Much of a spacecraft’s fuel is consumed in maneuvers to leave Earth’s orbit. For this reason, as manned missions move further away from our planet, we must begin to think about use space gas stations. These are not fuel pumps floating in space, but satellites, or even ships, capable of transferring fuel to a ship that needs it to travel further.
At the moment, this is one of the weak points of many missions, so it is important to start working on technologies that allow it. At NASA they are very aware of this problem, hence this year they are going to launch LOXSATa mission that will test 11 different technologies to guarantee the transfer of propellants.
9 months ahead. LOXSAT is a NASA mission in collaboration with the company Eta Space. The objective of this mission is to test different cryogenic fluid management technologies so that in the future propellant tanks can be created in space. The mission will remain in low Earth orbit for 9 months. Meanwhile, 11 technologies will be tested focused on achieving four objectives: reducing boiling, improving propellant transfer, maintaining stable pressure and measuring propellant levels.
The big problem. Cryogenic propellants, such as liquid oxygen at extremely low temperatures, are very efficient, but they have a major disadvantage. And in microgravity conditions, when the transfer between ships is carried out, the temperature cannot be kept low enough, so the fuel boils and suddenly transforms into gas. This causes a huge increase in pressure, which can endanger the ships involved.
It seems to be that precisely this problem is the one that is giving SpaceX the most headaches. Like Blue Origin, this company must demonstrate its ability to refuel in space to be part of the Artemis missions, but it is not being easy. This is the reason why with LOXSAT methods will be tested to maintain stable pressure and reduce boiling.
Space gas stations. The objective of this mission is to perfect the technology so that in the future there can be fixed propellant tanks in space. In other words, they hope that as we colonize space terrain we have gas stations so as not to run out of fuel.
China on the heels. Ideally, in the future, large ships could exchange propellant. No space agency has achieved anything like this. However, China has indeed achieved it with satellites, in their Shijian missions. Plus, they did it in a higher orbit, so they are ahead of NASA in the particular race that has been uniting them for so long. Of course, at the moment, China has not tested cryogenic propellants, but tried hydrazine replenishment. There is still room for improvement.
Write down the date. The mission will depart aboard an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab. The launch will be in the summer, no earlier than July 17, from New Zealand.
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