Slashdot Mirror
New Way of Extending Satellite Life Saves Millions
coondoggie writes "A new technique to save aging satellites promises to save millions of dollars by extending the life of communications spacecraft. A process developed by researchers from Purdue University and Lockheed Martin has already saved $60 million for unnamed broadcasters by extending the service life of two communications satellites. In a nutshell the technique works by applying an advanced simulation and a method that equalizes the amount of propellant in satellite fuel tanks so that the satellite consumes all of the fuel before being retired from service. Some aging communications satellites are each equipped with four fuel tanks. If one of the tanks empties before the others, the satellite loses control and should be decommissioned, wasting the remaining fuel in the other tanks."
It really sounds like they just applied load balancing to the fuel tanks...
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
It's one of those things that's typical of rocket science, I'd say. Look at the Voyager or Pioneer programs, or the Mars rovers. Astronomy gearheads are geniuses at getting extra mileage out of their projects.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
You mean create a single point of failure?
Wish I had mod points for you for bringing me back down to Earth, so to speak. (why yes, that IS a selfish attitude!)
My first thought when I read the summary was along the lines of this:
WTF?!?!? We've been building semi's (18 wheelers) and satellites about the same amount of time- have the rocket scientists not heard of crossover fuel lines? (they connect left and right tanks and allow for equalization of the fuel level), then I thought...Hmmm...Space, the final frontier...Oh wait! Uhmmm atmospheric pressure, constant gravity from a predictable direction, reasonably constant temps and density- in a moderate range....none of this applies! WTF do we do now?
I hereby revoke my armchair Astrophysics and Rocket Scientist privileges for a week.
Mechanical/electrical engineering in space is no trivial thing. Obvious Earth-bound solutions seem to fail frequently when applied to cold vacuum with micro-gravity. It may not always seem to be so difficult from here, but up there it could be a whole new problem.
Hopefully, even their most inaccurate 'fuel gauge' is better than the one in my car...I either have a quarter of a tank (when FULL) or it reads Empty below an actual 3/4 tank, and you have to use the odometer (Oh Sh*t!, was it reset last fuel-up?!?!?) to guesstimate what the real fuel level may be.
Yes, you all can laugh at me for this. My only semi-reasonable defense can be that I just walked in from work 10 minutes ago, after dealing with John Q Public and Josephine Sixpack for the last 10 hours. I mistakenly bit this worm, dunked the bobber, and now am caught...hook, line, and sinker.
My bad, but I'm at least mouse/man enough to admit it!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti