Space Tugboat to Refuel Satellites

Faeton sent in this article about a proposed space tugboat to refuel aging satellites. Looks like they're just going to bolt on some extra thrusters with a new fuel supply, guidance system, etc.

Comments

Is it really a tugboat?

[cperciva]

The title calls this a "tugboat", but as far as I can see from the article, it is really just an extra fuel tank and set of rockets.

A real tugboat would be very cool indeed -- something which could grab a satellite, move it up back into the correct orbit, and then let go and move on to the next satellite -- but it looks like this is rather less so.

new machines built for space are few.. sad

[buswolley]

This article saddens me in this way: Technology such as this should be the natural, and MUNDANE, result of an "agressive space exploration policy". But its not, because the new machines we build for space are few and between. AND this lack of 'space ware' makes this FERRY newsworthy on /. . I guess it just saddens me that we dont go out and make this solar system ours(humankinds). but not Microsofts.

Re:Space elevators

[Anonymous Coward]

If you were the tech/space advisor; would you want to build a space elevator, or send a group of astronaunts to Mars? Most of the non-tech people would say Mars I think.

The space elevator would have a bigger return on the investment though. If you told people that they could ride into space and spend a week in a orbital hotel for $10,000 - $20,000. It would earn money like crazy. Then you could launch satellites, probes, and repair missions from space. Or you could mine some asteroids or the Moon and easily transport material back to the surface. And the nuclear waste problem wouldn't be a problem if it got sent into a gas planet or out of the solar system.

Garbage collection

[jukal]

Both of the articles mentioned that fuel is not the only problem, the rest of the satellite has degraded as well. So, why don't they come up with a good garbage collection method to periodically get rid of the old sattelites. This could also partially answer the problem that it's starting to be pretty crowded there in the orbit already.

getting rid of old satellites

[forkboy]

I'm curious why they haven't started using something like this to remove old satellites. A remote controlled vehicle equipped with a mass delivery system (rail gun, propellent, hell it could even ram them) that would deliver enough force to knock the old satellites out of orbit and maybe on a vector towards the sun where they will be quietly taken apart into component atoms.

Any atronomists/physicists know what the gravitational pull of the earth is in orbit and how much force would be necessary to kick, say, a 2000 lb satellite to escape velocity?