Fewer astronauts, more robots. That鈥檚 the call from three European aerospace engineers, who argue that crewed satellite repair missions 鈥� like the ones flown by NASA to fix the ailing Hubble Space Telescope 鈥� are expensive, wasteful and set the wrong agenda for the space community.
The trio 鈥� Alex Ellery, Joerg Kreidsel and Bernd Sommer 鈥� argue in the journal Acta Astronautica that while such missions may be spectacular, they are unsustainable. Space agencies and satellite operators should instead be accelerating their efforts to develop robotic mechanics that can ply various Earth orbits, fixing errant satellites on demand. That way failing spacecraft can be repaired much more economically.
The feasibility of in-orbit repair by a robot has already been demonstrated: last summer, the Pentagon coaxed a robot called Astro into autonomously docking with NextSat, a prototype serviceable craft, and replacing a dead battery.
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But the researchers say progress has generally been slow, despite the need. Satellites are not yet particularly reliable, with navigation and thruster failures commonplace. Failures are costly and insurance is expensive, so the industry has ample reason to pursue cheaper and safer alternatives to human mechanics.
鈥淪cepticism of robotic in-orbit servicing is wasting the space sector vast amounts of money,鈥� the trio write. 鈥淭here are few industries which would willingly spend $100 million on highly designed, long-lived hardware without the provision for repair and upgrade.鈥�
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