The DARPA Phoenix Spacecraft Servicing Program: Overview and Plans for Risk Reduction

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are developing robotic satellite servicing, repair, and assembly technologies with the goal of a demonstration mission at GEO. In preparation for such missions, NRL is conducting a campaign to develop and demonstrate technology for a variety of robotic satellite servicing tasks. This program, called Phoenix, plans to demonstrate the technologies needed to perform a wide variety of robotic satellite servicing tasks in the Naval Research Laboratory’s Space Robotics Lab at TRL 7 by the end of 2015. This paper describes the test campaign and the robotic components being developed for them, including the robotic arms, sensors, end effectors, and automation software.

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