Sunday, December 18, 2016

A New Era in Reusable Satellites

Me, "If we can reuse rockets, we should reuse and refuel already launched satellites. It just makes practical sense and is cheaper than launching a replacement satellite."




From article, "NASA'S NEW SATELLITE WILL CIRCLE THE GLOBE REPAIRING BROKEN SPACE ROBOTS
(In addition to servicing satellites that would have otherwise been lost, NASA thinks Restore-L could pave the way for orbital refueling stations and manufacturing centers. It could also help to clean up debris that endangers other spacecraft in orbit.

When a satellite runs out of fuel or fails to deploy its solar panels, who you gonna call? Right now, nobody. There's currently no reliable way to physically repair things in orbit, which means a multimillion-dollar satellite can be rendered useless by a small glitch. But NASA has been eyeing a solution. This week, the space agency announced it's setting aside $127 million to fund a satellite that repairs and refuels others in orbit.)

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