Jas Tiruvuru, business development manager for Orbit Fab in the UK and Europe, said the company was aiming to successfully demonstrate the technology in space by 2027.
“This will essentially be the first ever satellite to satellite refuelling demonstration funded here in the UK,” she said.
“Once we’ve proven that we can refuel to two spacecrafts we’ll be able to unlock a huge market potential.”
You know, maybe it’s just me, but I think 2027 may be a little optimistic. Just like the figure given in the article for how much the satellite sector will be worth in the future.
Aren’t there too many satellites already?
I’d like to see how this would help us colonize the solar system.
Actually, I’d like to see how they plan to get fuel up there in the first place.
Maybe my novel’s idea of using certain moons of Jupiter or Saturn as giant space gas pumps might help? 🪐
M Thomas Apple Author Page 
November 13, 2024 at 3:47 pm
Great post. I am so intrigued by the missions to Jupiter. Mars, Titan. Ceres (?). Voyager, good ol’ Voyager, now well past the heliotrope and still sending back data…decades longer than predicted. Data from true interstellar space, 3 degrees above absolute zero, and still resonating with a low-pitched hum of the Big Bang.
Who knows if celestial gas stations will be practical or not. I guess we’ll see. I’m just glad to be living in such an age of discovery 😎👍
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November 13, 2024 at 3:54 pm
I’m thinking that this will only really work once we’ve got some hydrogen production on the Moon / Mars / Ceres, and have switched all inter-planetary craft engines to use hydrogen fuel cells…probably a couple decades away, at least, but the tech is already there, so let’s just do it!
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