Docking tests in ESA's robotics lab

In a docking test at ESA's Orbital Robotic Laboratory, a servicer and client spacecraft models are each attached to one platform hovering over an extremely flat and smooth floor. 

Starting at four centimetres apart, the servicer’s docking mechanism first locks onto the client’s passive capture interface and then brings the two platforms closer and closer together until two ports – one for refilling and the other for power and data transfer – connect to their counterparts. 

 The European Space Agency (ESA) and industry are working together to develop and test interfaces that will allow satellites to approach in space, recognise each other and dock. The first hardware tests for this step took place at ESA’s testing facilities at ESTEC, the agency’s technical centre in the Netherlands, evaluating different interfaces and technologies developed by The Exploration Company with Sener, GMV, Almatech and CDS. 

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