Fewer astronauts, more robots. That’s the call from three European aerospace engineers, who argue that crewed satellite repair missions – like the ones flown by NASA to fix the ailing Hubble Space Telescope – are expensive, wasteful and set the wrong agenda for the space community.
The trio – Alex Ellery, Joerg Kreidsel and Bernd Sommer – argue in the journal Acta Astronautica that while such missions may be spectacular, they are unsustainable. Space agencies and satellite operators should instead be accelerating their efforts to develop robotic mechanics that can ply various Earth orbits, fixing errant satellites on demand. That way failing spacecraft…
