Background

Established: 0000-00-00

Projects & Missions: DUSTER & Solar panel cleaning on the Martian surface. The development addresses the design and prototype integration of a pump system able to compress the very thin (7 mbar) Martian atmosphere and then use it as compressed gas to clean the solar panels and other lander / rover components contaminated from Martian dust on the surface of the planet. Furthermore, the project requires the design and construction of a dedicated ultra-light robotic system that should be used to direct the cleaning nozzle over the panels. AWE & Adaptable Wheels for Exploration. HTR has spent a great effort to completely restudy and redesign the concept of wheels made from metal. Since the AWE idea consisted in wheels of variable stiffness, a design that permitted such feature had to be elaborated and demonstrated in operation. To this end, a caterpillar-type wheel has been chosen, where the caterpillar segments adapt on the ground using antagonistic springs. The result is an extremely robust wheel (no risk of permanent deformation over sharp, rocky ground) with a capacity to modify its stiffness (by a factor of 4), therefore permitting the wheel to have a very large contact area on soft soil while it can obtain a significantly smaller contact area on hard surfaces, contributing to power economy. PREDATOR & Pre-Development of a Launch Adapter Ring Gripper (On-going project). HTR manufactured a robotic system that is composed of a robotic arm/gripper and a testbed. Testbed is used to provide a motion of a non-cooperative satellite, and the robotic arm/gripper attempts to catch it under various angles of attack and speeds.

Key Customers: EU Institutions, ESA, European Space Industry, OEM (upstream).