In-Orbit Servicing: An Idea Whose Time Has Stalled?

Artist's impression of a servicer turning a satellite for a docking maneuver. Credit: Space Tech GmbH

During the recent NewSpace 2010 conference, there was a lot of talk about in-orbit servicing of satellites, including refueling, re-boosting them to higher orbits, and moving dead birds to other locations for eventual recycling.

Now comes word that one of the few companies working on a space tug system is ready to abandon the effort due to the lack of a market.

Space News reports:

Canada’s MDA Corp. is ready to scrap its attempt to create a commercial business from servicing in-orbit satellites if an inaugural customer does not materialize within the next couple of months, MDA Chief Executive Daniel E. Friedmann said July 29.

In a conference call with investors, Friedmann said Richmond, B.C.-based MDA appears to have cleared most technical hurdles confronting the service, which would be a first for the space industry. But substantial financial and liability-related questions remain, he said.

“It’s really boiling down to figuring out what exactly is the modus operandi of when the refuelings are going to happen in the lifetime of the satellite, and the issues if something goes wrong, and what is the price,” Friedmann said. “It’s not easy. It has never been done before, and people have to think of new business models.”

The recent rise in the cost of launching satellites has not helped the in-orbit servicing model, he said, as it raises the missions’ overall costs. Satellite insurance underwriters have long said that satellite refueling would confront a broad array of issues including who would pay in the event a satellite was damaged by the refueling vehicle.

That doesn’t sound good.

MDA isn’t the only player in this field. Space News reported in February that the German space agency DLR is working on a similar system:

OHB Technology will be system prime contractor for a German government program to demonstrate in-orbit servicing and de-orbiting of satellites and other hardware, Bremen, Germany-based OHB announced Feb. 24.

The German space agency, DLR, has awarded contracts for five components of its DEOS system, an acronym for German Orbital Servicing Mission, which is expected to cost up to 200 million euros ($272 million) once the decision is made to build a flight demonstrator.

DLR has not yet made that commitment. But the agency, which has been looking at a variety of in-orbit satellite refueling, inspection and maintenance technologies for over a decade, has moved DEOS forward from preliminary study to more-detailed design work.

It’s an interesting concept that has definite applications for human missions beyond LEO. Let’s hope something moves forward here.