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Orbital refueling is done for decades; e.g. Progresses supplied Soviet space stations with fuel to maintain the orbit. What's trickier is orbital refueling of
by avmich 6y ago
Orbital refueling is done for decades; e.g. Progresses supplied Soviet space stations with fuel to maintain the orbit.
What's trickier is orbital refueling of cryogenic liquids - LOX, liquid methane. It still looks easier than refueling with LH2, and ULA did a lot of work with that (search for "propellant depot"). Active cooling might be required; humanity had experience storing cryogenics in space for long time (e.g. Buran, which used LOX for RCS, was able to store it for a month on orbit), but we still might want a better solution (the one which actively turns vapors back into the liquid phase using onboard energy and radiators).
Yet there is little which seems too complex in the refueling idea.
- m4rtink 6y agoIIRC ULA had a plan to run an internal combustion engine off the hydrogen/oxygen boil off, providing power for stage systems and or cooling/recondenser in their ACCESS upper stage concept. Of course ideally you don't want to loose any propelants to boil off but it still seems like a nice idea.