Surgical Robots Could Fix NASA Satellite

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A modified Da Vinci surgical robot is helping NASA study how robots can refuel and service space satellites, remotely controlled from Earth. The agency's Notional Robotic Servicing Mission is looking for ways that fully robotic spacecraft can perform servicing of GEO (geosynchronous earth orbit) satellites in space, avoiding the cost and danger of sending astronauts to do the same job.


Located 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the Earth, GEO is one of the busiest highways in our solar system.More than 100 government-owned spacecraft and 360 commercial communication satellites commute on it each day, making it a prime location to offer repair, refueling, and tow-truck services.

According to NASA, the need is there. On average per year, two satellites run into technical difficulties and four satellites prematurely exhaust their propellant supply. Two satellites are inadvertently placed into incorrect orbits, and twenty satellites are retired at the end of their designed mission life. A servicer spacecraft would give America a way to maintain and safely dispose of its GEO assets.



In a recent demonstration, engineering and computer science graduate students at Johns Hopkins University's campus in Baltimore modified a Da Vinci surgical robot console and used it and a workstation to control an industrial robot at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center 30 miles away. The modified surgical robot also included a 3D eyepiece, which allowed the Baltimore operator to guide the remote industrial robot. The Da Vinci robot's 3D HD vision system gives operators 3D high-definition video displays for accurate depth perception, as well as an immersive experience that feels as if the robot is a virtual extension of the operator's body.

The Goddard Space Flight Center houses NASA's Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, which runs the Notional Robotic Servicing Mission. The office has already begun a predecessor project, the Robotic Refueling Mission. In September, this mission's tools module was installed on the International Space Station. This mission is a joint project of NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. It includes the space station's Dextre robot, remotely controlled by flight controllers at Goddard. In addition, there are specialized tools for cutting and manipulating wires, unscrewing caps, opening and closing valves, and transferring the fluid fuel. The tools were developed by the same engineers that created the astronaut's tools used for servicing the Hubble servicing missions. The Robotic Refueling Mission's purpose is to demonstrate the feasibility of a remote-controlled robot performing servicing operations, such as refueling. 


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