DARPA to build satellite repair robot
DARPA has started a new project to develop a robot satellite designed to refuel and repair satellites.
I wonder if this is linked to the satellite refueling demo that has been doing simulations of exactly this kind of repair work on ISS for the past five years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
DARPA has started a new project to develop a robot satellite designed to refuel and repair satellites.
I wonder if this is linked to the satellite refueling demo that has been doing simulations of exactly this kind of repair work on ISS for the past five years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Satellites need to be standardized to be repaired. The Air Force is probably large enough to create their own standards, hopefully to be followed by others. But then there’s the problem with orbits. Spy satellites use low orbits with high inclinations. It is expensive to move between such orbits. GPS satellites are also out of the market because they have very different inclinations. The market is in geostationary orbit and private companies. A third problem is that the economic lifetime of a satellite might be much shorter than its technical lifetime. It will often be more profitable to launch a new satellite with the latest technology and higher capacity, than to repair or refuel an old one. It is so much cheaper and less risky to launch the extra fuel together with the satellite to begin with, than equipping it for refueling and then launching extra fuel separately and docking and so many things could go wrong.
Pushing failed satellites into a graveyard orbit should be an attractive purpose for an Solar electric ion propelled towing satellite in GEO. Given that there are some “property” laws which require satellites to clear the area when they malfunction or within a certain maximum time or to make place for the highest bidder or however.