Project description
Standardised systems interconnects
In space exploration, the maintenance of satellites poses significant challenges due to the lack of standardised interconnects. Currently, disparate systems hinder compatibility, leading to costly and time-consuming procedures. A lack of common recommendations impedes progress towards universal connectivity. In this context, the EU-funded SPACE USB project aims to standardise interconnects for orbital modular robotics. By creating a universal, serial interface similar to the USB, the project seeks to enhance flexibility and interoperability in on-orbit servicing and assembly. With existing European solutions providing mechanical connections and data/power transfer, the focus shifts to establishing common recommendations. Through collaboration, the project aims to design an interface ensuring compactness, docking symmetry and interoperability with other interfaces.
Objective
Orbital modular robotic is a key factor to support sustainability in Space. It is then possible to combine modular components to either create a satellite or, in the event of malfunction, to replace a module. To connect such modules, standard interconnects with multifunctional features are required. The standards provide the laws to connect the space along different functional lines including among those mechanical, electrical, thermal, data and fluidic. For the On-Orbit Servicing market, these standards play a key role to enable space connectors to mate two spacecrafts in a universal and serial way. Several European solutions are already available with a reasonable level of maturity to mechanically connect two space elements and provide data and power transfer. However, there is not a set of common recommendations agreed on by representative European users of space connectors. Considering the huge impact of these multifunctional interconnects at system level, it seems critical to first foster cooperation among them to enable a higher level of standardization to assemble future elements coming from different sources. The main objective of this project is to pave the way for a more flexible, universal and serial interface (USB-type) leveraging the existing standard interconnects for On-Orbit Servicing and assembly applications. After the definition of a standardization level, the design of a universal and serial standard interface will be proposed and demonstrated orienting its features towards compactness, docking symmetry, large docking misalignment tolerances, large loads transfer, data/power transfer redundancy and especially interoperability with other interfaces. Currently interoperability is the only remaining requirement which is not met by any existing space connector/interface. The project will then perform a dedicated experimental benchmark to confirm the achievement of this specific requirement as well as its prospective industrial exploitation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringastronautical engineeringspacecraft
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
- social scienceslaw
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
31100 Toulouse
France