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space station is testing a robot

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mechanic that one day might be

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dispatched to perform simple repair

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tasks on orbiting satellites it's called

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rrm lori meigs with the station's

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payload operations integration center in

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huntsville spoke with scientists from

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nasa's goddard space flight center

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working on this technology demonstration

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on this robotic refueling mission

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just like if you were to go put fuel in

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your car you have to open up your gas

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cap put in the fueling valve transfer

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the fuel close it up and go same thing

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on a satellite satellite fuel valves are

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closed out with a series of caps and

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wires for ground safety so

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in order to put more fuel into a

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satellite you have to cut those wires

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and remove those caps and then install a

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fuel refueling tool transfer fuel and

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again close it out same as if you want

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to do it on the ground with your car

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right now satellites are designed to not

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be serviced at all they're closed out on

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the ground and never to be touched again

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which was part of what we wanted to do

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with rrm which was demonstrate that we

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could actually interface with those

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for example fill and drain valves

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electrical connectors mli if we can

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interface with these things that weren't

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meant to be serviced then we could prove

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that we could go up to the existing

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satellites and service them we built a

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series of unique and innovative tools to

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utilize the robot on the international

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space station dexter

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was intended to do maintenance on

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station move an oru or a box from one

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location to another location

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so we studied that robot and determined

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that we could build innovative tools

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that the robot could grab onto

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and remove these caps cut the wires and

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again transfer the fuel we have four

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tools on board one is what we call the

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multi-layer insulation tool it cuts the

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wire it grabs onto the blanket one is

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called a safety cap removal tool it

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grabs on to the safety cap on the fuel

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valve and removes it so one is our

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refueling tool that's designed just to

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thread onto the fuel valve transfer the

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fuel and then the other one is what we

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call a multi-function tool it's just

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like

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a standard socket wrench that you'd use

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in your garage we designed it so that we

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could fly multiple adapters or sockets

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like you would use in your garage

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and that way we don't have to have more

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tools we have the one tool and can fly

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smaller adapters so again like i said

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it's modular if we want to continue

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multiple iterations of the technology

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demonstration we just have to fly new

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adapters and we can continue using that

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one what we call multi-function tool to

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manipulate these adapters with the robot

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the first under tools that we had were

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great but we learned a lot of lessons

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and improvements and how we can make

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them

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easier to operate for the robotic

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operators on the ground and also more

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efficient at their task what kind of

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results have we seen so far we've had

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phenomenal results everything has really

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gone as planned slower sometimes we've

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found that alignment is key so you know

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we work very closely with the robot

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operators at the johnson space center

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during real-time operations to ensure

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that the alignment aids that we've put

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on the tools and the alignment aids and

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overlays that they have on their screens

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are where we want them to be but there's

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been still a couple of things we haven't

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predicted and so but we've been able to

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work through all of them and

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successfully completed all of our tasks

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from again the first series was removing

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caps and cutting wires just kind of

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getting our feet wet and then the second

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series was doing the end and refueling

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where we cut all the wire removed all

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the caps and did the eventual refueling

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and then the third set of tasks is what

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we call our tertiary tasks it was

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manipulating blankets it was

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we manipulated some number 10 torx sets

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just small screws not designed to be

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done with the robot again but showing

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that the robot could align itself onto a

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small fastener or screw remove it and

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put it back in so just trying to give

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the community a flavor of what's

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available with robotic servicing

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technology the next step would be

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developing interfaces for the satellites

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that were designed to be serviced so by

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putting for example a target on that a

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robotic system could

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use for alignment

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putting in a

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valve or something else that had a more

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friendly robotic interface on it

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something that was more easily adaptable

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to

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a robotic system whereas now those

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interfaces are designed for interaction

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with human hands which is obviously much

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different than

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the robotic systems that we have

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it benefits everybody

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nasa is very interested because they can

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use the technology

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in order to service and upkeep their own

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satellite fleet in addition to the

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commercial industry who can

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utilize the technology for

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their own purposes and their satellites

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and by doing

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by having those organizations utilize

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the technology it benefits everybody

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else here

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on earth

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all the different satellites that are up

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in space right now that do things like

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satellite tv uh weather things like that

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if those satellites can be better

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serviced and if we can develop an

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ecosystem where satellites are capable

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of being serviced on a regular basis and

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not just replaced once something breaks

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or they or they reach their end of life

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then it becomes a cheaper and more