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Satellite Refuelling
Satellite refuelling is the operation of replenishing on board propellants and other consumables in satellites in orbit, e.g. in geostationary orbit around Earth. This could be for storable propellants, and later for cryogenic propellants. Examples * Space Infrastructure Servicing by Canadian MDA * Orbital Express — a 2007 U.S. government-sponsored mission to test in-space satellite servicing with two vehicles designed from the start for on-orbit refueling and subsystem replacement. * Robotic Refueling Mission, a series of NASA projects, including cryogenics transfer tests at ISS Contracts * Jan 2022: Astroscale contracted to use Orbit Fab in-orbit propellant depots. Standards * Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, for non-cryogenic fluids and gases * ASSIST, for docking, ground tested by a consortium of European companies. Alternatives Rather than refuel, another craft could attach itself to the customer satellite and provide any desired propulsion. E.g.: * M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Geostationary Orbit
A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude above Earth's equator, in radius from Earth's center, and following the retrograde and prograde motion, direction of Earth's rotation. An object in such an orbit has an orbital period equal to Earth's rotational period, one sidereal time, sidereal day, and so to ground observers it appears motionless, in a fixed position in the sky. The concept of a geostationary orbit was popularised by the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in the 1940s as a way to revolutionise telecommunications, and the first satellite to be placed in this kind of orbit was launched in 1963. Communications satellites are often placed in a geostationary orbit so that Earth-based satellite dish, satellite antennas do not have to rotate to track t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Storable Propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or another motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the engine that expels the propellant is called a reaction engine. Although technically a propellant is the reaction mass used to create thrust, the term "propellant" is often used to describe a substance which contains both the reaction mass and the fuel that holds the energy used to accelerate the reaction mass. For example, the term "propellant" is often used in chemical rocket design to describe a combined fuel/propellant, although the propellants should not be confused with the fuel that is used by an engine to produce the energy that expels the propellant. Even though the byproducts of substances used as fuel are also often used as a reaction mass to create the thrust, such as with a chemical rocket engine, propellant and fuel are two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Cryogenic Propellant
Cryogenic fuels are fuels that require storage at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain them in a liquid state. These fuels are used in machinery that operates in space (e.g. rockets and satellites) where ordinary fuel cannot be used, due to the very low temperatures often encountered in space, and the absence of an environment that supports combustion (on Earth, oxygen is abundant in the atmosphere, whereas human-explorable space is a vacuum where oxygen is virtually non-existent). Cryogenic fuels most often constitute liquefied gases such as liquid hydrogen. Some rocket engines use regenerative cooling, the practice of circulating their cryogenic fuel around the nozzles before the fuel is pumped into the combustion chamber and ignited. This arrangement was first suggested by Eugen Sänger in the 1940s. All engines in the Saturn V rocket that sent the first crewed missions to the Moon used this design element, which is still in use today for liquid-fueled engines. Qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Space Infrastructure Servicing
Space Infrastructure Servicing (SIS) is a spacecraft concept being developed by Canadian aerospace firm MDA to operate as a small-scale in-space refueling depot for communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit. In June 2017, SSL (MDA's Palo Alto, California company) announced its first commercial customer, Luxembourg-based satellite owner / operator SES S.A. Maxar acquired SSL, then in 2019, SSL abandoned the SSP project. History MDA Corporation announced in early 2010 that a small-scale geosynchronous-orbit refueling project was under development. The design point was to be a single spacecraft that would refuel other spacecraft in orbit as a satellite-servicing demonstration. The 2010 announcement indicated that MDA had already signed an option agreement "with an unidentified satellite fleet operator that has agreed to provide an aging telecommunications spacecraft for a refueling operation as the inaugural customer". Missions contemplated included not only satelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Orbital Express
