The story
2010–2012
In 2010, Altius Space Machines, with support from the SRI International invented the "Sticky Boom" Electroadhesive Boom-Rendezvous system to solve several of the key challenges associated with rendezvous and capture of the Orbiting Sample Canister (OSC) for a Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. This system significantly improves on previously proposed sample canister capture systems, by providing the following key features:
High inherent safety — Contact and capture event takes place at a significant distance from the orbiter
Electromechanical steering for the last few meters of the OS rendezvous and capture process – Reduces rendezvous propellant consumption
High tolerance for positioning and velocity errors between orbiter and target – Reduces requirements for precision control of orbiter during the capture maneuver.
Very low mass and volume compared to other solutions
The same system can capture the OS and transfer it to an Earth Entry Vehicle using the same hardware.
Provides a simple means of reliable, non-mechanical contact and proximity detection.
Low-risk solution—booms are based on systems with extensive flight experience, the capture device has seen extensive testing in a terrestrial environment as well as successful preliminary microgravity dynamic testing aboard a parabolic aircraft.
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Small enough for affordable near-term testing in LEO using CubeSat or other rideshare opportunities.
In July 2011, Altius Space Machines won first place in the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition in Silicon Valley, sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation.
Altius won a contract with DARPA in July 2012 to build a composite extensible robotic boom arm for the DARPA Phoenix project.
They also began work in 2012 developing Gecko-adhesive grippers, as part of work to build a Gecko Gripper Touch-to-Grasp tool that incorporated JPL’s "synthetic Gecko adhesive technology that mimics the ability of Gecko lizards to adhere to walls." The work leveraged previous work done by Altius on uncooperative capture mechanisms using electroadhesion.
2013–Present
In 2014, Altius began work on a MagnetoShell aerocapture and aerobraking technology for cubesats. Called MIDAS, Multi-Purpose Interplanetary Deployable Aerocapture System, the 6U CubeSats will be designed to be used on an interplanetary mission such as to Mars, Venus, or Jupiter's moon Europa
Other work includes the "Kraken Asteroid Boulder Retrieval System." In late 2014, Altius expects to test prototypes of grasping arms and non-force-closure gripper concepts for capturing a boulder off the surface of an asteroid. The study is funded by NASA as part of their broader Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) project and is intended to mature system concepts and key technologies while assessing the feasibility of potential commercial partnerships for ARM.
In 2015 Altius won a contract to build lightweight robotic manipulators, that utilize rollable composite STEM booms to provide a prismatic extension/retraction DOF, as robot arms for Assistive Free-Flyers (AFFs) on the International Space Station. These Low-Inertia STEM Arm (LISA) manipulators can provide comparable or better manipulation capabilities to AFFs than traditional robotic manipulators, but with less mass, lower inertia, better stowability, and the ability to reach into hard-to-access locations.:
From Wikipedia’s article on Altius Space Machines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3