Space Mechanisms Technology Workshop Proceedings

Over the years, NASA has experienced a number of troublesome mechanism anomalies. Because of this, the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance initiated a workshop to evaluate the current space mechanism state-of-the-art and to determine the obstacles that will have to be met in order to achieve NASA's future missions goals. Seventy experts in the field attended the workshop. The experts identified current and perceived future space mechanisms obstacles. For each obstacle, the participants identified technology deficiencies, the current state-of-the-art, and applicable NASA, DOD, and industry missions. In addition, the participants at the workshop looked at technology needs for current missions, technology needs for future missions, what new technology is needed to improve the reliability of mechanisms, what can be done to improve technology development and the dissemination of information, and what do we do next.