Video presentation below “Rendezvous with Starfish Space” starts at 27 minutes and 36 seconds.
The presentation opened with Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett, Director of Strategic Relationships Michael Madrid, and On-Orbit Services, Commercial Space Policy Alex Coultrup.
Starfish Space explained its upcoming technology, the Otter pup, is an Orbital Service Vehicle, which can work in GEO or LEO with long term goals to enable human activity in space and on orbit. Bennett claimed that orbital servicing can unlock a wave of what could be done with human activity in space. Other companies, such as D-Orbit, are trying to catch on the the orbital servicing wave as well.
In the presentation, Bennett hoped to answer the question, “Can this be at a price point where people care about?” He wants to make orbital spacecraft servicing “affordable and available.” He believed this can be done by bringing technical autonomy to spacecraft.
The presentation continued with the other co-founder of Starfish, Austin Link who unveiled a video on the Otter pup and its technology. He saw much promise in the act when two spacecraft are allowed to come together and dock.
Otterpup has three key technologies: Cephalopod, which is autonomous guidance software, Nautilus, which is an electrostatic capture mechanism, and Cetacean, the binocular computer vision system.
The presentation ended with Coultrup talking with Jesse Adams, System Engineer. Adams was excited that the future of spacecraft is by giving options to servicing satellites in LEO.
The Otter pup is planned to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2023.