<title>Ranger Telerobotic Flight Experiment: a teleservicing system for on-orbit spacecraft</title>

Abstract

The Ranger Telerobotic Flight Experiment is planned for launch into low Earth orbit in the Space Shuttle in 1998. During its mission, the Ranger space telerobot will demonstrate a wide variety of spacecraft servicing capabilities, and will set the stage for future telerobotic spacecraft servicing missions in Earth orbit. With for highly advanced robot manipulators and the capability for free flight in the space environment, the Ranger spacecraft will be able to perform on-orbit servicing tasks previously accomplishable only by astronauts. An underwater analog to the Ranger spacecraft has already been developed and is collecting data for comparison against the flight experiment data. It is anticipated that the results of the Ranger mission will lead to a new class of dexterous extravehicular telerobots for use in on-orbit spacecraft servicing operations.