Honevbee Robotics Nabs DARPA Phoenix Contract

摘要

Honeybee Robotics of New York has won a contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for work on an experimental satellite servicing and salvaging project known as Phoenix, according to a Nov. 21 press release from the company. The goal of Phoenix is to develop a maneuverable spacecraft equipped with a dexterous robotic arm to salvage useful components from retired communications satellites in geostationary orbit. For the first demonstration mission, tentatively scheduled for launch in 2015 or 2016 on an as-yet-unidentified rocket, a Phoenix spacecraft will try to remove an antenna from a satellite in a graveyard orbit and outfit it with so-called satlets: modules being developed by DARPA that provide core satellite functions such as power, pointing and communications.