Page 120 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

interfaces, and four new tool adapters for the RRM When the airlock was opened, the slide table extended
Multi-Function Tool. These task boards launched outside the space station, giving Dextre an easy
a new Dextre tool—the Visual Inspection Poseable platform from which to retrieve and subsequently
Invertebrate Robot (VIPIR)—a snake-like inspection tool install the new hardware.
that was built by the Satellite Servicing Projects Division With the help of the twin-armed Dextre robot, the
(SSPD) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. additional RRM task boards and the RRM tools, the
The VIPIR was used to peer inside plumbing lines or RRM team worked its way through intermediate steps
under thermal blankets. The RRM On-Orbit Transfer leading up to cryogen replenishment. The RRM and
Cage (ROTC), was also brought up to secure the new Dextre duo retrofitted valves with new hardware, peered
hardware components in the Japanese airlock so that into dark recesses with the aid of VIPIR, replaced
Dextre could grab the components once they were electrical connectors and created a pressure-tight vent-
transferred outside the space station. line seal. The RRM and Dextre stopped short of actual
Astronauts mounted the ROTC on the airlock table cryogen transfer for this round of tasks.
within the Japanese Experiment Module, and then RRM Phase 2 was completed in 2015.
installed the task board and VIPIR onto the ROTC.

The RRM investigation (center, on platform) uses Canadarm2, the ISS robotic arm, and the Canadian Dextre
robot (right) to demonstrate satellite-servicing tasks.
Image credit: NASA

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