{"id":18045,"date":"2019-05-22T19:31:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T11:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/tethers-unlimited-works-on-technologies-for-leo-knight-satellite-servicing-robot\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T19:31:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T11:31:26","slug":"tethers-unlimited-works-on-technologies-for-leo-knight-satellite-servicing-robot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/tethers-unlimited-works-on-technologies-for-leo-knight-satellite-servicing-robot\/","title":{"rendered":"Tethers Unlimited works on technologies for \u2018LEO Knight\u2019 satellite servicing robot"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_500372\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-500372\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-500372\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190522-leoknight-630x473.jpg\" alt=\"LEO Knight artwork\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190522-leoknight-630x473.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/190522-leoknight.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-500372\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows the LEO Knight space robot at right, working on a small satellite in orbit. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited works on space technologies ranging from radios to robotic arms, but the company is planning to put all those pieces together to create a space robot called \u201cLEO Knight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLEO Knight is a microsat-class system intended to support in-space servicing, in-space assembly and in-space manufacturing activities,\u201d Tethers Unlimited CEO Robert Hoyt told GeekWire in an email. \u201cLikely timeline for the first mission is 3-4 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The robot takes advantage of technologies that Tethers Unlimited has been developing under the terms of NASA and Defense Department contracts, plus some internally funded projects. Hoyt ticked off the list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hydros thruster:<\/strong> Hydros uses electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which can then be burned as rocket propellants. The concept meshes well with the idea of extracting water ice from the moon or near-Earth asteroids for spacecraft refueling. Three Hydros-M flight units already have been delivered to Millennium Space Systems, and Hoyt said a Hydros-C module is due for launch on the PTD-1 CubeSat mission in December.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kraken robotic arm:<\/strong> Tethers Unlimited has been working under a NASA contract to integrate the robotic arm into an experimental payload called Mantis, to enable teleoperation of experiments on the International Space Station. (Seattle-based Olis Robotics is a partner on Tethers Unlimited\u2019s Mantis and FabLab projects.) Tethers Unlimited also has an Air Force contract to work on Kraken-X, a version of the arm that could be used for satellite servicing and in-space assembly.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dactylus servicing interface:<\/strong> This consists of a servicing port that would be integrated onto spacecraft when they\u2019re built, plus a compatible KRAKEN attachment that provides docking capabilities and integrates standard electrical connectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SWIFT software-defined radios:<\/strong> Tethers Unlimited\u2019s radio systems can provide space-to-ground communications links for telemetry, tracking and control, plus high-bandwidth data links for monitoring complex robotic operations. \u201cWe now have over a half-dozen SWIFT radios on orbit \u2026 and they are operating well,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NASA and the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, have their own projects to develop in-space servicing spacecraft, known respectively as Restore-L and Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we are strong supporters (and someday hopefully customers) of Restore-L and RSGS, those systems are too large and expensive to be optimal for providing services to the rapidly growing small-satellite market,\u201d Hoyt wrote in his email.<\/p>\n<p>LEO Knight (with \u201cLEO\u201d standing for low Earth orbit) would be optimized for refueling small LEO satellites, removing derelict satellites from constellation altitudes, assembling work platforms in space, and delivering payloads to those platforms.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Tethers Unlimited Video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_DQOjK6UDWI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hoyt said Tethers Unlimited is \u201cmost interested in owning and operating the satellites as an in-space service, but we\u2019d certainly consider selling the systems to commercial or government clients if they feel more comfortable operating them themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first operational use for LEO Knight would probably be for refueling a fleet of small satellites built on Tethers Unlimited\u2019s HyperBus 12U modular CubeSat platform. For what it\u2019s worth, 12U describes a satellite size that\u2019s on the order of 8 by 8 by 12 inches, or roughly the size of a toolbox.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not yet ready to discuss their mission publicly, but what I can say is that the LEO Knight refueling service will enable those small satellites to perform a new class of high-value missions that are not feasible or affordable using heritage satellite architectures,\u201d Hoyt said.<\/p>\n<p>Is Tethers Unlimited looking at national security applications as well as commercial applications?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we were, I\u2019m sure I wouldn\u2019t be able to discuss it,\u201d Hoyt said. \u201cBut we\u2019re most interested in establishing a commercial operation, as we see an in-space refueling service as a keystone to bootstrapping a water-based off-world economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows the LEO Knight space robot at right, working on a small satellite in orbit. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration) Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited works on space technologies ranging from radios to robotic arms, but the company is planning to put all those pieces together to create a space robot called \u201cLEO Knight.\u201d \u201cLEO [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20,442,4793],"class_list":["post-18045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-tethers-unlimited"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}