Satellite refuelling system and method

A system mounted on a servicing spacecraft for transferring fluid to a client satellite, the client satellite including a tank and a fluid port, the tank being coupled to the fluid port, the fluid port including a fluid valve having a valve actuation nut for opening and closing the fluid valve and an access valve cap on the fluid valve, comprising:

• a fluid transfer system for transferring a fluid from a fluid tank on the servicing spacecraft to the fluid tank on the client satellite, wherein the fluid is selected from the group consisting of fuel and oxidizer;
• a robotic arm having a tool for coupling a fluid line to the fluid port and for decoupling therefrom;
• at least one sensor for determining a relative displacement between said tool and the fluid port;
• a controller in communication with said at least one sensor and said robotic arm, for controlling operation of said robotic arm based on feedback from said at least one sensor;
• and
• wherein said tool is capable of removing and replacing the access valve cap, coupling the fluid valve to the fluid port, and actuating the valve actuation nut to open and close the fluid valve.

A system mounted on a servicing spacecraft for transferring fluid to a client satellite, the client satellite including a tank and a fluid port, the tank being coupled to the fluid port, the fluid port including a fluid valve having an access valve cap, comprising:

• docking means for docking to the client satellite;
• fluid transfer means for transferring at least one fluid from at least one fluid tank to at least one fluid storage tank on the client satellite, wherein the fluid is selected from the group consisting of fuel and oxidizer;
• tool means for removing and replacing the access valve cap, for coupling a fluid line to the fluid port and decoupling therefrom, and means for opening and closing the fluid valve;
• sensing means for determining a relative displacement between said tool means and the fluid port;
• positioning means connected to said tool means, for positioning said tool means with respect to the fluid port for coupling and decoupling the fluid line to the fluid port;
• control means in communication with said sensing means, said positioning means, and said tool means, for controlling operation of said positioning means and said tool means based on feedback from said sensing means;
• wherein said control means is a mixed autonomous/teleoperation control system including:
• a computer controller programmed to operate some or all of the fluid transferring operations, and a teleoperation system configured to have a human teleoperator remotely operate some or all of the system through a user interface, and wherein said mixed autonomous/teleoperation control system is configured to work in any one of these three modes, including a first autonomous mode in which said computer controller controls all fluid transferring operations, a second teleoperations mode in which said human teleoperator remotely operates the system through a user interface to control all fluid transferring operations, and a third supervised autonomy mode in which the system is autonomously operated but all autonomous operations are monitored, can be halted and must be approved by a human operator;
• and
• wherein said sensing means includes at least two video cameras.