempt.…”

Equations of Motion of Free-Floating Spacecraft-Manipulator Systems: An Engineer's Tutorial

“…Examples for such missions are discussed in more detail by Yoshida (2003), Shoemaker and Wright (2004), Reintsema et al (2010), Barnhart et al (2013). The use of spacecraft-mounted robotic manipulator systems for the assembly and maintenance of spacecraft has a long and successful history with the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs.…”