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This Robot Arm Will Move Outside the Space Station on Its Own

The International Space Station (ISS) is currently undergoing a major renovation if it can be called that. It was only recently that new solar panels were installed to meet the increased energy needs of the station, and now comes word of another major piece of hardware being added to the orbital laboratory.
European Robotic Arm 6 photos
Photo: ESA
European Robotic ArmEuropean Robotic ArmEuropean Robotic ArmEuropean Robotic ArmEuropean Robotic Arm
It’s called simply the European Robotic Arm or ERA, and it’s exactly that, a robot arm meant to assist astronauts during spacewalks. After two decades of fine-tuning, the arm is ready to launch into space, and it will do so by the end of this month from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on a Russian Proton rocket, alongside the Nauka module that will be added to the ISS.

ERA, nicknamed by its makers a smart spacewalker, is 11 meters (36 feet) long when fully extended, has seven joints, and is designed to “handle multi-tonne payloads with a large range of motion for assembly tasks,” although weight is a relative term when it comes to space.

What’s interesting about this robot arm, made from carbon fiber and aluminum, is that it can “anchor itself to the Station and move back and forward by itself, hand-over-hand between fixed base-points.” That means it will essentially walk on the outside of the station, going to where it is needed for whatever task, including installation and deployment of new station elements. Its reach is estimated at 9.7 meters (32 feet), and it will move at a speed of 10 cm per second (4 inches per second).

The autonomous robots can either run on their own, based on programming or be operated in real-time by the crew from both inside and outside the Space Station, with an accuracy of 5 mm.

Full details on the ERA can be found in the PDF attached below.

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 Download: European Robotic Arm (PDF)

About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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