When NASA and Johnson Engineering of Houston needed Titanium components for the SRMS (Shuttle Remote Manipulator System) training simulator for the Space Shuttle, they turned to Titanium Fabrication Corporation for the expertise and experience needed to handle the precision components and critical welding.

The Titanium manipulator is shown in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Sonny Carter Training Facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas during a training exercise.

Water simulates the weightlessness experienced in orbit by the astronauts. The component on which work is being done is a mock-up of the first section of the International Space Station, which was launched into orbit recently. The divers are there for safety.

Although the flight manipulator arm is made of aluminum, aluminum was unable to stand up to the corrosive environment caused by chlorides in the water, nor did it have the strength to handle the components outside a weightless environment.

The challenge in developing the simulator was the requirement that the simulator be:
	Functionally the same as the actual flight arm
	Volumetrically no larger
	Designed to continuously move in and out of the water
	Designed to sustain frequent load changes
	Made of corrosion-resistant materials
	Easily maintained.

To minimize the weight of the structural components, NASA and Johnson Engineering chose high strength Grade 5 (Ti 6Al-4V), a weldable Titanium alloy with 120,000 psi yield strength and 130,000 psi ultimate strength, yet less than 60% of the weight of a steel alloy. This enabled Johnson Engineering to design a manipulator that exactly duplicates the real aluminum units, improving the realism of each training exercise.

Titanium Fabrication Corporation supplied the fabricated knuckle joint components, the arm tubes, and end connections. Each arm tube is 13.78 inches in diameter and 152" long with a wall thickness of only 0.090". The tubes are butt welded to heavier end components that bolt to the hydraulic motors that activate each joint in the training unit.

The Titanium components for the Space Shuttle training unit were supplied by Titanium Fabrication Corporation in 1996. Titanium Fabrication Corporation is building components for a second arm which will be used for training for the International Space Station. The arm will be mounted on a gantry unit which will be attached to the space station itself during erection. The arm is similar in size to the one built for Space Shuttle training, but is designed to allow it to attach to the station structure from either end so it can crawl hand over hand along the structure.

NASA trains nearly 120 hours for each 10 hours of actual time in space. The rigorous training allows astronauts to approach each part of a spacewalk with increased confidence, minimizes the time, and makes operations safer for the astronauts.