POTSDAM — Clarkson University Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Michael Bazzocchi has been awarded three U.S. Space Force STTR subcontracts with Ombra worth $254,416 as part of the first SpaceWERX Space Prime effort, Orbital Prime.

The project also includes funding from the Clarkson Center for Advanced Material Processing (CAMP), a New York State Center for Advanced Technology (CAT).

Ombra and Clarkson will help to develop technologies to refuel, repair, assemble and manufacture satellites while in orbit as well as technology to detect and remove obsolete spacecraft and fragments.

Ombra collaborates with a range of business partners to provide cutting-edge technology solutions to the U.S. Special Operations Forces and the Department of Defense.

Bazzocchi, the principal investigator on the grants, directs Clarkson's Astronautics and Robotics Laboratory (ASTRO Lab).

"As more and more spacecraft are launched into Earth orbit, the chance of collision with defunct satellites and other space debris increases each year," says Bazzocchi. "These projects will develop methods to detect and eliminate some of these hazards as well as create new approaches to manufacture and assemble new satellites right in orbit."