NASA Robotic Refueling Mission: RRM Delivered by ATV-5

View of the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) module outside of the International Space Station as photographed by an Expedition 28 crew member in 2011.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA’s fix-it investigation, the newest thing on the International Space Station, is the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM).

The award-winning endeavour moved one step closer to its 2.0 update with the delivery of new RRM hardware aboard the European Automated Transfer Vehicle-5, which docked with the space station today.

The RRM module, affixed to an exterior space station platform since 2011, now awaits the robotic transfer of two new task boards and a borescope inspection tool that will equip RRM for a new round of satellite-servicing demonstrations.

A new complement of hardware will outfit NASA’s Robotic Refueling Mission (center on International Space Station platform) for a fresh set of satellite-servicing demonstrations.

Image Credit: NASA

“The Robotic Refueling Mission is about to get a refresh, and we couldn’t be more excited,” explains Benjamin Reed, deputy project manager of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, the team responsible for RRM’s development and operations on orbit.

A new RRM tool named VIPIR – the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot, was delivered to the International Space Station aboard the Automated Transfer Vehicle-5.

Image Credit: NASA

“This is the beauty of doing research on the space station. We’re not tied to the original hardware complement we sent up three years ago."

"The cadence of space station supply flights gives us the opportunity to swap equipment so we can tackle a new set of technology demonstrations.”

Since 2011, the duo of RRM and Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency robot that acts as a “handyman” for external station activities, has been steadily evaluating a set of NASA-developed, game-changing technologies that would enable remotely controlled robots to eventually repair and service spacecraft in orbit.

The overarching challenge facing the NASA RRM team is devising and manufacturing new robotic, tele-operated tools and techniques to service spacecraft that were not designed for in-flight service.

Robotic refueling and the tasks accompanying it – including blanket cutting, wire cutting and cap and fastener removal – were the primary focus of RRM’s first set of technology demonstrations.

In its second phase of activities, RRM will move past its refueling roots to test out the inspection capabilities of a new space tool named VIPIR, the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot.

The team will also tackle the intermediary steps leading toward spacecraft cryogen replenishment and host a demonstration of next-generation solar cell technology and a carbon nanotube experiment.

“The common thread is building up NASA’s collection of enabling satellite-servicing capabilities,” says Reed.

“Every capability translates into another option a satellite owner could potentially choose to keep his or her satellite operating longer and performing optimally.”

NASA Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) tests new robotic refueling technologies

A robot servicer could use autonomous rendezvous and fluid transfer technologies to extend the life of orbiting satellites (depicted, artist's concept). 

Credit: NASA

NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer – a type of propellant – into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

Collectively, these efforts are part of an ongoing and aggressive technology development campaign to equip robots and humans with the tools and capabilities needed for spacecraft maintenance and repair, the assembly of large space telescopes, and extended human exploration.

Technologies to Help Satellites That Help Earth
The Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., checked another critical milestone off their list with the completion of their Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test (RROxiTT) in February 2014.

"This is the first time that anyone has tested this type of technology, and we've proven that it works. It's ready for the next step to flight," says Frank Cepollina, veteran leader of the five servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope and the associate director of SSCO.

Located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but commanded from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the RROxiTT industrial robot mimicked how future space robots could transfer oxidizer to a satellite valve. 

Image Credit: NASA

"RROxiTT gives NASA, and the satellite community at large, confidence that advanced satellite refueling and maintenance technologies aren't a wild dream of the future," says Cepollina.

"They're being built and tested today – and the capabilities that they can unlock can become a reality."

Frank Cepollina

Since 2009, SSCO has been investigating human and robotic satellite servicing while developing the technologies necessary to bring on-orbit spacecraft inspection, repair, refueling, component replacement and assembly capabilities to space.

Taking lessons learned from the successful Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), the SSCO team devised the ground-based RROxiTT to test how robots can transfer hazardous oxidizer, at flight-like pressures and flow rates, through the propellant valve and into the mock tank of a satellite.

While this capability could be applied to spacecraft in multiple orbits, SSCO focused RROxiTT specifically on technologies that could help satellites traveling the busy space highway of geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

Located about 22,000 miles above Earth, this orbital path is home to more than 400 satellites, many of which beam communications, television and weather data to customers worldwide.

RROxiTT lead roboticist Alex Janas stands with the Oxidizer Nozzle Tool as he examines the work site. 

Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

By developing robotic capabilities to repair and refuel GEO satellites, NASA hopes to add precious years of functional life to satellites and expand options for operators who face unexpected emergencies, tougher economic demands and aging fleets.

NASA also hopes that these new technologies will help boost the commercial satellite-servicing industry that is rapidly gaining momentum.

Besides aiding the GEO satellite community, a capability to fix and relocate "ailing" satellites also could help mitigate the growing orbital debris problem that threatens continued space operations, ultimately making space greener and more sustainable.


NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Kennedy Space Center in Florida joined teams and efforts to test new robotic refueling technologies that could help satellites live longer in space. 

