Recently the pentagon decided that it is pretty expensive to spend millions of dollars on one satellite so it can run till its battery dies leaving the rest of the equipment working but powerless. This prompted the pentagon to devise a program in which they could use that working equipment again. the idea is as simple as sending a robot up to salvage the parts and attach them to itself. this makes the robot a satellite with the same functioning capabilities as the original satellite. The research and testing alone are fore-casted to be huge in cost but the pentagon is holding a contract for whoever might be able to fill the bill. The project would then face the actual cost of launch and other crucial parts of space travel. it would be far too expensive for short term but long term is showing much more promising results.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/22/pentagon-researches-new-life-for-dead-satellites/
This project seems to be very promising in my perspective. As a nation we need to return to space and rekindle the old fire we possessed to go to the moon in the sixties. Our modern age was born from the space age. Things like the internet, computers, latex, nylon and Tang to name just a few! Our life was shaped by something that ended 40 years ago. We have been in this age ever since then. Innovation such as that age hasn't been seen since on such a large scale.
This project to reuse old satellite parts through robots is a step in the right direction. the technology to get the salvage equipment into space may very well send a human to mars in the near future. companies will have to innovate and invent to get the, what is sure to be, hefty government contract that is being offered up. This may be the start of the next chapter in humanity.
t's true that we have been in a standstill in innovation in the last few years. Nothing revolutionary has come around everything has been an upgrade of what came before; laptops for example just keep getting smaller. The robots that will recycle satellites will prove to be a good idea, in addition to helping us move forward, because they will prevent us from leaving garbage in space. It will lessen our change of damaging our environment in more ways than we have today. This recycling will reduce the affect we have in space for the better.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a need for exploration but do you think that the country is ready financially to put funds into space? There are budget cuts all around and unfortunately space exploration is one of them. I don't know about you but i would rather have my country able to pay its police officers than search for new technology in space
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