An Application of Matrices to Space Shuttle Technology

Shuttle's Robot Arm Snares Errant Satellite [Wilford 1984al; Robot Arm Knocks Troublesome Ice Off Space Shuttle [Wilford 1984bl. These are headlines which appeared on newspaper articles about space shuttle flights. The orbiter, which is the plane-like part of the shuttle system, has many functions. One is to shuttle satellites into space and to retrieve disabled satellites for repair. The robot arm on the orbiter, officially known as the remote manipulator system (RMS), usually plays the primary role in the deployment and capture of satellites. This article describes how mathematics has been applied to develop a computer graphics aid for the operator of this robot arm. The mathematical techniques are surprisingly simple; they involve the linear transformations found in most elementary linear algebra texts.