Annual Report 2016 - Mechanical Engineering

302

Astronautics

Real-time tele-robotics in space – space technologies – exploration and human spaceflight –

nano satellites – spaceflight systems engineering – hypervelocity lab

Prof. Prof. h.c. Dr.

Dr. h.c. Ulrich Walter

In 2016, the Institute of Astronautics continued its multi-faceted

research for the development of novel satellite and space exploration

technologies including:

Spacecraft/CubeSat nano-satellite and

sub-system development.

Real-time teleoperation technologies

for On-Orbit Servicing including novel

satellite communication systems,

applications and architectures.

Exploration technologies, incl. lunar

regolith processing and resource

extraction, and analysis of life support

systems of habitats and space suits.

Space environment testing including

high velocity impact physics, lunar

dust abrasion/damage mitigations, and

micrometeoroid/space debris simula-

tion and assessment.

TU Munich’s planned second pico-

satellite MOVE-II

took shape in 2016 and

successfully completed its Critical Design

Review in November 2016, paving the

way for manufacturing in 2017 and launch

in 2018. More than 110 students of the

student group WARR and LRT staff are

involved in the MOVE-II satellite project,

using LRT and TUM facilities such as the

machine shop, satellite clean room, as

well as in-house design, integration

and environmental test facilities.

On-Orbit Servicing

is an

anticipated future field of

robotic

space activities, where satellites

or other spacecraft in space

are serviced (such as refueling,

maintenance/upgrade or

deorbiting if defunct) by a

robotic servicing satellite.

LRT research focuses on

teleoperating the servic-

ing satellite in near real

time using appropri-

ate delay-tolerant

human machine

control interfaces.

RACOON, our large

relative motion

simulation environment

(6 m x 10 m x 5 m), can

simulate the proximity

operations of two satellites, while the

operator is located in the institute’s

mission control center or anywhere on

Earth. Realistic delayed teleoperation is

characterized through actual near real-

time satellite links via a ground station on

top of the institute’s building and a relay

satellite in geostationary orbit.

High-performance communication

Sub-system technologies, essential for

telerobotics missions, novel commu-

nication architectures and innovative

Earth applications such as the use of

Ka-band communications for emergency

services and appropriate virtual reality

operator environments are developed

in DLR-funded research projects. User

studies develop and evaluate novel

human machine interfaces including

audio feedback and virtual reality displays

for increased situation awareness. The

third Ph.D. thesis associated with the

RACOON-Lab and supported by a Munich

Aerospace scholarship was completed

in 2016 on real-time optimized approach

trajectories using relative motion sensors.

Our

robotic exploration activities

initiated originally as LUISE (Lunar In-Situ

Resource Experiment) and focusing on

solar-wind implanted particles), have

now evolved in 2016 into several funded

research projects (PROSPECT, LUVMI,

MARVIN) on lunar regolith processing,

including thermal and chemical extraction

methods of volatiles, including both

stationary gas extraction and analysis

experiments as well as mobile prospector

instruments and mechanisms. Addition-

ally, our research in robotic exploration in

extreme environments (Helmholtz project

ROBEX) develops thermal simulation tools

for the Moon and Mars, and experimen-

tally investigates the extreme, abrasive

effects of the lunar dust environment and

dust impingement on technical surfaces

and mechanisms.

For the renewed interest of NASA and ESA

human space exploration

, the Institute

www.lrt.mw.tum.de/ office@lrt.mw.tum.de

Phone +49.89.289.16003

Contact

MOVE-I with deployed solar

arrays (launched Nov. 2013)