Why Propellant Depots Are Needed For Space Travel

By Linda Sullivan


Refueling processes have become more intensive and badly needed for space travel today. Actually the necessity is more or less for automatic processes and may not even involve astronauts or cosmonauts to be there. The system is highly automated and so too will be space flights or orbit rocket launches that do not have human passengers.

Much of the work that is done in this field are made by robots, automated travel, which could answer supply needs for space stations to work for satellite repairs. All flights or movement in space has to have refuel backup, and today this will be answered by new propellant depots. These depots are maintained in orbit at strategic spots covering near earth space lanes.

These might be something like satellites providing fuel. They will have similar operant principles as weather satellites. The big difference is in how they will have large containers of propellant attached, and the refueling services could even be the jump offs for travel through longer distances to other planets in the near orbits.

Most flights today can be farther out than earlier flights for any space agency. ESA, the Japanese, NASA, the Chinese and Russians all operate their own units. So do the British, the French and the Italians, in fact most of Europe and many of the most scientifically qualified countries on earth run their own programs.

The main concerns are for communications and weather monitoring, but units or modules have to have the refueling service. The propellants will not be items that stable or orbital platforms need, because these could run far longer with only minimal use of batteries and solar panels. Those which need to traverse distances will need propellants.

Missions to Mars, the moon and other planets, experimental tourism, and other such concerns will have to use the depots in order to work. These things need to be launched from earth, transported by rockets, and should be fully operant or orbit ready when delivered to the orbit point. The most workable are those that are full packed and working.

However, even this will need the depot to be deployed properly. Again, the concern is to have everything automated, especially when the need is for a unit to set up in space. The deployment could simply be a blossoming of extensor arms, platforms and solar pieces, and the lock in mechanisms could be controlled with digital programs.

Monitoring for this is done with ground installations, and the remote connections provide reliable networks. The docking procedures for refuels, using the air force jib and boom can be efficiently run by mechanized processes. These will be programmed precisely and when well maintained, often work out perfectly.

The accidents nowadays are not connected to refueling and the depots. Perhaps later on if its use becomes intensive and cosmic travelers are the norm, some security installations may be needed to protect them. Currently, there really is little use for these since those who travel through the heavens are highly trained and vetted personnel even as more humans can cause accidents.




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