CANCELLED: NASA OSAM-1 (Restore-L) LEO servicing

[arachnitect]

Descendent of RRM I guess.

Hadn't heard of it until today.

[A_M_Swallow]

The refuelling hardware on the Restore-L are government furnished equipment. Are they a copy of the equipment attached to the ISS's Dextre? Or something from the Department of Defence?

[TrevorMonty]

Sounds like this is taylor made for OrbitalATK ViviSat. The picture even looks the same.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/03/22/sat-servicing/

[arachnitect]

The refuelling hardware on the Restore-L are government furnished equipment. Are they a copy of the equipment attached to the ISS's Dextre? Or something from the Department of Defence?

The people in charge of this are the people doing the experiments on ISS, so it's probably pretty similar to that.

[mainmind]

This also gets a mention in the 2016 omnibus budget with $133 million for the effort:

http://spacenews.com/nasa-receives-19-3-billion-in-final-2016-spending-bill/

And apparently has a request for information floating out there that is related to the Asteroid Redirect mission:
http://www.coloradospacenews.com/nasa-seeks-additional-information-for-asteroid-redirect-mission-spacecraft/

[savuporo]

NASA site

http://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov/restore-l.html
LAUNCH DATE: Late 2019

Darpa RSGS has very similar goals. Also looks like DLR signed a 4.5M eur DEOS Phase B2 contract recently with Airbus

[Comga]

The refuelling hardware on the Restore-L are government furnished equipment. Are they a copy of the equipment attached to the ISS's Dextre? Or something from the Department of Defense?

The people in charge of this are the people doing the experiments on ISS, so it's probably pretty similar to that.

The lidar unit is currently planned to be another like that built for the STORRM experiment on STS-134, the one on the ISS RRM, and the one in Raven going up in STP-H5 on the upcoming SpX-10.  Modifications are minor, so yes A_M_Swallow's guess is correct.  This is coming out of NASA GSFC.

[jacqmans]

December 05, 2016
CONTRACT RELEASE C16-032

NASA Awards Contract for Refueling Mission Spacecraft

NASA has awarded the Restore-L Spacecraft Bus and Support Services contract to Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, California. Restore-L is a robotic spacecraft equipped with the tools, technologies and techniques needed to service satellites currently in orbit.

The contract has a firm-fixed-price and includes a three-year core period and a two-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity portion. The total maximum value of the contract is $127 million.

Space Systems/Loral will provide spacecraft bus, critical hardware and services for the development, deployment and operations of the Restore-L mission. They also will provide related services to accomplish mission integration, test, launch and operations.

The Restore-L Project is managed within NASA’s Satellite Servicing Projects Division at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The Satellite Servicing Projects Division at Goddard was established in 2009 to continue NASA’s 40-year legacy of satellite servicing and repair. Restore-L is a free-flying mission projected to launch in 2020 to perform in-orbit satellite servicing on an operational government asset in low-Earth orbit.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

[ZachS09]

Collectspace's similar article says that Landsat 7, which was launched in April 1999 atop a Delta II, will be refueled by Restore-L in 2020.

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum33/HTML/000661.html

[zubenelgenubi]

Collectspace's similar article says that Landsat 7, which was launched in April 1999 atop a Delta II, will be refueled by Restore-L in 2020.

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum33/HTML/000661.html

An interesting, indirect connection, IIRC:
One of the Vandenberg Shuttle flights was to be a refueling of Landsat 4 or 5.  They were constructed with larger than otherwise needed propellant tanks so the satellite would have sufficient propellant to lower its orbit prior to the Shuttle rendezvousing with it.

[russianhalo117]

Collectspace's similar article says that Landsat 7, which was launched in April 1999 atop a Delta II, will be refueled by Restore-L in 2020.

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum33/HTML/000661.html

Collectspace's similar article says that Landsat 7, which was launched in April 1999 atop a Delta II, will be refueled by Restore-L in 2020.

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum33/HTML/000661.html

An interesting, indirect connection, IIRC:
One of the Vandenberg Shuttle flights was to be a refueling of Landsat 4 or 5.  They were constructed with larger than otherwise needed propellant tanks so it would have sufficient propellant to lower its orbit prior to the Shuttle rendezvousing with it.

Restore-L's full name is Restore-Landsat Servicing Mission which was recently shortened to just Restore-L.

[russianhalo117]

BUMP:
Manufacturing contract has been awarded: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=41781.0

[gosnold]

FISO presentation on sat servicing, including restore-L:

http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/%7Efiso/telecon/Reed_1-11-17/

[Hobbes-22]

I'm kinda disappointed they didn't go with the name Restore-R 

[jongoff]

FISO presentation on sat servicing, including restore-L:

http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/%7Efiso/telecon/Reed_1-11-17/

That was my first FISO telecon I had the chance to listen to live (it's usually a bad time of the week for me). I really liked some of the last slides, where they were talking about "low-hanging fruit" initiatives they were working on for making future spacecraft more readily serviceable. Like adding optical fiducial "stickers" to the back of the spacecraft, or developing a robotic fueling interface that seems to be similar size and weight to existing less-serviceable connections.

Also interesting to hear that in ~14 months they'll be launching RRM-3 to ISS, which will include a cryo methane transfer experiment.

~Jon

[jongoff]

I'm kinda disappointed they didn't go with the name Restore-R 

Isn't the L for "LandSat" the satellite they're targeting for servicing?

~Jon

[Skyrocket]

I'm kinda disappointed they didn't go with the name Restore-R 

Isn't the L for "LandSat" the satellite they're targeting for servicing?

~Jon

L is for "low earth orbit". There was also a study for RESTORE-G for a "geostationary orbit" mission.

[TakeOff]

Why refuel satellites? Why not let the "Restore-L" instead tug the satellite with its own engine? It should be much easier and safer and one doesn't need to care about what fuel type the satellite originally had.

[Jim]

Why refuel satellites? Why not let the "Restore-L" instead tug the satellite with its own engine? It should be much easier and safer and one doesn't need to care about what fuel type the satellite originally had.

Because a "tug" isn't needed.  No "engine" is need.  The propellant is for attitude control.  Attaching another spacecraft is not that simple.  The mass properties of the stack is different.  The attached spacecraft would interfere with look angles of sensors and instruments.  It would require sending commands to two spacecraft to point and take data.

[TrevorMonty]

Why refuel satellites? Why not let the "Restore-L" instead tug the satellite with its own engine? It should be much easier and safer and one doesn't need to care about what fuel type the satellite originally had.

Because a "tug" isn't needed.  No "engine" is need.  The propellant is for attitude control.  Attaching another spacecraft is not that simple.  The mass properties of the stack is different.  The attached spacecraft would interfere with look angles of sensors and instruments.  It would require sending commands to two spacecraft to point and take data.

OrbitalATK intend to start with a space tug then evolve it add servicing and refuelling capabilities to it. The space tug will latch onto satellite engine bell and take over all propulsion jobs. Have signed customers for 2019-2020 launch.See OA thread for more info.

What the tugs needs is away to refuel themselves from a upper stage or newly deployed satellite. ACES would be ideal for this as it should have endurance to enable rendezvous with tug after its initial mission. Tug refuels from secondary payload tanks. As extra bonus tug could attach dead satellite to ACES for disposal.