In-Orbit Satellite Refueling Seen Leading to Array of Mission Options
Geostationary satellites likely soon will be made with mission extension features built in, and in-orbit servicing capabilities will likely be the first of a variety of in-orbit capabilities like swapping out of payloads, experts said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable talk Monday. Payload upgrade "is a game changer," said SSL Vice President-Space Infrastructure and Civil Space Al Tadros.
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Tactical Technology Office Program Manager Todd Master said there are regulatory gaps that mean no one oversees in-orbit servicing missions, as well as a lack of norms, but DARPA hopes to help create voluntary standards for such activities. He said DARPA's Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations hopes to help create voluntary standards.
Joe Anderson, Orbital ATK mission extension vehicle services director, questioned whether some collective effort is needed, since FCC and NOAA oversee aspects of such missions and both agencies, for example, have orbital debris requirements. "All the elements are there" for successful missions, Anderson said, saying regulators globally are kept in the loop and updated so they don't overreact to such missions. Master said in-orbit servicing capabilities could lead to increasingly "payload agnostic" satellites that are put into orbit with the expectation that over time their payloads would be swapped out and their technological capabilities upgraded. Satellite interests and the government have been struggling with what regulatory framework is needed for the growing number of companies interested in in-orbit satellite servicing (see 1710060014).
Speakers said new technological capabilities, plus increased business pressures on geosynchronous orbit satellite operators, are pushing the need to eke as much useful life as possible out of geosynchronous orbit (GSOs) satellites, leading to the in-orbit servicing boom. That enabling technology ranges from more commercial availability of rendezvous proximity operations to robotics, Tadros said. Anderson said Orbital ATK named its in-orbit business Space Logistics deliberately, because it sees a variety of logistics functions, like assembly, being the obvious evolution.
Clear early niches for in-orbit servicing missions are refueling or trying to tackle mission anomalies, and those capabilities likely will lead to such opportunities as in-orbit satellite manufacturing or replacement of obsolete processors, said Tim Deaver, SES Government Solutions corporate vice president-development. Anderson said GSOs are the target market because of physics, technology and commercial business case issues. He said low earth orbit mega constellations potentially could be business opportunities as well with such missions as deorbiting satellites.
Orbital ATK, which plans to launch its first mission extension vehicle later this year (see 1801040018), is focusing primarily on mission extension, Anderson said. He said about 80 percent of GSOs in orbit are compatible with its mission extension vehicle. He said GSOs increasingly will be designed and built with in-orbit servicing in mind, making swapping out of old processors relatively easy. He said those design changes will come when satellite operators see a business case for it and when there's confidence in in-orbit servicing operators. "We're on the verge of giving them that confidence," he said.
Asked about the non-geostationary orbit satellite boom and what that means for in-orbit servicing demand, Anderson said the 400-plus GSOs in orbit "aren't just going away" and represent 15 to 20 years of potential missions. Most GSOs are operational "well beyond" their 15-year design life, and most are decommissioned not because of operational issues but because they run out of fuel, Anderson said.