Obruta Space Solutions was less than a year old when it was notified by the Canadian Space Agency that it had been awarded a contribution through the Space Technology Development Program for a Novel Multi-Target Space Debris Removal Technology Feasibility Study. The company had also been accepted into the Creative Destruction Lab last summer just three months removed from its founding. As I learned by speaking with one of the co-founders, CEO Kevin Stadnyk, space debris is just one goal of a more ambitious plan that includes technology development for satellite servicing.
The genesis of what would become Obruta started in 2015 when co-founder and CTO Kirk Hovell was doing his masters degree in applied science at Carleton University.
As part of his masters he began working work on “a new tethered design for the improved capturing of space debris or orbital debris using a tethered net.”
That design would not only capture the space debris, but stabilize its spinning rotation. According to Stadnyk, stabilizing the spin “gives you a tremendous advantage in orbital debris removal compared to other methods such as robotic arms or sticky surfaces, any sort of end effectors or even harpoons.”
Stadnyk said the work Hovell did took two years and encompassed a second masters. After completing the two masters, Howell is now working on a PhD while he works part-time at Obruta.
According to Stadnyk, Hovell validated his theories “in experimental scenarios and in numerical scenario scenarios, through simulations and proved that in fact, this new type of design is better than existing designs out there.”
Stadnyk came into the picture as Hovell was finishing his masters. He took on the challenge of “putting the entire problem together.”
The result was “a sort of Chaser spacecraft would go into orbit, rendezvous with any sort of debris object in question that you’d like to capture, shoot out the net, capture it and then stabilize it and tow it back down to Earth. So Kirk (Hovell) sort of laid the foundation prove that it was possible. And then I finished his work and showed that the entire mission scenario would be possible.”
At this point, and with the COO Lucas Brewster, the other co-founder, they felt there was a commercial opportunity for what they eventually called the Tethered-Net Deployer.
According to Obruta, the “Tethered-Net is scalable to accommodate multi-target active debris removal missions. When combined with multiple deployment mechanisms and end-of-life deorbiting solutions any satellite can be equipped to remove multiple objects in a single mission.”
The company will now further explore what the potential market is having received a $99k award from the Canadian Space Agency.
This however is only the beginning of an even greater marketplace they foresee.
From space debris to satellite servicing – enter the Puck
When you think about space debris you need to consider that there is existing debris, a lot of it, and we’ll call it legacy debris. But inevitably there will be new debris created.
Obruta though sees an opportunity in mitigating the potential for new debris. They aren’t the first, and won’t be the last recognize the opportunity. Companies like MDA and Astroscale are just a couple of the many who see the opportunity.
Aside from the Tethered-Net Deployer, the company has a new concept for servicing satellites. They call it Puck. How very Canadian.
Obruta describes the Puck as being able to “provides a satellite with a single interface for all future spacecraft servicing needs. With its androgynous design, the Puck allows orbital spacecraft to be easily grappled, towed, refueled, and even upgraded with modular systems to replace mission critical hardware failures.”
As illustrated below it has a “lightweight Passive form (left) for satellites seeking to be serviced, and an Active form (right) for satellites seeking to provide services.”
Stadnyk described the clear vision they have for Puck as follows.
“What we’re envisioning with the Puck is it will act as an interface, sort of a gateway for satellite refueling. It’ll work for space tugs, to have a common grapple point in order to tow satellites to specified orbits or even to tow them back down to Earth, or into graveyard orbits at the end of their life. And even in rare cases, we’re also looking to develop a modular satellite interface that say if your satellite has a solar panel that’s broken, such as on the Eutelsat (5) West B satellite that happened in February were deployed in one of it solar panels didn’t quite deploy correctly. So it’s operating at 50% power capacity, we could actually attach a modular satellite with a new solar panel through the Puck interface. And through the power and data regulation ports, you would be able to operate that solar panel like it was always on your satellite.”
He also mentioned other uses for the Puck interface. “We’re also looking at the same thing can be done with failed reaction wheels or even communication antennas. So we’re really looking to build a common port that can enable the satellite servicing for all satellites in the future, which will greatly reduce space debris, and even if If something does fail, and it’s unrecoverable, it’ll have a easily accessible port to be grappled to and towed back down to Earth.”
It’s an extremely ambitious technology development that the company is proposing to undertake. Aside from developing the technology, the company will have to convince customers to include the Puck on their satellites.
As the company enters its second year of operation, it seems they have an initial plan under development and funding to explore their concepts further.