An astronaut, anchored to a foot restraint, prepares to investigate the asteroid boulder.
The Asteroid Redirect Vehicle conducts one of the 1 km fly-bys that are used to characterize and image the asteroid…
The Orion spacecraft with two crew inside approaches to dock with the Asteroid Redirect Vehicle .
An astronaut uses a covered chisel tool to extract a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth.
The Asteroid Redirect Vehicle travels toward a stable orbit around the moon with the captured asteroid boulder. The vehicle’s solar…
Microspine grippers on the end of the robotics arms are used to grasp and secure the boulder. The microspines use…
The asteroid redirect vehicle demonstrates the “gravity tractor” planetary defense technique on a hazardous-size asteroid. The gravity tractor method leverages…
Once the boulder is secured, the ARV will mechanically push off, or “hop,” from the surface and then use thrusters…
Close-up of the Asteroid Redirect Vehicledeparting the asteroid after capturing a boulder from its surface.
