Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

NASA’s long-armed robot will refuel and repair satellites in space

Kelly Hodgkins
By

nasa repair robot restore l 2
NASA
NASA wants to revolutionize how the space industry manages orbiting spacecraft with its new Restore-L mission, a project to deploy a robotic spacecraft capable of refueling and servicing an operational satellite. More than just a satellite-fixing robot, the Restore-L project also will be a testbed for new technologies that may prove useful to other missions, including its own highly touted plan to land people on Mars.

In its first revision, the planned Restore-L servicer will be a space-based robot capable of refueling a satellite in orbit. The robot will contain an autonomous navigation and docking system that’ll make it easy for the robot to hook up with a satellite in orbit. A robotic arm with tools and a tool drive will allow the robot to refuel a satellite, delivering the necessary amount of fuel at the correct pressure, rate, and temperature for the spacecraft.

Recommended Videos

Once it has completed refueling, the Restore-L robot will detach from the satellite and move on to its next client. NASA hopes to test the technology on its Landsat 7 satellite, a low-Earth-orbit satellite deployed and managed by NASA and the USGS.

Related

Though initially designed for refueling, NASA plans to expand the capabilities of Restore-L to include other maintenance activities that will extend the life of an orbiting spacecraft. “Restore-L effectively breaks the paradigm of one-and-done spacecraft,” says Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) Associate Director Frank Cepollina in a prepared statement. Once deployed, the robot could act as a gas station in space, providing satellites with much-needed propellant. On the maintenance side, the robot one day may be able to manufacture and assemble components in space and use them to service a satellite. It also may be used to reduce space accidents by removing space junk from orbit.

Besides its role as a maintenance robot, NASA plans to use this mission to develop and test technology for upcoming missions such the Asteroid Redirect Mission and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) observatory. The WFIRST, which was announced earlier this year, is being built with support for in-orbit refueling by maintenance robots such as Restore-L.

NASA also wants to bring this technology to space industry as a whole, and is offering the tech to satellite owners who want to maintain their satellites in space instead of abandoning them. “With robotic servicing on the table, satellite owners can extend the lifespan of satellites that are running low on fuel, reaping additional years of service — and revenue — from their initial investment,” says Benjamin Reed, SSCO deputy project manager.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kelly Hodgkins
Kelly Hodgkins
Contributor
Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…
NASA scrubs Space Launch System test due to fan issue
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher.

NASA has had to scrub the wet dress rehearsal of its mega moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). The test, which had been planned to run this weekend and involves filling the rocket with fuel and counting down as if for a launch, was called off on Sunday, April 3.

"Teams have decided to scrub tanking operations for the wet dress rehearsal due to loss of ability to pressurize the mobile launcher," NASA wrote in a brief update. "The fans are needed to provide positive pressure to the enclosed areas within the mobile launcher and keep out hazardous gases. Technicians are unable to safely proceed with loading the propellants into the rocket’s core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage without this capability."

Read more
Watch NASA’s video celebrating record-breaking space mission
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei aboard the space station.

NASA has shared a video celebrating Mark Vande Hei’s record-breaking stay in space.

The astronaut returned to Earth on Saturday after 355 days aboard the International Space Station -- the longest single mission by an American astronaut.

Read more
NASA looks beyond SpaceX for future lunar landers
An illustration showing astronauts on the moon.

NASA has announced it’s welcoming lunar lander concepts from commercial companies other than SpaceX, which already has a contract to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon in the mid-2020s as part of the Artemis program.

Accepted designs will be capable of transporting astronauts and equipment between the moon-orbiting Gateway station and the lunar surface as part of NASA’s long-term goal to create a sustainable human presence on the moon, with a view toward using the base as a steppingstone for the first crewed mission to Mars.

Read more