Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023 - 40

Sustainable Technology
keeping carbon out of the atmosphere,
that newly formed carbon-storing rock
has many potential applications.
One Nevada mine is acting as a test
case to help the researchers better understand
the true cost of this process and
what a business model might entail.
Based on the mine tailings analysis
they've done, the researchers are also
creating a database to track how well
their technology works for different materials,
an attempt at greater standardization.
According to them, these technologies
will eventually be able to address the
critical mineral needs and the carbon
management needs that are two of the
most pressing environmental and technological
challenges of our time.
It's an exciting time to work in the carbon
capture space, said Psarras, adding
that their technology could be ready to
scale within the next two years and this
work could eventually remove millions
of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
For more information, contact Michelle
W. Berger at mwberger@upenn.
edu; 215-898-6751.
Building Technology to Clean Up Space
A USC team is building machines to help rid junk from the atmosphere.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
n 1978, NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler
theorized that an increasing amount of
space pollution would lead to more collisions
between objects in orbit, and thus
more debris - the Kessler Syndrome.
Multiple teams of researchers at USC Information
Sciences Institute (ISI), a unit
of the Viterbi School of Engineering, are
working on solutions.
The U.S. Space Force chose ISI's &
ASTE's Space Engineering Research
Center (SERC) as one of its research
partners for Phase 1 of its Orbital Prime
program. The goal of the program is to
further develop space debris mitigation
and remediation technology, as well as
the quickly growing in-space servicing,
assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM)
market. The ISAM market involves the
repair, refueling, assembling, and building
of spacecrafts and satellites after they
are launched.
One such technology is a robotic gripper,
REACCH, whose arm was bio-inspired,
modeled after an octopus. The
flexible design makes it more effective at
grabbing objects that are not uniform in
shape and size, such as pieces of debris.
REACCH uses unique Gecko dry adhesive
gripping tiles that " grab " objects
and allow them to be captured. The tiles
are similar to an octopus' arm that places
its suckers around objects and then is
able to walk or grab them.
ISI is supporting SERC on another
type of in-space docking mechanism:
CLINGERS (Compliant Low Profile Independent
Non-protruding Genderless
Electronics Rendezvous System). Like
REACCH, CLINGERS is another form
of RPO technology, but it combines
both a mechanical system that involves
hard docking, where units latch together
in space along with rendezvous sensors
to guide it.
40
I
USC ISI Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) is developing space debris mitigation and remediation
technology. (Image: Juan Miche Rosales/USC)
While in space, CLINGERS aims to run
experiments while attached to free-flying
drones built by NASA: Astrobees. Shobhita
Rajashekar, Avionics Engineer at SERC,
said that Astrobees are meant to help astronauts
on board by " flying around on
their own to do some tasks autonomously. "
This would allow the astronauts to " get
a little more free time in their schedule, "
she added.
" The whole point is to begin thinking
about how you build really big
things in orbit - you need ways to
hold pieces in place. It's not like on
the ground at a construction site where
you pull up a truck and you drop all
the beams, " said David Barnhart, Director
of SERC. " In space, if you drop
the beams - it's gone. "
REACCH and CLINGERS can capture
debris, yes, but how do they get close
enough so that the debris are in reach?
This is where SERC supported industry
partner Busek Corp. on its SOUL (Spacecraft
on Umbilical Line) project.
" SERC is supporting the industry partner
on designing a larger satellite that
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would house the SOUL spacecraft, " said
Rahul Rughani, post-doctoral researcher
at ISI, described how the SOUL project
is connected to REACCH and CLINGERS,
and SERC's role.
" The concept of SOUL is to be deployed
on a tether that can then get close
to a piece of space debris. However, SOUL
needs a device on the end of it to grab and
attach to the debris. This is where it is possible
that the REACCH device, the CLINGERS
device, or even a new device that we
haven't yet tested could be used. "
SOUL, Rughani said, is a " small satellite
attached to a bigger satellite, " in
an umbilical line manner. Once a piece
of debris is successfully captured, the
spacecraft would then " bring it to a low
enough orbit where the debris would
burn up in the atmosphere. "
SOUL is still in the works, but much
of the analysis is done, Rughani noted.
The next step is getting the funding to
actually build it.
For more information, contact Amy
Blumenthal at 213-821-1887; amyblume@
usc.edu.
Tech Briefs, October 2023

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Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2023

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