Darpa, the onderzoekstak of the American department of defense, is working on a concept for robots that independently from satellites in space to repair and upgrade. At the time of his satellites, in essence, unattainable as soon as they are in a high orbit around the earth.
As it works now, must ruimtevaartmaatschappijen on earth, their satellites, completely rebuild, and then in the space of places. ‘Mortal actions’ as well as repairs, upgrades, and re-use are hardly possible to 35,000 km above the earth. Satellites are now also designed: they have their whole life can operate without repairs and upgrades, and that has its influence on the size, complexity and cost of the current type of satellites.
The Phoenix program must change. The idea behind it is that satellites are out of modular components, so-called satlets, to be built by robots in space may be placed, replaced and removed. The satlets can advance a function to be assigned as the power source, motion control or sensory perception.
Darpa is already involved with the development of the robots and now has the first testronde completed. “Phase one has not only the feasibility of our robots proved, but also the idea that we are in an earth-orbiting new satellites are able to build,” according to Darpa. The technique would make it possible to at a fraction of the current cost satellite systems to build. For phase two, Darpa contracts with eight different companies to get the technology to develop further.