Core Technologies
Sticky Boom™: Altius is developing integrated rendezvous & docking solutions based around its patent-pending Sticky Boom™ "mechanical tractor-beam" technology. Sticky Boom™ can firmly grip to surfaces made of any material (metal, plastics, glass, even asteroids) using a resettable adhesive gripper mechanism, and can do so at the end of a long (10-100m) extendable boom. These features enable capture of “non-cooperative” objects which lack pre-installed docking targets, in a fashion that is much safer than legacy approaches for rendezvous and docking. Altius has built and flight-demonstrated two generations of Sticky Boom™.
Direct to Station (D2S™) Deliveries: Combining Sticky Boom™ with a station-based relative navigation and control system, Altius’s Direct to Station system can bring existing upper stages with passive payloads to space facilities without the use of tugs or dedicated delivery vehicles. This enables launch solutions for the nanosatellite market to also provide just-in-time small package delivery services to the International Space Station and other future space facilities.
For more information on Sticky Boom™ or the Direct to Station delivery solution, please read the Altius updates blog, or feel free to contact us directly.