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orbital maintence tools? a threat?

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coppercone2:
I saw some news article about the threats posed by Chinese orbital maintenance tools that can be misused.

Am I the only one that thinks that its a great idea to develop the tech to refuel and repair satellites? I wanted this tech for years, it seems like what the beginning of the space age actually looks like, that you can sustain small infrastructure in space on maintenance contracts from contractor companies and stuff, instead of basically being tied to a 'trucking company (heavy launch)' for the entire product life cycle.

IMO even something as simple as a satellite being able to have its card swapped in space by a robot means that the cost of sat development went way down, much like computers. You can put more ram, a new monitor, better sensors... extends the life of a computer drastically.... and eventually when the repairs get good enough (space soldering) you could even get away with doing less tests on issues that can likely be fixed in orbit by repair/upgrade/maintenance bots.

I hope the DoD does not stunt development of this technology but some how works to improve warning satellite security and stuff so it can coexist.

Because IMO, its really starting to feel like its the begining of the real space age where there is potential for cheap applicability to space projects.

I am imagining essentially floating PC's in space with generic inputs that can be retrofitted with various hardware, even possibly on a space rental basis, developed at a later time. Then you only have 1 heavy launch for the power system and then just robots or possibly space workers to plug in cards. And you don't have power constraints of things like cube sats, its more like you get access to a large power source on board for your card.

and it seems like there will be less space debris this way, since project life is extended, and the 'chassis' can be reused. Space Milkshake comes to mind

u666sa:
Nah. Because tech in 5 years, gets old. We talking about space age tech. Spy images and stuff. So it's pointless to sustain it, really. In 5 years your new satellite is old, in 10 years it is obsolete. Space trash really.

coppercone2:
why. You could put a different low power card on it to use degraded solar panels. Efficiency improves. I think its a total game changer

its literary repurposing a self powered mainframe (in the sense of a HP modular system) that has communication and power generation + chassis, just floating around in space. if its built right

CatalinaWOW:
I like the old quote, usually attributed to the American baseball player Yogi Bera. "Predictions are hard, especially about the future."

Old technology makes sense in space for a couple of reasons.  First, since it is really expensive to put something up there, it takes a lot of functionality improvement to make the cost of replacement worth it.  Second, the environment favors older technology.  As gate sizes get smaller sensitivity to radiation goes up.  A lot. 

But the cost of putting stuff in space is coming down.  If Musk succeeds with his Starship, it will come down a lot.  Changing the calculations in many ways. 

Doing in orbit maintenance may make sense for economic reasons, but as with any technology can be applied for good or evil.  Two groups want to limit this technology - those who think they have a big lead, and those who think they are far behind. Those seeking the economic opportunity will be for, and certainly there is overlap in those categories.   I certainly can't predict how this will play out.

All of this plays into the background of limiting how much stuff is randomly floating around out there.  If we can't control the collisions the whole point will be moot. 

u666sa:
Tech goes like this.

Space -> Military -> Consumer

It's a time process. Thing that are in space right now will soon be mainstream military, and then later mainstream consumer.

You talking about changing modules, most likely fuel and some other low stuff upgrades. I guess okay for consumer grade single purpose satellites. But for spy or weapon, like nuclear or kinetic weapon, no. I don't think this is useful for dual use satellites. That's my unprofessional opinion.

I will go further. Elon Musk right now doing reusable self landing boosters. Well, Soviet Union did those in 70s and deemed them too expensive and not useful. It is old tech. What Elon Musk doing now in consumer segment is 20 + 30 = 50 years old. Soviet Union pioneered this tech and scrapped it. Just think about the technology in terms of time. You have to feel it and breath it in. What we have there up there now is 40+ years ahead of what we will have in consumer segment down here. It makes absolutely no sense to keep old crap in orbit. 

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