MFD Robot Arm and Its Flight Experiment

Abstract

Manipulator Flight Demonstration (MFD) was launched in August 1997 on the Space Shuttle Discovery. The MFD is to demonstrate function and performance of the Robot Arm similar to the Small Fine Arm (SFA) of Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS) prior to its launch. This paper reports the MFD mission objectives and the design features, and summarizes the results of its flight experiment results. In general behavior and performance of the system has followed closely predictions made by simulations.