Where's the Nearest Tow Truck in Space?
What happens when a satellite breaks down in orbit? There aren’t repair shops or mechanics that can fix the asset once in space and any incident takes away capability and revenues. Usually when this happens, engineers on the ground troubleshoot as much as possible and redundancies are built in to minimize the likelihood of failure. However, when a failure does occur on large and expensive assets, they are usually written off to in-orbit insurance firms (as was the case with Maxar’s WorldView-4 in 2019). This cost Maxar an operating asset that generated $85M per year (and accounted for almost 5% of Maxar’s revenue). Further, WorldView-4 only had a net book value of $155M which could be written off. A write-off or insurance payout of this magnitude would cover <2 years of lost revenue, and it would take much longer to get a replaced asset into orbit. This seems hugely inefficient!
The current paradigm of managing space assets is essentially like having to buy a new car every time our cars need an oil change. If that were the case, our cars would cost much more and be more complex, just as satellites are today. What is needed in space are tow trucks and repair stations that can be the mechanic’s shop in orbit. In fact, this capability is currently being developed today under the name of OSAM or On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing.
OSAM is still in very early stages of its development, but is becoming increasingly more valuable as more satellites are launched into orbit. In fact, OSAM has been going on for quite some time. Shuttle missions to repair the Hubble Telescope are early “human-in-the-loop” examples of OSAM. More recently, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1 and MEV-2) have been able to successfully dock and extend the life of a Geostationary satellite.
OSAM doesn’t just mean docking and refueling, it encompasses actual servicing and repair of spacecraft like the RSGS mission by DARPA and OSAM-1 by NASA. Logistics and debris capture also falls under this umbrella, companies like Astroscale (recently launched), Starfish Space, Altius Space Machines, Kall Morris, Momentus, Atomos, Arkisys, and Tethers Unlimited all create servicers that can help with logistics and transportation. Also, we can’t forget Orbit Fab for gas stations in space — a critical part of the space infrastructure.
Finally, manufacturing in space is the penultimate technology goal for space. Other than just building large space stations for humans and satellites, there are benefits on earth as well. NASA has identified this as a necessary ‘paradigm shift’ to enable space exploration and expansion. This includes In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) (which will likely initially be done via 3d printing), extraterrestrial surface construction, and development of ionic liquids (liquid salts that have low volatility and have high thermal stability, meaning they can withstand a range of temperatures making them good candidates for lubricants and solvents in space manufacturing processes). The iconic example for use on Earth is ZBLAN, an optical fiber that is 100x more efficient than traditional silica-based fibers. But other use cases include pharmacology, drug production, and bioscience research to help us solve medical problems on Earth. Some of the companies that are at the forefront of ISM include Axiom Space, Nanoracks, Rhodium Scientific, Space Tango, and SpacePharma.
While the space industry currently doesn’t have the space infrastructure for repairs yet, this capability is on the horizon. There is a healthy OSAM market that is in the works. What is needed now is to prove that the economics make sense (Austin Link at Starfish Space wrote a great article about this). Just as with any large capital project and new technology, there is a large learning curve but the payoffs will be extraordinary. We can’t wait!!