Robot Gas Attendants Could Keep Old Satellites Chugging
Robot gas attendants could keep old satellites chugging.
MDA has a contract, and a good design. If they succeed in refueling an old communications satellite with a robot, it will be fundamentally change the launch industry. If satellites don’t have to be replaced as often, there will less need for launches, reducing the demand for rockets.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Robot gas attendants could keep old satellites chugging.
MDA has a contract, and a good design. If they succeed in refueling an old communications satellite with a robot, it will be fundamentally change the launch industry. If satellites don’t have to be replaced as often, there will less need for launches, reducing the demand for rockets.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
But you still have to launch the robot. And if you have to go through all the trouble of launcing something, a newer and or better satellite may be the better option.
Also, unless the robot has a REALLY HUGE fule supply of it’s own, you’d need to launch one robot per refuel mission.
No, suppose you boost a 30-40 ton tanker with say 25 tons of hydrazine — that ought to be a stock Falcon 9 or Atlas mission. The tanker drifts about earth a bit above or below a geostationary orbit, rendezvousing with several comsats which it supplies with say 200 gallons of fuel. That should keep the comsats going another 5-10 years, and keep the tanker manuevering for maybe just as long.
The question is, does it make sense to prolong the life of comsats in this fashion? Yes, it’s undoubtably cheaper to keep a 2 billion dollar satellite going for fifteen years rather than say ten. OTOH, a 10-15 year old comsat is probably pretty damned obsolescent; it might just be better to accept the 2-3 billion cost of replacement if a new satellite has sufficient capacity
My understanding is that even the notional (but not yet existent) Falcon Heavy would only place 53 tons into LEO (and that would require the – interesting – cross feed capability) the Falcon Heavy delivery to GEO would have to be considerably less (and the capacities of the Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 are already considerably less than the claimed capability of the Falcon Heavy).
Additionally the rendezvous/docking capabilities would require mass for engines, tankage and fuel.
So the idea that either the Falcon 9, the Atlas 5 or even the Falcon Heavy is going to deliver a total of 25 tons of propellant to several different GEO satellites is problematic at best.
I’m stealing from Wikipedia:
“Falcon Heavy, previously known as the Falcon 9 Heavy, is a spaceflight launch system that uses rocket engines currently being designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Multiple variants are planned with payloads of 53,000 kilograms (120,000 lb) to low Earth orbit, 19,000 kilograms (42,000 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit, 16,000 kilograms (35,000 lb) to translunar trajectory, and 14,000 kilograms (31,000 lb) towards Mars…. ”
So, not 25 tons of fuel at Geosynchrous Earth Orbit, only 21 tons, using a Falcon Heavy rather than a Falcon 9.
I should cut my throat with chagrin for this inaccuracy?