Out of gas in orbit? This US space company is here to help

COLORADO SPRINGS - American company Orbit Fab is aiming to produce go-to “gas stations” in space, its chief executive told AFP, hoping its refuelling technology will make the surging satellite industry more sustainable – and profitable.

The solar panels typically attached to satellites can generate energy for onboard systems such as cameras and radios, but cannot help the orbiting objects adjust their positions, said Mr Daniel Faber, who co-founded the company in 2018.

“Everything always drifts, and so very quickly, you’re not where you needed to be – so you need to keep adjusting, which means you need to keep using up propellant,” said Mr Faber at the space industry’s annual gathering in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Satellites’ lives are therefore limited by how much fuel they can carry along with them – at least for now.

“If you can refuel satellites in orbit, you can stop them having to be thrown away,” Mr Faber said, a model he described as “crazy” due to the satellites’ high cost to manufacture and launch.

His company envisions sending several large tanks into orbit, each containing up to several tonnes of fuel. Then smaller, more easily manoeuvrable vessels will shuttle back and forth between the tanks and satellites, like robotic pump attendants.

Asked what the risks associated with operating such a system in orbit were, Mr Faber said candidly: “Everything you might imagine.”

But he reassured that, with lots of testing on the ground, and in orbit: “It’s going to be safe.”

Satellites hoping to receive additional propellant from Orbit Fab will have to have compatible fuel ports.

Less weight, more profit

Mr Faber said that between 200 and 250 satellites are already being designed to use his company’s system.

It is a market with room to grow: About 24,500 satellites have been scheduled for launch between 2022 and 2031, according to the consultancy Euroconsult.

Orbit Fab, which employs about 60 people and is looking to hire 25 more, has already launched one tank into orbit and next plans to conduct fuel transfer tests.

In 2019, it proved the feasibility of the system with water-transfer tests at the International Space Station.

Mr Faber said the company’s first contract with the United States government is to deliver fuel in 2025 to Space Force satellites. Space Force is the space service branch of the US Armed Forces.

He said they are planning to launch only a couple of fuel shuttles to geostationary orbit, where satellites mostly lie in “a single plane around the equator” at a high altitude of about 36,000km. Satellites in low Earth orbit have much different trajectories, and more fuel shuttles will be needed.

Another added benefit of in-orbit refuelling is the possibility of freeing up the key metric in rocket launches: Weight.

Projects which were previously deemed infeasible for being too heavy might therefore see the light of day.

Above all, though, extending the life of satellites makes them more profitable in the long run.

To the moon

Apart from refuelling, companies are also looking at other ways of servicing satellites, with Mr Faber saying that about 130 companies have recently popped up in the sector.

These include in-orbit “tow trucks” that can approach satellites in trouble and make repairs, such as helping deploy a solar panel or reorienting an antenna.

Orbit Fab, which recently announced it had raised US$28.5 million (S$38 million), has a “symbiotic” relationship with these start-ups, said Mr Faber.

Their machines will need refuelling and in return could “be doing things that we want, services we want, maybe repair our spacecraft, if there’s a problem,” he said.

They have already struck an agreement to refuel craft launched by Astroscale, a Japanese company seeking to clear space debris, among other services.

Orbit Fab also aims to serve private space stations currently under development.

And it is also looking towards a possible market on and around the Moon, focusing not on extracting materials, but transforming them into propellant and delivering that to clients.

“At the moment, there’s nothing on the Moon,” said Mr Faber. “In five, 10, 20 years time, we expect that will change dramatically.” AFP