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NASA Awards $127 Million Contract For Refueling Mission Spacecraft (gizmodo.com)
Satellites cost millions of dollars to be launched into space and there's no guarantee that they will work without electrical or mechanical problems once in orbit. NASA has recently announced that it will award a $127 million contract to a company that aims to use a robotic spacecraft to fix satellites in space, thus potentially saving millions of dollars in the long-run by fixing satellites that would otherwise be "expensive e-waste." Gizmodo reports: NASA has just announced that it will award a $127 million contract to the California-based satellite company Space Systems/Loral for Restore-L, a robotic spacecraft capable of grasping, refueling and relocating a satellite in low Earth orbit, in addition to testing technologies for future missions. SSL has three years to build the bot, which is projected to launch in 2020. Without the ability to refuel, a satellite's lifespan is restricted by the amount of propellant engineers can pack in its tank at launch. That lifespan can be cut even shorter should the spacecraft encounter any electrical or mechanical problems on orbit. As more and more satellites reach the end of their operational lifespans, government agencies and private companies have been working to remedy this problem by developing robots that can give satellites a tune-up in zero-gravity. DARPA, for instance, recently launched a program aimed at designing robots capable of servicing satellites at the hard-to-reach but highly-desirable perch of geosynchronous orbit, 22,000 miles above Earth. NASA's Satellite Servicing Division, meanwhile, has a handful of on-orbit repair and refueling technology demonstrators in the works, including a robotic arm with the same range of motion as a human arm, a navigation system designed to help robots rendezvous with moving objects in space, and Restore-L, which combines these and other capabilities into a multi-purpose space mechanic. For now, Restore-L's primary goal is to refuel Landsat 7, a critical Earth-monitoring satellite operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. If successful, the spacecraft may be modified for all sorts of other useful tasks, from mopping up the ever-growing halo of space junk encircling our planet, to servicing exciting new science missions like the Asteroid Redirect Mission, which will grab a multi-ton boulder from the surface of an asteroid and tow it back to orbit around the Moon.
That depends. Can the refueler itself be reused, for example? If you had something like Falcon 9 launching a "dumb tank" that the refueler itself would rendezvous with, the costs might be reasonable. You might be able to lift ~15 tonnes of bulk material for ~$50M-60M this way.
Also, spy sats always faced the problem of limited fuel reserves, and re-launching a KH-11 or equivalent surely can't involve cost savings compared to refueling.
Ezekiel 23:20
Very true but when most of your potential customers are in geostationary orbit and you have months to work your way from one to the other it's not so ugly.
Readers, think in ellipses not one dimensional thinking with concentric circles. Not easy maybe but that's how it's done.
I very strongly suspect that the complete mission plan will worked out on ground before launch and the thing will be sent to work on X number of known satellites with specific known tasks to complete and specific parts. The alternative - if it's going to be a general purpose thing working for years it's going to have to get fuel and parts shipped to it anyway.
This is all done, solved and trodden to death. For one, GPS was always a primarily (US) military thing, so their customers received a better service (i.e. accuracy).
Moreover, they do provide the service to civilians at no cost (which is nice, hey, thanks[1]!), but reserve the right to disrupt the signal in case of conflict. This was, BTW, one of the leading arguments in favor of creating GPS's european sister, Galileo (and probably of GLONASS).
[1] I do say that as an EUsian. Most sincerely. Mind you: I don't like/understand many things you USians do, and I complain loudly at times, but this is one of those you do run circles around us: making achievements by the state available to the general public. Chapeau.
It was submitted to the firehose and voted on to the front page. You have helped justify by commenting. Cheers. Oh by the way, space is considered nerdy, I guess you never noticed before.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
How is this not news for nerds? Nerds like space, or at least some do, and this is about making stuff last longer in space.
Do you think your car drives you into a wall as soon as you drive into a tunnel?
GPS does not override sensor data.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Well, it's actually $3.75 billion. And it's not one, but two aircraft, so that's 1.875 billion apiece. That's to ensure the executive branch can function in a military crisis while one of the planes is being service.
Deduct 375 million apiece for the airframe, and we're talking 1.5 billion dollars in customization for each aircraft, including aerial refueling capabilities, which on a two-off job is a craft job; no economies of scale. Add defense and countermeasure capabilities that Air Force is extremely close-lipped about. Is there a actual escape pod on Air Force One like in the movie? Well probably not, but I'm sure the idea was at least contemplated. However it's pretty certain that if someone locks onto AF1 with a targeting radar the aircraft will have options that a stock 747-8 doesn't.
Next outfit each one so it can function as a replacement for the West Wing and the Situation Room for up to two months -- that's a deducible requirement based on the known fact that the aircraft stores 2000 meals for 100 people. That means three-of-a-kind electronics and communications systems (one for each airframe and one for the actual White House).
Is 3.75 billion too much for that? Probably. But it's hard to think of any weapon development program since WW2 that is less extravagant.
By that standard 127 million for an orbital repair robot is an almost inconceivable bargain, even if you factor in a 5x cost overrun.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
LOL!
More than likely a stealth satellite killer which can move from one to another planting remotely triggered destructive devices.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!