Experiences and lessons learned from the ETS-VII robot satellite

Abstract

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) launched the ETS-VII (Engineering Test Satellite No.7) on November 28, 1997 to conduct rendezvous docking and space robot technology experiments. ETS-VII is the world's first satellite that used a robot arm on a satellite. The robot arm was 2 m long and was tele-operated from the on-ground control station. The mission of ETS-VII lasted for two years and brought may experiences and results. The paper summarizes experiences and results of the ETS-VII robot satellite.