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Refuelling satellites is currently a hot topic in the aerospace world. No matter how cheap launch gets (and there are some very real limits to how cheap it can
by jofer 5y ago
Refuelling satellites is currently a hot topic in the aerospace world. No matter how cheap launch gets (and there are some very real limits to how cheap it can get for orbits like what the JWT is in), the hardware itself is quite expensive and it's often worth maintaining older scientific missions for continuity.
Propellant is often a key limitation to life of a satellite, especially for earth-observations sats in low earth orbit (the opposite of the JWT), and it's well worth refuelling a satellite in principle.
The JWT is a _lot_ of expensive hardware. It's not crazy at all to think about refuelling, especially if it's expending significant propellant to say in a stable orbit +/- maneuver for imaging operations.
All that having been said, refuelling is still a long way from reality, and despite a lot of companies marketing refuelling ports and similar things, it will be a long while time until it's a realistic solution. Over the lifetime of the JWT, it probably will become feasible, though.
- richardwhiuk 5y agoRefuelling seems to be more like to be done by bolting another engine + propellant, than actually refuelling the in-service engine, based on current concepts.
- jofer 5y agoSome commercial companies (e.g. Orbit Fab) are selling refuelling ports for satellites, FWIW. NASA put a lot of research into it as well, IIRC. For the JWT it's probably quite different, but for commercial earth observation sats, there are lots of folks considering including some of the refuelling port designs in current hardware even though the actually "refuel in space" service isn't available yet.