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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 2)
WRANGLER will accomplish these functions by combining two innovative technologies that have been developed by TUI: the GRASP deployable net capture device, and the SpinCASTER tether deployer/winch mechanism. Successful testing of both technologies in a microgravity environment has established these technology components at mid-TRL maturity. The leverage offered by using a tether to extract angular momentum from a rotating space object enables a very small nanosatellite system to de-spin a very massive asteroid or large spacecraft. The WRANGLER system is suitable for an incremental development program that will validate the technology through an affordable test flight in which a nanosatellite launched on a rideshare opportunity would capture and de-spin the upper state used to launch it.
The Phase I WRANGLER effort has demonstrated the feasibility and value of using a small tethered nanosatellite to accomplish capture and de-spin of space objects for future NASA and commercial efforts to acquire space resources from asteroids and actively remediate the space debris population. WRANGLER provides significant benefits to ARM, ADR and future commercial space resource development efforts by replacing hundreds or thousands of kilograms of propellant with a small, low-mass, low-cost system capable of enabling space systems to safely gain control of large space objects.
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