Mission Repairs

[shellyhe]

I always have been an advocate for every recent and future satellite, particularly space telescopes, to be completely serviceable. Without the missions, of course, Hubble would have been dead on arrival from the start. Many expensive communications satellites like the Sirius XM that have recently failed could be made repairable in space.

On the latest mishap with the Hubble, can the SpaceX Dragons be designed to carry repair modules and components like the Space Shuttle did with Hubble? I am the biggest proponent for SpaceX going on all of their new ventures but can Elon Musk spend a few dollars in doing maintenance to the valuable commodities now circling Earth? Maybe hold off just a bit on going to Mars and save some of the proven useful satellites still needed today in every day affairs.

Also, I have previously written criticisms to the James Webb Space Telescope not being made serviceable. Even if it works perfectly when set up, there may be an eventual need for service to many of its millions of valuable and critical components at some future date. At $10 billion cost and counting, after let say 5 years, there should be a space craft capable of going to the L2 LaGrange point at that time. It's also a "little" closer to Earth than Mars if needed by 2026 or so.

Do these suggestions make sense? Let's take care of Earth's valuable communication and exploration resources - design them to be serviced. Add up all of the manufacturing and launching costs and we are talking billions of dollars. Tax payers and everyone else will save a ton of money.

 

[dsnyrocketengine]

The idea of robotic repair missions to fix/service satellites especially those in lower earth orbit would make a tremendous amount of sense . some of these satellites that have been left for dead could probably be restored by simply replacing batteries ,solar arrays and such. I remember hearing there was a interest in robotic repair missions around the time the shuttles were retired but haven't heard anything on that subject since, Consider how much $ could be saved by bringing "dead" spacecraft back to life as opposed to launching new ones.