The new robot grappler arm definitely seems like an advancement on previous designs. The MEV was, as I recall, designed to mate with only a specific set of models of geostationary satellite bus and, for lack of a better term, ram a probe up its backside to grab onto it.
replythe probe ramming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJZ3xmuom0M
One of the things that people who don't pay attention to space based infrastructure find odd, if you tell them, is that in the entire history of manned spaceflight no human has ever gone to geostationary orbit.
The average person not interested in space won't know the difference between leo and geo in the first place.
replyWhy would we? More importantly, why would anyone go to orbit period when you can do it with a robot.
replyYou wouldn't. Ionizing radiation at GEO altitude quickly exceeds your lifetime exposure dose.
replyThe Apollo (and Artemis II) astronauts went through GEO inside a metal capsule going as fast as they could.
a relatively detailed analysis of estimated radiation for a 650 day trip to mars:
replyhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9916691/
from other sources If I'm reading things right, one estimate of a round trip to mars would be 1000 millisieverts, which is considerable, the maximum allowed annual dose for a US radiation industry worker is 50mSv.