A Test Environment to Demonstrate the Feasibility of Telepresent On-Orbit Servicing

Paper number

IAC-08.B2.1.9

Author

Mr. enrico stoll, Technische Universität München, Germany

Year

2008

Abstract

Spacecrafts are the only complex engineering systems without maintenance and repair infrastructure. There are occasionally space shuttle based servicing missions, starting with the Solar Maximum Repair Mission (SMRM) in 1984 but there are no routine procedures foreseen for the individual spacecraft. Most malfunctioning spacecrafts require only a minor maintenance procedure but have to be replaced instead.
The development of On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) spacecrafts would be of great benefit for satellite operators. Previous manned OOS operations had to be executed by astronauts. In contrast the explorative and manipulative possibilities of robots could be used to dock the unmanned servicer spacecraft onto the malfunctioning target spacecraft and execute the complex operations. 

Most OOS demonstration missions (e.g. Orbital Express or DART) equip the servicing spacecraft with a high degree of autonomy. However, a different approach is the idea of utilizing the concept of telepresence for OOS. It involves the permanent control of the servicer satellite and its robotic components from ground. This includes a human operator on ground controlling the robotic application in (near) real time. The operator receives high-quality sensor feedback from the space environment, including stereo video and force feedback.
For OOS missions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) the communication hereby should be relayed via a geostationary satellite, since such an approach increases the acquisition time and enables the implementation of complex OOS maneuvers. The drawback of the relay approach is the increased round trip time of the signal which in turn decreases the degree of system transparency for the operator on ground. 

This paper describes a test environment for telepresent OOS which has been set up on ground. This test environment included the ground station of the Institute of Astronautics (LRT) at Technische Universität München, Germany and the ESA ground station in Redu, Belgium. Both were connected via the geostationary ESA relay satellite ARTEMIS. The goal of this setup was the demonstration of the feasibility of telepresent OOS using relay satellites in geostationary orbits. For that purpose test series have been undertaken in which a teleoperation with video and haptic feedback has been performed via the ARTEMIS link. 

Abstract document

IAC-08.B2.1.9.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.B2.1.9.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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