Ranger News and Status

Ranger Satellite Servicing System autonomously grabs an object

4 February 2005 and 28 January 2005

As part of the autonomy effort for ASTEP, one of the Ranger Satellite Servicing System's dexterous arms is being used to develop the procedures for autonomously grasping objects in the Arctic. During the month of January and February, the software team developed the techniques to autonomously move the Ranger dexterous arm to grasp an object. Photos are online as well as a few videos from the 28th of January (2.5 Mb QuickTime) and the 4th of February (6 Mb QuickTime). The video from February 4th shows the task from two different camera angles.

Ranger Satellite Servicing System on the Discovery Science channel

25 - 26 January 2005

Underwater footage of the Ranger Satellite Servicing System performing neutral buoyancy simulations of the servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope will appear on the Discovery Science channel's special "Great Observatories." Check out the episode's web page for more information.