ARM Technology: Microspine Gripper
Get a grip! This is the Microspine Gripper, one of the robotic subsystems aboard the Asteroid Redirect Mission’s robotic spacecraft that will capture a boulder from a near-Earth asteroid and ferry it to cislunar space.
Tested and assembled at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, each of the Microspine Gripper’s approximately 2,000 hooks drags along the surface of the boulder until a strong grasp is achieved. After finding that secure hold, an internal drill has the ability to pierce the asteroid in any amount of gravity.
Learn more about the Asteroid Redirect Mission