Orbital Express: ASTRO and NEXTSat Orbital Express was a space mission managed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team led by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The Orbital Express program was aimed at developing "a safe and cost-effective approach to autonomously service satellites in orbit". The system consisted of two spacecraft: the ASTRO servicing satellite, and a prototype modular next-generation serviceable satellite; NEXTSat. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 8 March 2007, aboard an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle. The launch was part of the United States Air Force Space Test Program STP-1 mission. Program management and contractors The Orbital Express program was managed by the DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO). The servicing satellite, ASTRO was developed by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, which included the Orbital Express Demonstration Manipulator System (OED ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Federal Government Of The United States
The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: United States Congress, legislative, President of the United States, executive, and Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial. Powers of these three branches are defined and vested by the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Constitution, which has been in continuous effect since May 4, 1789. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by Act of Congress, Acts of Congress, including the creation of United States federal executive departments, executive departments and courts subordinate to the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court. In the Federalism in the United States, federal division of power, the federal government shares sovereignty with each of the 50 states in their respective t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Robotic Refueling Mission
The Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) is a NASA technology demonstration mission with equipment launches in both 2011 and 2013 to increase the technological maturity of in-space rocket propellant transfer technology by testing a wide variety of potential propellant transfer hardware, of both new and existing satellite designs. The first phase of the mission was successfully completed in 2013. The second phase experiments continued in 2015. The third phase ~2018 suffered a cryocooler failure in 2019 and loss of methane. History Development The Robotic Refueling Mission was developed by the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). It was planned to demonstrate the technology and tools to refuel satellites in orbit by robotic means. After the proof of concept, the long-term goal of NASA is to transfer the technology to the commercial sector. Technology demonstration Phase 1 RRM was designed with four tools, each with electronics an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Astroscale
Astroscale Holdings Inc. is a public on-orbit servicing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company is developing life extension, in-situ space situational awareness, end-of-life and active debris removal solutions. History Astroscale was founded in 2013 by IT entrepreneur Mitsunobu "Nobu" Okada in Singapore. In April 2013, Okada attended an academic conference in Germany on space development where space junk was a hot topic. Many experts gave presentations on the issue and talked about potential solutions, but Okada was not impressed because no one had a real plan of action. Ten days later, he founded Astroscale to tackle the issue. On 16 February 2015, the company raised US$7.7 million in venture capital financing. The capital was used to set up an R&D facility and office in Tokyo to accelerate the development of satellites and future space debris removal missions. On 1 March 2016, Astroscale announced a further US$35 million in funding and on 21 March 2017, incor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface
Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI) is a standard interface developed by Orbit Fab for transferring fluids, e.g., propellants, in space. It has been defined by a group of 30 companies. The interface specification has high and low pressure variants, both for operation between -40 °C and 120 °C. * Low pressure : for MMH, UDMH, Water, H2O2, Methanol, Kerosene, Green Monoprops, isopropyl alcohol, HFE, N2O. (fluids) * High pressure : for Nitrogen, Helium, Xenon, Krypton. (gases) History - timeline 2020: A first implementation is planned to be tested in space in 2021 as part of a prototype fuel depot.''Orbit Fab to Launch Orbital Fuel Depot Next Year'' has image A free flying orbital demo was launched in June 2021 to test transfers of high-test pero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mission Extension Vehicle
The Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) is a spacecraft that extends the functional lifetime of another spacecraft through on-orbit satellite servicing. They are 2010s-design small-scale in-space satellite-refueling spacecraft first launched in 2019. The MEV spacecraft grew out of a concept proposed in 2011 by ViviSat, a 50/50 joint venture of aerospace firms US Space and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The joint venture was created in 2010 for the purpose of designing, producing and operating the MEV program. Since the original conception of the MEV program by the ViviSat company, the Vivisat venture was shut down for a time, and the company was dissolved by Orbital ATK in April 2016. The MEV program continued on as a solo-project of Orbital ATK, which was subsequently purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. The MEV program continued under Northrop Grumman and in 2019, launched ''MEV-1'' to dock and reposition Intelsat 901, an objective reached in April 2020. Servicing an on-orbit sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
