SPACE Universal Serial Bus

ongoing

Orbital modular robotic is a key factor to support sustainability in Space. It is then possible to combine modular components to either create a satellite or, in the event of malfunction, to replace a module. To connect such modules, standard interconnects with multifunctional features are required. The standards provide the laws to connect the space along different functional lines including among those mechanical, electrical, thermal, data and fluidic. For the On-Orbit Servicing market, these standards play a key role to enable space connectors to mate two spacecrafts in a universal and serial way. Several European solutions are already available with a reasonable level of maturity to mechanically connect two space elements and provide data and power transfer. However, there is not a set of common recommendations agreed on by representative European users of space connectors. Considering the huge impact of these multifunctional interconnects at system level, it seems critical to first foster cooperation among them to enable a higher level of standardization to assemble future elements coming from different sources. The main objective of this project is to pave the way for a more flexible, universal and serial interface (USB-type) leveraging the existing standard interconnects for On-Orbit Servicing and assembly applications. After the definition of a standardization level, the design of a universal and serial standard interface will be proposed and demonstrated orienting its features towards compactness, docking symmetry, large docking misalignment tolerances, large loads transfer, data/power transfer redundancy and especially interoperability with other interfaces. Currently interoperability is the only remaining requirement which is not met by any existing space connector/interface. The project will then perform a dedicated experimental benchmark to confirm the achievement of this specific requirement as well as its prospective industrial exploitation.