Satellite gets an extenstion to use.
Discussion
IS901, an Intelsat telecoms bird has had a booster pack attached in the graveyard orbit and look to use the method to prolong the life of satllites.
https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/space-logist...
Hated that bird, had a few deaf transponders and tricky to locate. Loving the view of the satellite with earth in the background.
edit
https://twitter.com/intelsat/status/12327325281565...
https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/space-logist...
Hated that bird, had a few deaf transponders and tricky to locate. Loving the view of the satellite with earth in the background.
edit
https://twitter.com/intelsat/status/12327325281565...
Edited by Zirconia on Friday 28th February 06:26
Scott Manley has done a video on how the concept works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBOQSRZSFgs
And another article on it here
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/26/two-commerci...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBOQSRZSFgs
And another article on it here
https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/26/two-commerci...
I suppose one way of thinking of it is a piggy back fuel tank (more I know). The sats only have a finite amount of fuel for station keeping and manoeuvres when they are put into the orbital slot.
Due to perturbations of and in the orbit, the need keep a precise location is vital to prevent the satellites either side getting interference, beam width of ground antennas and the satellite, frequencies and footprints are all agreed and worked out, they need the on board fuel for minor adjustments to keep that exact location.
There have also been the odd loss or two over the years and a shuffle of satellites in the band to resume service. Towards the end of fuel they can also be used as they are allowed to drift slightly in their orbital slots but only in one plane, inclined orbit but that is no good for a fixed dish on a house and tends to be cheap TV use but you need to track it and a sod to do manually. But then they must be boosted to graveyard before fuel goes.
Bolting on a tanker like this will extend their lives, even add battery capacity I suppose as that will also degrade over time.
Due to perturbations of and in the orbit, the need keep a precise location is vital to prevent the satellites either side getting interference, beam width of ground antennas and the satellite, frequencies and footprints are all agreed and worked out, they need the on board fuel for minor adjustments to keep that exact location.
There have also been the odd loss or two over the years and a shuffle of satellites in the band to resume service. Towards the end of fuel they can also be used as they are allowed to drift slightly in their orbital slots but only in one plane, inclined orbit but that is no good for a fixed dish on a house and tends to be cheap TV use but you need to track it and a sod to do manually. But then they must be boosted to graveyard before fuel goes.
Bolting on a tanker like this will extend their lives, even add battery capacity I suppose as that will also degrade over time.
Battery capacity would only be improved if the satellite was designed for external connections to its electrical distribution network - which this one isn't. The only connection between the two is a physical one via the disused engine bell.
I'd guess though that the electronics associated with attitude control and station keeping activities could be shut down to reduce power consumption once those duties are assumed by the new vehicle attached.
I'd guess though that the electronics associated with attitude control and station keeping activities could be shut down to reduce power consumption once those duties are assumed by the new vehicle attached.
Such a thing has been considered in the past, plugging in "enhancements" that is, but when all the costs had been totted up it worked out more cost efficient just to build a new spacecraft.
One concern was the predictions on the way the telecoms market is going. Direct To Home broadcast (DTH) demand has plateaued as people take up Netflix and Amazon etc. DTH is what the majority of Geostationary commsats provide, mainly at Ku band. Depending on how well the LEO constellations that are going up do, the DTH market could well drop off.
Then there is the reliability of the docking manoeuvre. The telecoms customers tend to be a conservative lot and plugging in an external power supply etc would cause more aggro than it's worth to qualify. That was the thinking a few years ago. Your biggest problem is not so much the batteries anyway. They are only needed during the eclipse season, the longest eclipse being 72 minutes. Solar array degradation is more an issue, be it from micro meteorite impacts or UV degradation as the arrays have to supply lots of kilowatts all the time, apart from eclipse of course.
Anyway, having seen a few concepts come and go in the past it's nice to see one actually built and being used. I'm curious about it undocking and moving to another satellite. In geostationary orbit you only have about a month of drift across the East-West deadband box before you have to move it back to where you started and let it drift again. This thing will be scurrying about all over the place.
One concern was the predictions on the way the telecoms market is going. Direct To Home broadcast (DTH) demand has plateaued as people take up Netflix and Amazon etc. DTH is what the majority of Geostationary commsats provide, mainly at Ku band. Depending on how well the LEO constellations that are going up do, the DTH market could well drop off.
Then there is the reliability of the docking manoeuvre. The telecoms customers tend to be a conservative lot and plugging in an external power supply etc would cause more aggro than it's worth to qualify. That was the thinking a few years ago. Your biggest problem is not so much the batteries anyway. They are only needed during the eclipse season, the longest eclipse being 72 minutes. Solar array degradation is more an issue, be it from micro meteorite impacts or UV degradation as the arrays have to supply lots of kilowatts all the time, apart from eclipse of course.
Anyway, having seen a few concepts come and go in the past it's nice to see one actually built and being used. I'm curious about it undocking and moving to another satellite. In geostationary orbit you only have about a month of drift across the East-West deadband box before you have to move it back to where you started and let it drift again. This thing will be scurrying about all over the place.
One of the early justifications for the Space Shuttle was that it could do this sort of thing for low Earth orbit satellites at least. They did rescue and relaunch a couple of satellites, but the Shuttle was too stupidly expensive to run to justify it in the long run. Plus there was the risk of things like leaking hydrazine the could potentially spontaneously combust if an astronaut had some on their space suit and came back in through the airlock.
Tempest_5 said:
Anyway, having seen a few concepts come and go in the past it's nice to see one actually built and being used. I'm curious about it undocking and moving to another satellite. In geostationary orbit you only have about a month of drift across the East-West deadband box before you have to move it back to where you started and let it drift again. This thing will be scurrying about all over the place.
I think the idea now is that once docked to a satellite it will stay there to the end of its life ( or if the comsat fails )901 is back in service now a t its location, the attached tug is giving it a five-year extension.
http://www.intelsat.com/news/press-release/intelsa...
Article goes on to say the tug (MEV-1) will be available for further use once its 5 year part is up and 901 is returned to graveyard.
And 10-02 is next on the list it seems with another mission. That is not in a graveyard orbit and is co located with 3 others which will be interesting.
http://www.intelsat.com/news/press-release/intelsa...
Article goes on to say the tug (MEV-1) will be available for further use once its 5 year part is up and 901 is returned to graveyard.
And 10-02 is next on the list it seems with another mission. That is not in a graveyard orbit and is co located with 3 others which will be interesting.
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