Arthur J. Villasanta – Fourth Estate Contributor
Washington, DC, United States (4E) – The Pentagon is now trying to “resurrect” its inoperative navy satellites and to maintain its operational satellites in enterprise for an extended time by creating applied sciences that reach the service lives of this pillar of United States’ navy superiority.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is taking the lead within the multi-million greenback program supported NASA and protection corporations and scientific establishments.
The Pentagon desires this consortium to develop specialised satellites geared up with robotic arms and cameras that may examine, refuel and restore broken or inoperative satellites. These “repairman satellites” may also be tasked with upgrading the satellites they service with the most recent expertise.
DARPA’s new Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) program will develop applied sciences enabling cooperative inspection and servicing in geosynchronous orbit (GSO) and exhibit these applied sciences on orbit inside the subsequent 5 years.
Under RSGS, DARPA plans to develop a toolkit module, together with hardware and software program that might be hooked up to a privately developed spacecraft to create a commercially owned and operated robotic servicing automobile (RSV). These RSVs will make “house calls in space.” If profitable, the trouble may radically decrease the chance and value of working navy satellites in GSO.
“Where else do we build something that costs a billion dollars, and then never inspect it, never maintain it, and never repair it?” requested Gordon Roesler, DARPA program supervisor.
“But that’s what we do in space.”
RSGS will concentrate on fixing satellites in GSO, the orbit the place the Pentagon’s labeled navy satellites function from. These satellites, a lot of them costing lots of of hundreds of thousands of to develop and launch, present vital details about ballistic missile launches wherever on the earth; information satellite-guided precision weapons; conduct persistent surveillance and supply safe communications.
A geostationary orbit is a round orbit 35,786 kilometers above the Earth’s equator and following the course of the Earth’s rotation.
“The U.S. has some extremely important national security satellites in that region, and they are very concerned about those satellites breaking down having problems or being attacked,” mentioned Brian Weeden, a director for the Secure World Foundation, a company specializing in house safety.
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