Re:The first on-orbit fuel depot has been deployed
by bpye on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @03:10PM
(#27764720)
I think it might be more reasonable to look at this like air to air refuelling, rather than a petrol station. Either the tanker or the satellite or both must spend a significant amount of fuel to align their orbits and velocities precisely and during that operation they are likely unable to perform anything else.
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Re:The first on-orbit fuel depot has been deployed
by jjk166 on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @03:40PM
(#27764995)
In air to air refueling, both parties are spending incredible amounts of fuel simply holding themselves aloft at cruising speed. Matching alignment is a literal drop in the bucket by comparison.
The amount of fuel required to align spacecraft in similar orbits is miniscule compared to the cost of getting fuel into orbit to begin with. You're talking 10s of m/s of delta-V.