ATI to Help DARPA Craft On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Safety Standards

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Summerville, South Carolina-based Advanced Technology International a $2.6 million contract under a program that seeks to develop consensus-based safety and technical standards for on-orbit robotic satellite servicing operations.

The Phase I contract awarded to ATI is part of DARPA’s Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations program, the agency said Wednesday.

“CONFERS seeks era-transforming improvements through research to develop the first ‘rules of the road’ for cooperative on-orbit operations,” said Todd Master, a program manager at DARPA’s tactical technology office.

“We believe these standards will both accelerate the commercial servicing marketplace and provide the foundation for safe and responsible space-based capabilities for the 21st century and beyond.”

CONFERS also aims to establish an independent forum to provide government agencies and industry an opportunity to conduct collaborative research on on-orbit servicing activities and set standards that seek to facilitate compliance to operational safety best practices while taking into account companies’ strategic and financial interests.