{"id":40032,"date":"2012-09-04T23:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/altius-signs-saa-with-larc-for-compactly-stowable-manipulator-development\/"},"modified":"2012-09-04T23:00:44","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T15:00:44","slug":"altius-signs-saa-with-larc-for-compactly-stowable-manipulator-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/altius-signs-saa-with-larc-for-compactly-stowable-manipulator-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Altius signs SAA with LaRC for Compactly Stowable Manipulator development"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Space Act Agreement (SAA) has been announced between Altius Space Machines and NASA\u2019s Langely Research Center (LaRC) to develop concepts for a new series of compactly-stowable, long-reach spacecraft robotic manipulators. The agreement will allow for Altius and NASA to jointly develop a new and novel Compactly Stowable Manipulator (CSM) system.<\/p>\n

Altius Space Machines:<\/p>\n

Altius Space Machines is a space technology company, based in Louisville, Colorado, founded with the goal of reducing the barriers to space commerce. The company has already hit the ground running, wining first place in the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

Altius is known in the space community for its work in developing rendezvous and docking solutions using its Sticky Boom non-cooperative capture technology, for space stations and propellant depots, manned spaceflight, satellite servicing, and other applications.<\/p>\n

\"\"The company recently announced it had signed a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to provide engineering services as part of the DARPA Phoenix Program.<\/p>\n

That contract calls for Altius to develop and integrate a storable tubular arm (STEM) for use as a platform for situational awareness cameras and lights, and as a tool to reduce unwanted vibrations on parts of the target spacecraft caused during the component removal and repurposing operation.<\/p>\n

The SAA with NASA LaRC relates to the development of concepts for compactly-stowable, long-reach spacecraft robotic manipulators, or robotic arms as they are commonly known.<\/p>\n

Some of the most famous robotic manipulators were involved with the Space Shuttle Program (SSP), with the SRMS (Shuttle Remote Manipulator System) debuting with Columbia on her STS-2 mission at the end of 1981.<\/p>\n

SpaceX<\/path>NASA mission patches<\/path>Space Technology<\/path>\n

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\"\"The 50 foot boom was used in a variety of modes, from grappling payloads on orbit, to handing over cargo from the orbiter\u2019s cargo bay.<\/p>\n

Once the International Space Station begin its assembly phase, the orbital outpost gained its own robotic arm, known as the SSRMS (Space Station Remote Manipulator System) or Canadarm2. Somewhat larger than the Shuttle version, the SSRMS incorporates many advanced features, including the ability to self relocate.<\/p>\n

It was soon joined by Dextre, a multi-capable Canadian robot that resides on the end of the SSRMS during operations, along with smaller robotic hardware on the Japanese section of the Station.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Shuttle also gained a second arm, a post-Columbia improvement called the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), which was used \u2013 on the end of the SRMS \u2013 to provide the additional reach to manuever a sensor suite over critical parts of the orbiter\u2019s Thermal Protection System (TPS) in order to gain data and photography of the heatshield\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

Due to the growing size \u2013 and smaller clearances \u2013 of the Station and the modules riding uphill, NASA managers did evaluate a smaller RMS known as the \u201cMiniboom\u201d. However, that was cancelled in favor of an additional OBSS.<\/p>\n

See Also<\/h4>\n