Speaker
Description
Space exploration and exploitation depend on the development of in-orbit robotic capabilities for tasks such as servicing satellites, removing orbital debris and its recycling, or construction and maintenance of orbital assets. Manipulation and capture of objects in orbit are key enablers for these capabilities. Using today's single space manipulator systems with low autonomy and universality for capture limits the advancement of the mentioned key tasks. The ambition of the team around Space scAvengers startup, strongly supported by Telespazio, is to go beyond the well-established single-system servicing approach. The Cooperative Multi-Agent Spacecraft (COMAS) technology and concepts are being analyzed to support an approach to future in-orbit services based on swarms of small spacecraft acting as coordinated agents. Under the ESA PECS contract, Space scAvengers are halfway towards MDR of SAM-1 (Space scAvengers Mission 1) which aims to be the world’s first swarm ADR mission with a goal to demonstrate the flexibility of the swarm approach for ADR, particularly for the cooperative, mainly autonomous inspection, mating, capture, and repositioning of selected European uncooperative debris from a business interesting orbit to a junkyard orbit chosen. Draft of the SAM-1 Conops, key requirements, and the system concepts will be discussed during the presentation. Particular attention will be paid to the preliminary market potential and the expected impact of COMAS technology on ADR, IOS, and the cyclic economy in space.
