A big problem: The long, movable gripper arms have to work under the most extreme conditions in space. And that’s exactly where the expertise of FOTEC comes into play, the research subsidiary of the Wiener Neustadt University of Applied Sciences, which has many years of experience in space technology. The main focus of their work is to simulate enormous temperature fluctuations. For this purpose, a cooling system and heating system were installed in a large, movable vacuum chamber in a very short time. “We can now reach temperatures there from minus to plus 150 degrees,” explains team leader Werner Engel.
Danger to satellites – local researchers are cleaning up in space
