On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing Demonstration-2 (OSAM-2)

NASA’s Artemis missions will return astronauts to the Moon and establish a sustained human presence – which is a prelude to crewed Mars missions. The agency also seeks to mature in-space manufacturing and construction capabilities.

NASA and its partners are developing robotic technologies to efficiently and autonomously manufacture and assemble hardware, components, and tools in space. Additive manufacturing – better known as 3D printing – can build and assemble complex components in space, deliver on-demand hardware, and allow for structures larger than current rockets can deliver and deploy to orbit.

In 2019, NASA awarded a contract to Made In Space (now Redwire Corporation) to demonstrate this capability in orbit with a spacecraft roughly the size of a refrigerator. The technology demonstration will build, assemble, and deploy a surrogate solar array – a complete solar array that will not be used to power the spacecraft.  

The NASA and Redwire partnership is referred to as both On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing 2 (OSAM-2) and Archinaut One. NASA’s OSAM-1 mission is developing complementary technologies.

OSAM-2 is expected to launch no earlier than 2024. The technology demonstration will build two beams and deploy a surrogate solar array utilizing robotic manipulation. Once deployed and positioned in orbit, the small spacecraft will 3D print two beams. While the first beam is being printed, the solar array will be unfurled from the spacecraft. After the 33-foot (ten-meter) beam is completed and locked into place by the robotic arm, the arm will reposition the printer, which will then print a 20-foot (six-meter) beam from the other side of the spacecraft.

A successful orbital flight will demonstrate the technology’s ability to reduce risk and achieve measurable cost savings over traditional cargo launches to space.

Partners:

• Redwire of Jacksonville, Florida, is project lead is responsible for the in-space additive manufacturing hardware (Extended Structure Additive Manufacturing Machine (ESAMM), Feedstock Canister, Surrogate Solar Array, and Robotic Arm End Effector); avionics for printing and robotic manipulation; systems engineering; and payload integration.
• Blue Canyon Technologies of Boulder, Colorado, is the spacecraft bus provider.
• Northrop Grumman of Falls Church, Virginia, is manufacturer of the Payload Support Structure Assembly and the payload thermal system; will perform spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing; and will run the Mission Operations Center.
• Motiv Space Systems of Pasadena, California, is the 7 Degrees of Freedom Robotic Arm provider.
• SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, is the launch vehicle provider through their Smallsat Rideshare Program.
• NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provided subject matter expertise in the areas of robotics and avionics.
• South Dakota State University, of Brookings, South Dakota, is performing mechanical testing and characterization of the beam material.
• NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, provided subject matter expertise and electrostatic discharge testing of the beam material.
• NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California designed the payload avionics box and performed structural dynamics analysis of the beam manufacturing hardware.
• The United States Air Force Academy, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is designing methodologies for future on-orbit protection of additively manufactured structures.
• NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions program, within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, funds the mission. The program is based at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.