Re:The first on-orbit fuel depot has been deployed
by clort on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @03:40PM
(#27764988)
Might be better to have a smaller barge (or a bunch of them) which would load up at the tanker and transit over to the satellite with just enough fuel that was ordered? No need to waste energy moving the whole tanker..
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Re:The first on-orbit fuel depot has been deployed
by azernik on Wednesday July 07, 2021 @03:54PM
(#27765108)
If you're in the right inclination and more or less the right altitude, matching argument of ascending node with a target is cheap, just slow; this class of customer orbits is selected precisely because the Earth's oblateness noticeably affects the orbit, so you can get certain kinds of orbit changes and station keeping "for free" from the shape of the Earth's gravitational field.