This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of utilize.

Everyone can see that when it comes to space, real progress is going to require some innovative new ideas. Mayhap that will come up in the course of a 100,000 kilometer ribbon of experimental nanotubes stretching all the fashion to geosynchronous orbit, or perhaps but an enormous, spinning spiral ramp. But any solution must give usa a better ability to go to space and do piece of work once we go there. Now, rumblings from DARPA and NASA evidence that they may be fantasizing about a new, semi-permanent installation in infinite — and they're already working on the technology that could brand it a reality.

The idea is basically to create a construction, repairs, refueling, and mission restart hub, in space. Currently, all these functions require a return to base — the ISS receivesshipments of supplies, it doesn't generally dole them out. With such a station, NASA could imagine a new satellite design, pick a currently defunct old orbiter, and ship up only those parts necessary to transform the old into the new. The solar panels, thrusters, and other fourth dimension-tested hardware tin can stay intact, while computers and scientific instruments are swapped out by a series of robotic arms and manipulators.

space station 2These artillery are reportedly already in the works, and are souped up versions of the infinite shuttle's original Canadarm. These would be capable of doing all the complex manipulation needed by an orbiting robot space mechanic. DARPA is already doing work on a mission chosen Projection Phoenix, which looks to reuse the nigh valuable parts of old, dead satellites — it has also been working on grasper engineering that could shear apart and potentially reassemble old space tech. In fact, this idea for a space-based repair station seems almost similar a successor project to Phoenix, making its piecemeal efforts into an automated repair station.

Speaking at DARPA'south Wait What? conference (yep, that'due south what it's chosen) in St. Louis, quondam NASA astronaut Pam Melroy, now deputy director of DARPA'south Tactical Technology Role, said that some sort of orbital staging and upgrade station could change the fashion NASA deals with space. The ISS orbits at a messy 400 kilometers, well within "low" Earth orbit, meaning that a geosynchronous station would open up up all sorts of new possibilities. She said that it could do for the Earth what the peachy port cities of yore did for Europe — leading to perchance the outset ever time I've hoped that Mars doesn't have any indigenous inhabitants.

The idea, as proposed, is to build this station in geosynchronous orbit, or around 36,000 kilometers above the surface. At this height, it could enter an orbit that would keep it direct to a higher place a specific spot on the Earth's surface, simply it's also too high to enjoy whatsoever existent protection from the Earth's atmosphere or magnetic field — this hypothetical station would demand to either be shielded in some all-new way or, more than likely, exist robotically controlled for the vast, vast majority of the time.

Even with some sort of super-side by side-gen launch engineering science like a space elevator, information technology'due south a certainty that on a long enough timeline, we'll have to eventually stop building spaceships anywhere but in infinite. Nosotros'll never be able to mine resources in a vacuum, merely other than that in that location's zero about the transport edifice or maintaining process thathas to exist down on the surface; not that at that place was ever any doubt, but we now know that NASA and the US military machine are very aware of this fact.