Created: 2021-07-18
Updated: 2024-07-15
Company - Motiv Space Systems
Product/Service - XLINK
- Classification
- Miscellaneous
- Category
- Space Robotics
Robotic Arm
Hardware
In-Space Assembly
- Fields
- Moon
Mars
- Status
- Demonstrated
- First launch
- Not announced
xLink Space-Rated Modular Robotic Arm System
- It is Modular - Building block approach lets you customize a system for your needs.
- It is Scalable - 1 meter, 3 meters? 4-DOF, 7-DOF? It’s up to you.
- It is Flexible - From component solutions to whole systems, xLink™ can adapt to your needs.
- It is Industry Leading - Dexterous space robotic systems at industry leading cost and lead times.
Exploration of the Moon & Mars
- With its adaptability to a wide range of tasks, the xLink™ system can be utilized for planetary robotics applications.
- Whether configured as a mobility system for a rover traversing the lunar surface or as a robotic arm collecting samples on Mars, the xLink™ system will enable the future of planetary exploration.
Launching with OSAM-2
The xLink™ system’s first planned mission is aboard NASA’s OSAM-2 (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing) spacecraft, formerly known as Archinaut One, by Made in Space. Once in orbit, the OSAM-2 spacecraft will utilize the xLink™ robotic arm to help position the 3D printing elements that will manufacture a 60+ foot solar array on-orbit that can generate up to five times the power of traditional solar panels on similarly sized spacecraft. The arm is also responsible for an assembly task–connecting the deployable solar arrays, in addition to positioning the printer.
COLDArm
2025 Mission
On-orbit servicing mission planned for military satellite in 2025, SpaceNews, 2024-03-27.
- In a mission targeted for 2025, a robot satellite in geostationary orbit around 22,000 miles above Earth will rendezvous with a military satellite and attempt to affix a new imaging sensor payload on the spacecraft.
- The servicing vehicle — equipped with a robot arm developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Naval Research Laboratory — will seek to connect the payload to the satellite’s launch adapter ring.
- The Mission Robotics Vehicle (MRV) that will perform this mission is being built by Northrop Grumman’s subsidiary SpaceLogistics. The company under an agreement with DARPA is equipping the vehicle with two robot arms designed by NRL with DARPA funding.
- Motiv Space, known for its space robotics expertise, is providing engineering support. Katalyst Space, which specializes in on-orbit servicing hardware, designed a “space domain awareness” sensor that gives a satellite greater visibility of its surroundings in the GEO belt, a crucial zone for military communications and reconnaissance spacecraft.
- Katalyst is also supplying a “retrofit attachment system” to facilitate the attachment of a payload on unprepared satellites. Lee explained the retrofit system allows a payload to be installed on the satellite’s existing launch adapter ring.
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
OSAM-1 (previously known as Restore-L)
OSAM-2 On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly & Manufacturing
Around 2023, a Motiv xLink robotic arm will launch onboard a spacecraft designed to do something unique: build a 3D-printed solar array while it’s orbiting the earth.
OSAM-2, formerly known as Archinaut One, is a technology demonstration mission. The mission is designed to show how additive manufacturing — more commonly known as 3D printing — can be used to build, assemble and deploy complex structures in space.
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