38°59′34.4″N76°56′22.0″W / 38.992889°N 76.939444°W /38.992889; -76.939444
.jpg)
_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
TheSpace Systems Laboratory (SSL) is part of theAerospace Engineering Department and A. James Clark School of Engineering at theUniversity of Maryland inCollege Park, Maryland. The Space Systems Laboratory is centered on the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, a 50-foot-diameter (15 m), 25-foot-deep (7.6 m)neutral buoyancy pool used to simulate themicrogravity environment of space. The only such facility housed at a university, Maryland'sneutral buoyancy tank is used for undergraduate and graduate research at the Space Systems Lab. Research in Space Systems emphasizes space robotics, human factors, applications ofartificial intelligence and the underlying fundamentals of space simulation. There are currently five robots being tested, including Ranger, a four-armed satellite servicing robot, and SCAMP, a six-degree of freedom free-flying underwater camera platform. Ranger was funded byNASA starting in 1992, and was to be a technological demonstration of orbital satellite servicing.NASA was never able to manifest it for launch and the program was defunded circa 2006. For example, Ranger development work at the SSL continues, albeit at a slower pace; Ranger was used to demonstrate robotic servicing techniques forNASA's proposed robotic Hubble Servicing Mission.
The Space Systems Lab was founded atMIT in 1976, by faculty members Renee Miller and J.W. Mar.[1] Its early studies in space construction techniques led to theEASE (Experimental Assembly of Structures in EVA) flight experiment which flew on Space Shuttle missionSTS-61-B in 1985.
In 1990, lab director Dr. Dave Akin moved the lab to the University of Maryland. The Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, or NBRF, was completed in 1992. Current projects include theMX-2 suit, a simplified neutral buoyancyspacesuit for use in EVA research; Power Glove, a prototype motorized spacesuit glove which will help reduce astronaut hand fatigue; and TSUNAMI, an apparatus to test human neuromuscular adaptation in different gravitational fields and different simulations of weightlessness.[2][3]
Along with labs atCarnegie Mellon andStanford, the SSL is part of the Institute for Dexterous Space Robotics.
