Maxar will integrate robotics for on-orbit assembly with NASA’s Restore-L spacecraft.
The final frontier of robot assembly is progressing quickly.
NASA tasked Maxar Technologies with doing an in-space assembly demonstration using a robotic arm, pioneering technologies that could make space exploration a lot easier. (The arm has the cute name of SPIDER, or Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot.)
The $142 million award will assemble pieces of an antenna into one large reflector, which will allow satellites and other space machines the capability to build large structures in space.
It’s important, because in the space launch business, size matters. When rockets launch, companies want to load as little on the booster as possible because more cargo means more fuel, which adds up quickly in terms of expenses. Building stuff in space makes it easier to launch larger structures that may not even fit in a rocket.
Artist’s conception of satellite debris in orbit.
And in the future, robot arms can be tasked with all sorts of things in space, such as refueling satellites and thus avoiding the problem of dead machines careening in their individual orbits, posing a risk to satellites and space stations. In fact, NASA will investigate robotic assembly and refueling on this mission, which is called Restore-L.
The new project “will enable new applications in communications and remote sensing satellites, large in-space assembled telescopes and future exploration missions that support a sustained human presence beyond Earth orbit,” said Megan Fitzgerald, Maxar’s senior vice-president and general manager of space infrastructure, in a statement.
Maxar is no stranger to space arms, as it has already created six that operated on NASA’s Mars rovers and landers. These robots include NASA’s current InSight lander on Mars, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover that should launch this summer.
Maxar says that this demonstration mission could help with exploration all over the solar system, particularly the prime locations of the moon and Mars. NASA wants to send humans to the lunar surface by 2024 and then astronauts into Mars orbit, perhaps, by the mid-2030s.