Robotics System Process and Concept for On-orbit Assembly for Potential Mars Sample Return

Proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) missions would require on-orbit assembly of containment vessels to meet backward Planetary Protection requirements and transfer of the sample container through various stations and positions. Some operations would have to be performed autonomously, and others would require ground-in-loop decision-making stages and verification processes. One concept design for an Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) Capture, Contain, and Return System (CCRS) Transfer Mechanism (TM) is a multi-Degree of Freedom (DOF) manipulator that utilizes a passive End Effector (EE) to assist in containment vessel assembly. To converge on a feasible design, a robotic system process has been instantiated. This process is composed of three main phases: robotic problem definition (operating environment, operations/functions, system goals), robotic solution selection (trade studies on the number of degrees of freedom, number of mechanisms, types of mechanisms), robotic solution design, implementation, and verification and validation (kinematic configuration, robotic and kinematic analysis and topology optimization of components). As a final product of this process, a half-scale functional prototype of the TM was developed to demonstrate the end-to-end operation capability.