Deutsche Orbitale Servicing Mission (DEOS)

As the overall mission and system prime SpaceTech established a technological baseline both, in terms of mission implementation and satellite design, for the first German servicing mission DEOS. The main goals of this mission are the rendezvous with and berthing of a non-cooperative and tumbling spacecraft by means of a manipulator system accommodated on a servicing satellite, the docking of the spacecraft via a dedicated docking device and servicing tasks in the coupled configuration as well as the controlled de-orbiting / re-entry of the spacecraft’s coupled configuration in the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the mission.

In a Phase A contract to the German Aerospace Center DLR and leading a team of German small enterprises and university institutes, SpaceTech demonstrated the feasibility of the mission by establishing a concept for the different flight manoeuvres, including far and close range rendezvous as well as fly-around manoeuvres, by defining a realistic experiment program for the one year mission under consideration of environmental conditions and by providing an initial spacecraft design for the servicing as well as the client spacecraft.

In the Phase B, again in a direct contract to DLR, SpaceTech was responsible for the development of the client spacecraft. Furthermore, in subcontracts to OHB System and Kayser-Threde, SpaceTech was responsible for the launcher, the berthing / docking mechanism and the software of the automation and robotics instrument control unit.