I’ll start off by showing you the “Canadarm”.
Canada’s most famous robotic and technological achievement, the “Canadarm” made it in space on November 13, 1981. The $110-million was largely carried out by the National Research Council of Canada.
The arm first flew in November 1981 on the second space shuttle flight and performed well, exceeding all design goals. It was declared operational one year later, after 3 successful test flights. Since it first flew, Canadarm has become an important symbol of Canadian prowess in technological fields.
This technology is a remote manipulator attached on a shuttle, or the “Canadarm” is used to deploy, capture and repair satellites from a space shuttle. It can also position astronauts, maintaining equipment and move cargo.
The 15.2m arm functions like a human arm, it has 6 joints altogether, 2 at its shoulder, 1 on the elbow and 3 at its wrist. Each joint is also powered by a optically, commutated brushless DC motor driven by a specially designed servo-power amplifier
This technology can lift up to 30 tonnes in weight in space while being monitored and operated from an indoor shuttle flight deck and it can accurately place objects by 5cm. The wrist of the arm has a “eye” which is a camera that is monitored by a astronaut in the indoor flight deck.
The demanding strength requirements and stiffness must include Aerospace materials such as titanium, stainless steel and ultra-high modulus of graphite epoxy. For cover harsh conditions the arm is entirely covered with a multilayer insulation system, consisting of alternate layers of goldized kapton, dacron scrim cloth and a beta cloth (fibre glass) outer covering. In extremely cold conditions, thermostatically controlled electric heaters protect critical electronics.
The Canadarm is designed to have a minimum lifetime of 10 years and to used up for at least 100 space missions.
The Canadarm is also affiliated with a number of Space agency’s such as NASA.
The movement of this structure is the following :
| Length | 15.2 m (50 ft.) |
| Diameter | 38 cm (15 in.) |
| Weight on Earth | 410 kg (905 lbs.) |
| Speed of movement | - unloaded: 60 cm a second - loaded: 6 cm a second |
| Upper and lower arm booms | Carbon composite material |
| Wrist joint | Three degrees of movement |
| Elbow joint | One degree of movement |
| Shoulder joint | Two degrees of movement |
| Translational hand controller | Right, up, down forward, and backward movement of the arm |
| Rotational hand controller | Controls the pitch, roll, and yaw of the arm |
I think there are no negative points of the Canadarm , It is purely a Canadian technology and has made moving objects in space place to place more easier.
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