Orbiting 'Rest Stops' Could Repair Crumbling Satellites

astroengine writes: Satellites are numerous, vital to many modern activities, and incredibly expensive to build and launch. They're constructed with redundancy and simplicity in mind because if something goes wrong after the satellite reaches orbit, we can't do much to help it. Now, NASA is talking about building an orbital service station that can perform maintenance, repair, and even refueling operations on these satellites. "Is there a way working with humans and robots together to extend the useful life of satellites, by fixing them and by not allowing fuel to spill out, but give it more propellant, close it up and send it on its way?," said Benjamin Reed, deputy director of the Satellite Servicing Program Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Yes, We have the technologies to be able to do it."

Comments

This will be fun...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The technology to safely capture and repair a satellite that may not be in a position to help you(no fuel, engines offline, software issues, etc.) presumably doesn't differ so very much from that required to capture and modify somebody else's satellite, unless it is in the position to evade you with some enthusiasm, or otherwise make a nuisance of itself.

It would be a tad tricky to snag somebody else's satellite without ground control noticing that something is amiss; but the first time a satellite gets snagged 'on humanitarian grounds', purely to safeguard its orbit from possible debris of course, I predict some exiting diplomatic fun.

What about spy satellites?

[lhowaf]

This makes me wonder if spy (or other sensitive) satellites have tamper-detection built in.

Of course we can do it

[phantomfive]

But would repairing a satellite be cheaper than just launching a new one?