2023-04-27 03:00:01
What if refueling became as common in space as on Earth? The American company Orbit Fab, which aims to build the first space “service stations”, has set itself the task of extending the life of satellites, a booming sector.
“If you can refuel satellites in orbit, then they no longer have to be abandoned” and disintegrated when re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Daniel Faber, CEO of Orbit Fab, told AFP. founded in 2018. “Today they are disposable goods, which is crazy because they can be very expensive.”
Satellites use their solar panels to supply electricity to on-board instruments (cameras, radios, etc.). But to be able to move, they are obliged to have fuel.
However, in space “everything is constantly adrift, and very quickly, you are no longer where you need to be. You have to constantly readjust”, explains the boss, between two meetings at the big annual gathering of space industry in Colorado Springs, USA.
To avoid running out of fuel, the imagined infrastructure is simple: large tanks (containing up to several tons of fuel) are launched by rockets, and positioned in orbit.
Then small shuttles, capable of carrying a few hundred kilos of fuel, will go back and forth between the tank and the satellites needing to be replenished – like gas station attendants in space.
What are the risks of a mid-flight fuel spill?
“Pretty much anything you can imagine,” replies Daniel Faber. But thanks to the security system developed, and numerous tests on Earth and in space, “it will be safe”, promises the manager, who is now American but grew up on a farm in Tasmania.
– Tanks and shuttles –
Customer satellites will have to be equipped upstream with “refueling ports”, a bit like the filling hatch of a car.
Between “200 and 250” satellites have this system included in their design currently, and will be provided with it in the coming years, according to the leader of the company, which has 60 employees and is currently looking to hire 25 more.
A tank has already been launched and placed in orbit, and fuel transfer tests are now to take place.
In 2019, the company tested on board the International Space Station (ISS) the transfer of water between a small satellite and another container, demonstrating the feasibility of the procedure.
“Our first contract with the US government is to deliver fuel to them in 2025,” Faber told AFP. These will be US Space Force satellites.
In total, two shuttles are planned for geostationary orbit (regarding 36,000 km altitude), where the large telecommunications satellites are located. These evolve “on a single plane at the level of the equator”, and are therefore easy to serve, explains the CEO.
Less high, the satellites in low Earth orbit are on varied trajectories, and therefore more shuttles will be required.
– Space tow trucks –
About 24,500 additional satellites should be launched between 2022 and 2031, according to the specialist firm Euroconsult.
Missions difficult to envisage until now might become possible thanks to the weight in fuel avoided at take-off (the weight that a rocket can lift being limited).
Above all, the longer the satellites can operate, the more profitable they will be.
Some 130 companies have thus recently launched themselves into the niche of in-orbit satellite services, according to Daniel Faber.
These include “space tow trucks”, allowing them to be repaired in the event of a problem in flight (poorly deployed solar panel, incorrectly oriented antenna, etc.).
Orbit Fab, which recently announced that it has raised $28.5 million, is developing “in symbiosis” with these start-ups, says Faber. They themselves will need to refuel, and might in return “offer services that we will need, like repairing our ships”, he says.
An agreement has been made to refuel the machines of Astroscale, a Japanese company wishing to rid space of space debris, but also to help maintain orbit or relocate certain satellites.
In the future, Orbit Fab plans to service private space stations currently under development. But also the activities that will multiply on and around the Moon.
And when the lunar surface will be exploited (for example its icy water), “we would like to transform these substances into fuel”, rather than transporting it from Earth, explains Daniel Faber. “At the moment there is nothing there, but in 5, 10, 20 years it will have completely changed”.
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