Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 26
Space Servicing
Figure 1 (Left): A StarMax human-tended facility ready
to be tailored for a customer's manufacturing and
servicing needs. (Image: Gravitics)
Figure 2 (Right): StarMax kitted
as a primarily robotics-tended
foundry. (Image: Gravitics)
So why, if servicing makes so much sense, aren't there a bunch
of servicing stations already buzzing around in low-Earth orbit?
To be trite about it: space is hard. Generations of teams have
crunched the numbers and not gotten past fundamental blockers
like low speed and intermittent communications, unsophisticated
robotics, and launch mass limits. How can you assemble
a satellite if you only get to look at choppy video streams eight
minutes at a time?
There are also chicken and egg problems. Yes, extending
spacecraft life would be great, but who sets standards? Integrating
a refueling port adds complexity (cost), risk (cost), and
time (cost). And what happens if the servicing company goes
bankrupt and your investment is wasted? On the other side of
the coin, why should a servicing industry develop if no one will
pay for services?
Peeking into the Future
Fortunately, momentum is building. We find a confluence of
three factors that create opportunities which have never existed
together: 1) major technical blockers are falling, 2) government
regulations are tightening, and 3) investors are betting big. Taken
together, we believe that it's reasonable to expect that the first
satellite will be entirely assembled and launched from a dedicated
orbital platform, that the first commercial refueling will take
place, and that the return of products manufactured in space
will become commonplace, all by the end of the decade.
Technical Roadblocks are Falling: Much has been said about
StarShip, Vulcan, and New Glenn and their new launch mass
capabilities. You need to launch tens, maybe hundreds, of metric
tons for a manufacturing facility. And servicing systems need
metric tons of propellants both for maneuvering and fueling.
XGL3014 Series
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26
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Tech Briefs, July 2024
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Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - Intro
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - Sponsor
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - Cover1
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - Cover2
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 1
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 2
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 3
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 4
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 5
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 6
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 7
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 8
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 9
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 10
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 11
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 12
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 13
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 14
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 15
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 16
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 17
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 18
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 19
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 20
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Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 25
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 26
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 27
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 28
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 29
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 30
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Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 33
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Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 38
Tech Briefs Magazine - July 2024 - 39
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