During the test, a robotic arm with a highly specialized tool transfered satellite oxidizer -- an extremely corrosive fluid that helps propel satellites in orbit -- through the valve of a simulated spacecraft. 

Adding to the complexity, the test was operated remotely from Goddard while performed at Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility. 

The test simulated the refueling of a spacecraft in orbit, an extremely challenging task that the team has been tackling since they launched the successful Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) demonstration to the International Space Station in 2011.

NASA RROxiTT: Testing new technologies for robotic refueling - Video

In space, a robot servicer could use propellant transfer technologies to extend the life of orbiting satellites (depicted, artist’s concept). 

Credit: NASA 

It's corrosive, it's hazardous, and it can cause an explosion powerful enough to thrust a satellite forward in space.

Multiple NASA centers are currently conducting a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer this dangerous fluid—satellite oxidizer—into the propellant tanks of spacecraft in space today.

Building on the success of the International Space Station's landmark Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) demonstration, the ground-based Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test (RROxiTT) is taking another step forward in NASA's ongoing campaign to develop satellite-servicing capabilities for space architectures and human exploration.

August 2013 - In its second phase, RRM is now moving on to demonstrate how a space robot can complete intermediate tasks required to replenish croygen in the instruments of "legacy" satellites: existing, orbiting spacecraft that were not designed to be serviced. 

Initial activities to demonstrate this on-orbit capability were completed in March and June 2012 with the aid of the original RRM tools and activity boards.

Credit: NASA

On Earth, RROxiTT technologies could one day be applied to robotically replenish satellites before they launch, keeping humans at a safe distance during an extremely hazardous operation.

In space, a robot servicer could use propellant transfer technologies to extend the life of orbiting satellites (depicted, artist's concept).

Building on the Past to Set the Stage for the Future
In January 2013, RRM demonstrated that remotely controlled robots—using current-day technology—could work through the caps and wires on a satellite fuel valve and transfer fluid into existent, orbiting spacecraft that were not designed to be serviced.

To meet the safety requirements of space station, ethanol was used as a stand-in for satellite fuel.

For the team that conceived and built RRM, the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the successful conclusion of this refueling demonstration was not the end of their work, only the beginning.

Benjamin Reed

"We were immensely pleased with RRM results. But doing more was always part of the plan," says Benjamin Reed, deputy project manager of SSCO.

"There were certain aspects of satellite refueling that couldn't be demonstrated safely while we were using space station as a test bed – aspects that we chose to defer to a later test date."

"RROxiTT is the next step in that technology development."


In this video, robotic arm operator Alex Janas introduces RROxiTT (Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test) while standing next to the robotic arm. 

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Scientific Visualization Studio

Taking lessons learned from RRM, the SSCO team devised the ground-based RROxiTT to test how robots can transfer oxidizer, at flight-like pressures and flow rates, through the propellant valve and into the mock tank of a satellite that was not designed to be serviced in space.

"No one has ever attempted this type of oxidizer transfer before," says Marion Riley, the SSCO test manager for RROxiTT.

"Like any NASA-sized challenge, we had to figure out—and at times, create—the right set of technologies and procedures to get the job done. Testing on the ground helps us know we're on the right track."

Read the full article here

Robotic Refueling: The Jumpstart Push Beyond LEO

On July 12, 2011, spacewalking astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan successfully transferred the Robotic Refueling Mission, or RRM, module from the Atlantis shuttle cargo bay to a temporary platform on the International Space Station's Dextre robot.

Credit: NASA

In mid-January, NASA will take the next step in advancing robotic satellite-servicing technologies as it tests the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) aboard the International Space Station.

The investigation may one day substantially impact the many satellites that deliver products Americans rely upon daily, such as weather reports, cell phones and television news.

During five days of operations, controllers from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will use the space station's remotely operated Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (Dextre), robot to simulate robotic refueling in space.

Operating a space-based robotic arm from the ground is a feat on its own, but NASA will do more than just robotics work as controllers remotely snip wires, unscrew caps and transfer simulated fuel.

The team also will demonstrate tools, technologies and techniques that could one day make satellites in space greener, more robust and more capable of delivering essential services to people on Earth.

Fix or Refuel a Satellite?

"Every satellite has a lifespan and eventual retirement date, determined by the reliability of its components and how much fuel it can carry," explains Benjamin Reed, deputy project manager of NASA's Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO).

Repairing and refueling satellites already in place, Reed asserts, can be far less expensive than building and launching entirely new spacecraft, potentially saving millions, even billions of dollars and many years of work.

The RRM demonstration specifically tests what it would take to repair and refuel satellites traveling the busy space highway of geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

Located about 22,000 miles above Earth, this orbital path is home to more than 400 satellites, many of which beam communications, television and weather data to customers worldwide.

By developing robotic capabilities to repair and refuel GEO satellites, NASA hopes to add precious years of functional life to satellites and expand options for operators who face unexpected emergencies, tougher economic demands and aging fleets.

NASA also hopes that these new technologies will help boost the commercial satellite-servicing industry that is rapidly gaining momentum.