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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: CX OLEV

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/salvage-04f.html]Orbital "Tugboat"

*Okay...I checked Search with "CX OLEV" (no results) -- which is an acronym for ConeXpress Orbital Life Extension Vehicle -- and with "tug" (which directed me to the "Return to flight slipping" thread; I scrolled through Pages 5 and 6 [posts dated 3 weeks ago to current], did not see this posted...[but then again I apparently didn't see a launch date the other day on a web site, so maybe my eyes are going kaput or something...]).  I don't see this article as having been previously posted. 

The CX OLEV will serve as an orbital "tugboat" - providing the propulsion, navigation and guidance required to maintain telecommunications satellites in their proper orbits for years beyond the normal fuel depletion.

Primary mission of the CX OLEV will be to prolong the in-service lifetimes of expensive geostationary orbit telecommunications satellites, which currently are junked when their on-board fuel supply runs out.

The space tug will also be equipped for other essential services to operators, such as providing the graveyard burn or effect plane changes for inclined satellites.

*Is a European venture.  ESA is involved, as is funding from major European industrial investors.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

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John Creighton

Member

From: Nova Scotia, Canada

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 2,401

Website

Re: CX OLEV

:up: :up: 
!Awsome!

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Shaun Barrett

Member

From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Registered: 2001-12-28

Posts: 2,843

Re: CX OLEV

Interesting.
    Some of our resident space hardware geniuses here have mentioned the fact that the ISS is in an orbit too inclined to the equator to be useful as a staging post for crewed lunar flights in future. Perhaps this CX OLEV space-tug, or some near-term enhancement thereof, could gradually shift the ISS's orbit to a more equatorial one(?) and make it more useful in this way.
    Recently, people have been talking about abandoning the ISS as an expensive white elephant. But, with President Bush apparently intending a return to the Moon, and with the amount of money already spent on it, surely shifting the ISS to a more useful orbit would be worth considering. It could then be gradually upgraded to include an on-orbit construction facility for assembling larger interplanetary ships from components launched separately from Earth (or even, much later on, from components produced at a lunar facility).  ???   

[P.S. I realise 'equatorialising' the ISS's orbit would preclude using Russian launch pads to reach it (too far north) but, if the U.S. is serious about human exploration of the Moon, it will surely have a sufficiently reliable ELV by then to obviate the need for Russian mercy missions.]

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John Creighton

Member

From: Nova Scotia, Canada

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 2,401

Website

Re: CX OLEV

Interesting.
   Some of our resident space hardware geniuses here have mentioned the fact that the ISS is in an orbit too inclined to the equator to be useful as a staging post for crewed lunar flights in future. Perhaps this CX OLEV space-tug, or some near-term enhancement thereof, could gradually shift the ISS's orbit to a more equatorial one(?) and make it more useful in this way.

Then how would you go to the moon from Russia. Wouldn’t you end up in an even more inclined orbit. The orbit must be good for missions taking off and landing from somewhere. Obviously you got to make a correction somewhere and that will add to fuel costs.

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SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,967

Re: CX OLEV

Yup the space tug has been mentioned for several years for the possibility for saving wayward satelites to even at one time being suggested for use to save the Hubble or at least to stabalize it a bit.