Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 18

Space Manufacturing
Tech Briefs: Which are the enabling technologies that will play
a key role in ISAM missions?
Richardson: All spacecraft - including those performing
ISAM operations - need power, propulsion, attitude control,
communications, and thermal control. Servicing spacecraft will
typically carry specialized payloads like sensors for relative navigation,
robotic arms for capturing or manipulating the client
spacecraft, couplings that allow fluid transfer between spacecraft,
and sufficiently accurate propulsion and processing to
enable safe and reliable RPO. While all of these technologies
have been demonstrated in space before, integrating them into
a single mission and demonstrating they work reliably is an engineering
challenge that many companies are working to solve.
Given how many companies are engaged, interoperability and
standards are critically important. Costs cannot be low enough for
a business case to close if there are separate set of interfaces for
European, Japanese, and American client satellites. Coordination
of standards allows for servicing spacecraft built by any company
can interact with client spacecraft built by others. This ensures the
resulting market for ISAM services is as broad as possible and can
be filled by competitors within a broader ISAM ecosystem.
Tech Briefs: How important will be efforts of commercial
space companies in ISAM capability development?
Richardson: Commercial space companies are drivers for innovation
in ISAM and key players in the ISAM National Strategy
for the U.S. to establish global leadership in this area.
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Northrop Grumman SpaceLogistics launched two Mission Extension
Vehicles (MEVs) to geostationary orbit and are providing
life extension services to two Intelsat clients. MEV operations
are paving the way for SpaceLogistics' follow-on vehicle,
built through a public-private partnership with DARPA, called
the Mission Robotic Vehicle. Astroscale's ADRAS-J mission recently
released the first image of space debris captured through
rendezvous and proximity operations.
Companies like Starfish Space, ThinkOrbital, Orbit Fab, Quantum
Space, and many others are pioneering new technologies to
support servicing, assembly, or manufacturing missions for national
security, civil, and international space customers, and even fellow
commercial space companies. Many of these companies I've
mentioned are COSMIC members, and we're eager to grow that
community to include all others in the private and public sectors
working to bring U.S. ISAM capabilities into routine use in space.
Tech Briefs: What progress has COSMIC made in its first year
and what's the future vision?
Richardson: Our first year has been dedicated to organizing,
launching, and building the COSMIC community. To date our
membership comprises nearly 800 authorized participants representing
180 organizations across the various sectors of the
U.S. ISAM community, all of whom see the value in coordination
and collaboration. COSMIC enables members to share
information about planned or envisioned missions, existing or
planned testbeds, and current technology maturation efforts.
We had an impressive 600 individuals join us for our kickoff
event in Maryland last November, and more than 300 joined
our just-concluded Convergence member event in Utah.
In the future we will build on this solid foundation to identify
specific gaps in technology, policy, operational needs, testing capability
and capacity, and all other aspects of performing operational
ISAM missions. COSMIC will aggregate the voices from among
the U.S. ISAM community to address problems identified by any
sector and drive efforts across sectors toward a common vision
where safe, reliable, robust ISAM operations become routine.
Tech Briefs: You are the Chair of SAE Media Group's Space
Logistics conference being held on September 26-27 in Arlington,
VA. What can attendees expect to learn at the event?
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Richardson: This event will bring together government, industry,
and academia to connect, learn, and shape the future of
space logistics. Speakers will share ideas about innovative concepts
and challenges unique to ISAM, and attendees have the
opportunity to collaboratively discuss policy and regulation, operations,
technology, architecture design, technical developments,
and standards. I welcome all parties to join and be part of
the effort at this pivotal phase in ISAM's development and maturation,
and I will be happy to discuss COSMIC in greater detail
and answer any questions prospective members might have.
For more information visit www.cosmicspace.org. To register
and learn more about the Space Logistics Conference, visit
www.spacelogisticsconference.com.
Read more about NASA's
ISAM National Strategy
18
www.techbriefs.com
Tech Briefs, July 2024
http://info.hotims.com/86257-713 http://info.hotims.com/86257-713 http://www.cosmicspace.org http://www.spacelogisticsconference.com https://www.techbriefs.com
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024

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