Capture and docking mechanisms

However, due to the lack of know-how about capture systems compared to docking, it was decided to highlight this technology within those developments. Based on the results of a previous exploration technology activity, in which the most promising capture concepts have been identified and preliminary testing performed at breadboard level taking this capability to a TRL 3, this activity will select a final concept and will include testing activities on a breadboard of the selected mechanism to assess the concept feasibility and performance. These tests shall be mostly functional and system-level.

In a first step, the output of the previous capture study will be reviewed critically against the phase A MSR studies. Meanwhile, different capture concepts will be reviewed and trade against the former design. In a second phase, an engineering model shall be designed in detail, manufactured and tested under certain conditions still to be determined. The EM hardware shall be used to perform functional testing with the aim of verifying the feasibility and overall viability of the proposed concept.

Even though, this activity focuses on MSR, it also addresses longer-term objectives in the sense that capture and/or docking mechanisms are relevant to any mission to the Moon and Mars involving either sample return or humans. Therefore, the Aurora programme as a whole will highly benefit from those related technology activities.