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Clark Lindsey of Hobbyspace has an interview with Dennis Wingo, who's started a company that will make money by refueling communications satellites on orbit. I'm going to be running a few interviews with space entrepreneurs myself in the next few days.
Posted by Rand Simberg at January 09, 2003 09:35 AM
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While I didn't see anything on SkyCorp's web site about the project, I don't think that his plan is to actually refuel currently orbiting satellites. From reading the conversation, it sounds like they will be instead anchoring a new satellite to the existing satellites. The new satellite will then be used to maintain orbit for the existing satellite once the old one runs out of juice.
I'm not sure that there is any way to actually refuel the satellites that are up there, and with the current launch costs, adding a new "booster" to existing satellites is probably more cost-effective than trying to recover and re-launch a "fuel-truck" of sorts. I'm sure they weighed these options.
Dennis also mentioned in the interview that after visiting all of the satellite companies they are working with, there were some new ideas that he will be working to incorporate, but he didn't go into much detail.
Posted by John at January 9, 2003 03:57 PM
You're correct. I didn't mean (and shouldn't have said) literally refuel. I just mean extend their life by providing them with additional propellant (which in this case requires additional propulsion hardware).
Posted by Rand Simberg at January 9, 2003 04:14 PM
However, if they are successful in this venture then it may prove that it is economically viable to build future satellites with the capability of being refueled on orbit. Or at least a dedicated docking node for a life extending booster.
Posted by Hefty at January 10, 2003 09:45 AM
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