page_title: Canadarm
section_title: Design and capabilities
hierarchical_section_title: Canadarm / Design and capabilities
caption_attribution_description: English: Astronaut F. Story Musgrave, anchored on the end of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) arm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to install protective covers on the magnetometers. Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman inside payload bay, assisted Musgrave with final servicing tasks on the telescope, wrapping up five days of space walks.
context_page_description: Canadarm or Canadarm1 is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, maneuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Canadarm was always paired with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, which was used to inspect the exterior of the Shuttle for damage to the thermal protection system.
context_section_description: The original Canadarm was capable of deploying payloads weighing up to 65,000 pounds (29,000 kg) in space. In the mid-1990s, the arm control system was redesigned to increase the payload capability to 586,000 pounds (266,000 kg) in order to support space station assembly operations. While able to maneuvre payloads with the mass of a loaded bus in space, the arm motors cannot lift the arm's own weight when on the ground. NASA therefore developed a model of the arm for use at its training facility within the Johnson Space Center located in Houston, Texas. The Canadarm can also retrieve, repair and deploy satellites, provide a mobile extension ladder for extravehicular activity crew members for work stations or foot restraints, and be used as an inspection aid to allow the flight crew members to view the orbiter's or payload's surfaces through a television camera on the Canadarm.
  The basic Canadarm configuration consists of a manipulator arm, a Canadarm display and control panel, including rotational and translational hand controllers at the orbiter aft flight deck flight crew station, and a manipulator controller interface unit that interfaces with the orbiter computer. One crew member operates the Canadarm from the aft flight deck control station, and a second crew member usually assists with television camera operations. This allows the Canadarm operator to view Canadarm operations through the aft flight deck payload and overhead windows and through the closed-circuit television monitors at the aft flight deck station.
  The Canadarm is outfitted with an explosive-based mechanism to allow the arm to be jettisoned. This safety system would have allowed the Orbiter's payload bay doors to be closed in the event that the arm failed in an extended position and was not able to be retracted.
  The Canadarm is 15.2 metres (50 ft) long and 38 centimetres (15 in) diameter with six degrees of freedom. It weighs 410 kilograms (900 lb) by itself, and 450 kilograms (990 lb) as part of the total system. The Canadarm has six joints that correspond roughly to the joints of the human arm, with shoulder yaw and pitch joints, an elbow pitch joint, and wrist pitch, yaw, and roll joints. The end effector is the unit at the end of the wrist that grapples the payload's grapple fixture. The two lightweight boom segments are called the upper and lower arms. The upper boom connects the shoulder and elbow joints, and the lower boom connects the elbow and wrist joints.
caption: Story Musgrave, anchored on the end of the Canadarm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the telescope during STS-61.
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