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DARPA, NASA, and Orbital ATK Working on Robotic Satellite Refuel and Repair
Why DARPA and NASA are building robot spacecraft designed to act like service stations on orbit [washingtonpost.com] (archive [archive.fo])
Even the most robust and expensive satellites eventually break down or run out of fuel, and must be retired to a remote parking orbit more than 22,000 miles away, safely out of the way of other satellites. There, the graveyard holds billions of dollars-worth of some of the most expensive hardware ever to leave the surface of the Earth — including not just commercial communications satellites, but some of the Pentagon's most sensitive assets, used for spying, guiding bombs and warning against missile launches.
Now, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, NASA and others, are developing technologies that would extend the life of the critical infrastructure in space, preventing satellites from being shipped to the graveyard for years. If successful, the agencies would have fleets of robots with arms and cameras that could inspect, refuel and repair satellites keeping them operational well beyond their expected lifetimes. The spacecraft might even upgrade the satellites they service with the latest technology, like an iPhone update.
[...] Orbital ATK, based in Dulles, is developing a "mission extension vehicle" that would be able to attach itself to a satellite, and then take over propulsion, firing thrusters to keep the satellite in the correct orbit. The company already has a customer, Intelsat, and plans to demonstrate the technology by early 2019, said Tom Wilson, the company's president of Orbital ATK Space Logistics.
NASA's program is focused instead on low Earth orbit, where there are all sorts of communications satellites whizzing about at 17,500 mph. At the end of their lives, those satellites eventually deorbit, falling back to Earth and burning up in the atmosphere. NASA, through a program, called "Restore-L," is working with Space Systems Loral, based in Palo Alto, Calif. to develop a spacecraft that could reach out with a robotic arm, and refuel the satellites so that they could continue maintain their position.
