First Space Fuel Station to Open in 2015

AutoEvolution.com: First Space Fuel Station to Open in 2015

As the space exploration age as we know it is slowly coming to an end, with the retiring of the three space shuttles programmed for the current year, all eyes are on private entrepreneurs, who are expected to pick up from where the government and NASA have left off as soon as the shuttle program ends. And these private entrepreneurs plan to take a new approach when it comes to space exploration.

Lacking the huge funding the government agencies involved in space exploration have had throughout the years, and racing at the same time to make profit from their business, private companies will seek to reduce the cost of their operations. And by doing so, they might even lend a helping hand to the ongoing space projects.

According to Space.com, citing Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), a new (actually the first ever) space-based fueling station is in the works and planned to be deployed sometime around 2015.

In the long run, the station might be used to refuel the space crafts that will depart Earth heading to God-knows-where, but for now, the fueling station will be used to refill other satellites in orbit (who otherwise would have been doomed as soon as they have run out of fuel.

According to the source, the project is not only that, but it will actually become reality in the middle of the decade. Apparently, European satellite company Intelsat already signed up as the first customer for the fueling station.

The fueling station will be sent on a geosynchronous orbit at 22,369 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth and will also be used as a type of janitor. The satellite will push into the atmosphere or into the graveyard orbit all the dead man-made objects orbiting our planet.

"For the first time satellite operators and satellite users will have the choice of extending the lives of satellites. I think it can have a significant impact," Steve Oldham, MDA vice president, told Space.com.