Darpa launches plan to harvest zombie satellites (Wired UK)

/zombie-satellites

  • Darpa launches plan to harvest zombie satellites (Wired UK)
    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/zombie-satellites

    un programme militaire de recyclage des #satellites zombies

    Once fully realised, Darpa envisions the Phoenix program, which the agency wants to fully demonstrate by 2015, working something like this. First, a servicing satellite — complete with mechanical arms and other “unique tools” designed specifically for the program — would be launched into geosynchronous orbit (GEO). After that, the agency wants to launch an array of what they call “satlets” — wee, bare-bones satellites — to meet up with, and be stored by, the program’s primary satellite.

    From there, the satellite posse would transfer to what’s known as GEO’s “graveyard” orbit — where non-functioning satellites linger — and start picking off antennas and other useful parts. Once an antenna is removed from its former satellite, it would be affixed to a satlet, which’d act as a controller to move the antenna into position as part of a zombified array of recycled satellite parts.

    Right now, launching a single satellite runs around $10,000 (£6,400) per 4.5kg of material. With an estimated $300 billion (£192 billion) in dead satellites currently orbiting the GEO graveyard, recycling their functional parts “would dramatically lower the cost of satellite missions for Defense Department needs,”

    #espace