More than 15,000 satellites have been launched into orbit by humans since the Sputnik I launch in 1957, which marked the beginning of the space age. Only little more than half of them are still in operational order; the others, having run out of fuel and reached the end of their useful lives, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still circling the earth as worthless pieces of metal.

The European Space Agency estimates that approximately 640 “break-ups, explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation” have occurred to date, posing a hazard to the International Space Station and other satellites.

A haze of space debris, consisting of 36,500 objects larger than 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) and an astounding 130 million particles up to 1 centimeter (0.39 inches), has been produced around the globe as a result. There are multiple strategies in place to attempt and reduce this debris, but as of yet, little real progress has been made.

Stopping the production of new garbage and refilling satellites instead of decommissioning them when their power runs out is one method to begin addressing the issue.

According to Daniel Faber, CEO of Orbit Fab, “you can’t refuel a satellite on orbit right now.” However, his Colorado-based business hopes to alter that.

“When a satellite runs out of fuel, it becomes difficult to maintain its proper orbit, and it becomes dangerous debris that floats around at extremely high speeds and puts people at risk of collisions,” says Faber. However, the scarcity of fuel also establishes a paradigm in which spacecraft missions are planned with as little movement as possible

This implies that in order to remove any leftover debris, we are unable to use tow trucks in orbit. We are unable to upgrade anything or perform maintenance and repairs. Nothing can be inspected if it breaks. We are quite limited in what we can do and are unable to do a great deal of things. That is the resolution we are attempting to present.

Space operations

When NASA launched Orbital Express in 2007 with Boeing and DARPA (the US Department of Defense’s research arm), two specially designed satellites successfully docked and exchanged fuel, thereby introducing the idea of refueling and servicing satellites in orbit. Subsequently, NASA investigated the difficulties of refilling existing satellites through the work of the Robotic refilling Mission (RRM).

Currently, the organization is developing OSAM-1, which was meant to launch in 2026 and aim to recover and replenish the fuel of the Earth-observation satellite Landsat-7, which has run out of fuel.

According to Faber, “this is a mission to refuel a satellite that wasn’t prepared to be refueled.” In order to reach the fuel pipes, they must essentially do surgery on the satellite by making incisions in it. This enables remarkable satellite repair capabilities, albeit at a cost. According to NASA, OSAM-1 will come with a hefty price tag.

There are no plans by Orbit Fab to handle the current satellite fleet. RAFTI, or Rapid Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, is the standard port that will be provided to those that have not yet launched.

According to Faber, “we’re looking at creating a low-cost architecture.” “A fuel port that is available for purchase currently exists only for refueling satellites in orbit. In reality, we are a gas cap firm, therefore despite our lofty goals of creating a thriving space economy, that is all we are focused on.

With the slogan “gas stations in space,” Orbit Fab markets itself as a company that is developing a fuel port, refueling tankers, or orbital gas stations, from which the shuttles might retrieve fuel, and refueling shuttles, which would transport fuel to a satellite in need. It has advertised a $20 million pricing for the most popular satellite propellant, hydrazine, to be delivered in orbit.

To test the plumbing, pumps, and interfaces, the business sent two testbeds to the International Space Station in 2018. It introduced Tanker-001 Tenzing in 2021, a fuel depot demonstration that provided design guidance for the gear that is in use today.

The current date of the next launch is 2024. “We are providing fuel for a mission being carried out by the Air Force Research Lab while we are in geostationary orbit,” explains Faber. “They’re treating it like a demonstration right now, but people who understand the importance of refueling are showing a lot of interest in it across the US government.”

Astroscale, a Japanese satellite maintenance firm that created the first satellite intended for refueling, will be Orbit Fab’s first private client. Launched in 2026, it will mount RAFTI ports and go by the name LEXI.

A novel strategy

One of the keys to guaranteeing a safe and sustainable development of space, according to Stanford University associate professor of astronautics Simone D’Amico, is on-orbit servicing. D’Amico is not connected to Orbit Fab. “Could you picture towns, highways, and other ground transportation infrastructure without gas stations and vehicle repair shops? He asks, “Could you imagine single-use vehicles or aircraft?” “Space asset proliferation and infrastructure development are reaching a critical volume that, absent a paradigm shift, is no longer sustainable.”

D’Amico continues, “There are a number of reasons why this hasn’t happened earlier,” including the fact that on-orbit maintenance technology has only just been economically viable due to advancements in satellite shrinking and the perception of lack of necessity given the small number of spacecraft, which existed until recently.

In his opinion, Orbit Fab is unique, particularly when it comes to marketing. It’s conceivably the only business in the world that has planned to put “gas stations” into orbit, he claims. “I believe that Orbit Fab’s strategy is incredibly innovative and has potential for long-term success. Short-term risk is considerable, nevertheless, because reusability and refueling must be considered throughout satellite design.

At first, Orbit Fab wants to establish itself in the market by providing fuel to businesses like Astroscale that intend to gather debris or check, repair, and update satellites while they are in orbit. If this industry does well, Faber believes, it will force the huge telecom companies—who run a lot of satellites—to change their ways and start embracing refueling and service.

He continues, saying that the next stage is to begin producing the fuel in orbit after the routine of delivering and sending fuel there is established. “We’d like to be building refineries in orbit in ten or fifteen years,” he says, “processing material that is launched from the ground into a range of chemicals that people want to buy: air and water for commercial space stations, feedstock minerals for 3D printers to grow plants.” Our goal is to supply industrial chemicals to the nascent commercial space sector.

Topics #gas station #space