NewSpace Leaders Boost Orbital Fuel Depot

The recent flurry of reports from the presidential panel on the future of space transport has resulted in significant discussion of an orbital fueling station so as to lower launch costs as many believe that stashing rocket fuel in orbit around Earth would open a world of possibilities for long-distance space travel in the future.

Jeff Greason, co-founder of XCOR Aerospace based in Mojave, Calif., and a member of the space program review panel, believes that an orbital fuelling station would be "a game-changer" inasmuch as "You can now do much larger missions with the same-sized booster." He pointed out that Dr. Wernher von Braun had a version called "tanker mode" for the Apollo program decades ago.

Most of the technologies needed for orbital fuel depots are highly matured, the result of efforts to extend the life of existing upper-stage rocket engines, which are used to tweak satellites' orbits once they get into space, said Jonathan Goff, a propulsion systems engineer at California-based Masten Space Systems, noted Irene Klotz in a report.

NASA and United Launch Alliance are working on a prototype orbital fuel depot called CRYOTE. The Reduced-Gravity Cryo-Tracker® is being developed to improve the accuracy of liquid level measurements in reduced gravity environments.

Rand Simberg noted nearly two years ago that a Boeing plan "to build the depot in pieces like a stripped-down International Space Station, only in modules based on the upper stage of the Delta launch vehicle. Two depots would provide redundancy, each one with a total capacity of 175 tons of liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen (25 tons for the lander, 125 for the rocket, with margins for boil-off and other contingencies). And while many of the necessary parts and operations (i.e., orbital cryogenic storage and transfer) still have to be developed and matured, they’re plausible."

The creation of fuel depots in space would enable an international fuel energy market in LEO for American private space launch industry and international space launch providers in Russia, France, and Japan to drop standarized fuel tanks for subsequent purchase in-orbit. The first step would be to boost the refuelling station depot infrastructure.

The orbital fuel depot, in this Blogger's judgment, is a reasonable pathway to pursue. NASA should stimulate an international market for delivery of fuel to spec requirements on-orbit and challenge the American private sector and international space launch firms to fill the orders. The challenge ahead is who builds and operates the depot. Who is the fuel depot attendant?

Comments, please.