NASA's Shuttle Experiment To Test In-Flight Repair & Refueling
@neha-3vibjn
•
Oct 22, 2024
Oct 22, 2024
1.1K
We often hear and practically carry out the servicing of our vehicles day in and day out, yeah nothing new to that, but scientists are now on their way to provide the same maintenance facilities to the satellites as well.
#-Link-Snipped-#
It may not seem true at the first glance but this is what an experiment shuttle Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station could lead to! It aims at providing the emergency roadside services to the satellites in case of any breakdowns or failures. There are as many as 450 government and commercial satellites equipping us with weather, communication and other facilities operating at miles of distances above the globe. If all of them run out of fuel someday and be thrown away, then what? Quite a possible situation! One possible solution suggested by Ben Reed, deputy project manager of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland- "If a robot could go up and refuel it, you wouldn't have to throw it away." So this job has been assigned to ROSIE: Technically called the Robotic Refueling Mission or the RRM, Rosie is a 550 pound washing machine size box equipped with a set of tools that performs the respective tool operation on the satellite. Rosie would not actually refuel or repair anything but with the help of a Canadian built robot- Dextre it would demonstrate that such fuelling and repairing of satellites is possible in space, something never envisioned before! NASA envisions a not-too-distant future in which a fleet of commercially operated tow trucks zip from one hobbled spacecraft to another to add fuel, help deploy a stuck solar array or antenna, or shove the satellite into a safe "graveyard" orbit, potentially saving billions of dollars. These tow trucks would in turn be filled by some other orbiting tanker.
NASA’s first test for this mechanism will be done on the weather satellite expected to run out of fuel in 2013. The ultimate goal of the institution is not just running a roadside repair business but to provide advanced commercial services by potentially reducing their risks. In his call to the space station President Barack Obama said the refueling experiment was "a good reminder of how NASA technology and research often times has huge spillover effects into the commercial sector, and makes it all that much more important in terms of peoples' day-to-day lives."
A recent study at NASA estimates the cost of such a refueling satellite to be over $ 1 billion. Apart from the technology there are other legal and insurance questions also that are very likely to arise. Frank Cepollina, the program manager at Goddard whose team helped making up repairs at the Hubble Space Telescope says that infinite number of issues do arise with every new project but making new satellites and discoveries are just because of the demand of increasing bandwidth that is sure to come with advancements in technologies!
"I'm sure we're going to have American commercial companies that are going to stand up and take an interest," he said. "The more satellites you put up there … the more probability there is that you're go to need a tow truck."
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
It may not seem true at the first glance but this is what an experiment shuttle Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station could lead to! It aims at providing the emergency roadside services to the satellites in case of any breakdowns or failures. There are as many as 450 government and commercial satellites equipping us with weather, communication and other facilities operating at miles of distances above the globe. If all of them run out of fuel someday and be thrown away, then what? Quite a possible situation! One possible solution suggested by Ben Reed, deputy project manager of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland- "If a robot could go up and refuel it, you wouldn't have to throw it away." So this job has been assigned to ROSIE: Technically called the Robotic Refueling Mission or the RRM, Rosie is a 550 pound washing machine size box equipped with a set of tools that performs the respective tool operation on the satellite. Rosie would not actually refuel or repair anything but with the help of a Canadian built robot- Dextre it would demonstrate that such fuelling and repairing of satellites is possible in space, something never envisioned before! NASA envisions a not-too-distant future in which a fleet of commercially operated tow trucks zip from one hobbled spacecraft to another to add fuel, help deploy a stuck solar array or antenna, or shove the satellite into a safe "graveyard" orbit, potentially saving billions of dollars. These tow trucks would in turn be filled by some other orbiting tanker.
NASA’s first test for this mechanism will be done on the weather satellite expected to run out of fuel in 2013. The ultimate goal of the institution is not just running a roadside repair business but to provide advanced commercial services by potentially reducing their risks. In his call to the space station President Barack Obama said the refueling experiment was "a good reminder of how NASA technology and research often times has huge spillover effects into the commercial sector, and makes it all that much more important in terms of peoples' day-to-day lives."
A recent study at NASA estimates the cost of such a refueling satellite to be over $ 1 billion. Apart from the technology there are other legal and insurance questions also that are very likely to arise. Frank Cepollina, the program manager at Goddard whose team helped making up repairs at the Hubble Space Telescope says that infinite number of issues do arise with every new project but making new satellites and discoveries are just because of the demand of increasing bandwidth that is sure to come with advancements in technologies!
"I'm sure we're going to have American commercial companies that are going to stand up and take an interest," he said. "The more satellites you put up there … the more probability there is that you're go to need a tow truck."
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#