Will orbital gas stations be full service? If NASA has anything to say about it, the answer is yes, full service and fully automatic. An experiment designed to test the satellite-refueling capabilities of the International Space Station’s twin-armed Dextre robot was scheduled to begin today, according to Fox News.
The experiment, which arrived at the orbiting lab onboard the space shuttle Atlantis when it docked on Sunday, is called the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM). It consists of a model satellite that two astronauts were set to attach to the outside of the space station during a space walk conducted earlier today.
As Jersey Turnpike gas attendants eye their jobs nervously, Dextre will put its dexterity to the test on the RRM, a dishwasher-sized box that is done-up with the same kind of knobs and nozzles Dextre would have to navigate in order to refuel an actual satellite.
Dextre’s work could lay the groundwork for fleets of automated orbital grease monkeys that would make the rounds refueling and repairing Earth’s satellites, potentially extending the lives of satellites in orbit and saving millions for their operators.
"We anticipate it enabling future missions, future capabilities, for the international aerospace community," Benjamin Reed, RRM deputy project manager at NASA's Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, told reporters last week at Kennedy Space Center, as quoted by Fox News.
