NASA sends a robot into space to prevent a large telescope from falling

American startup in charge of rescue

For this extremely demanding job, NASA hired the American startup Katalyst Space Technologies. Their spacecraft with three robotic arms, called Link, will try to catch up with the Swift telescope after launching from an atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The launch will be carried out using the Pegasus rocket, a unique system that is released from the underside of the aircraft at high altitude.

Since its launch in 2004, Swift has tirelessly observed the universe and recorded some of the most powerful and violent explosions in the cosmos, such as gamma-ray bursts that occur in the collapse of massive stars. But in recent years, due to the increased activity of the Sun, the Earth’s atmosphere expands into higher layers and creates greater resistance, which slows down the telescope and causes it to lose height more and more rapidly. That is why it is necessary to move it to a higher and more stable orbit as soon as possible, writes the Associated Press.

NASA warns that a similar fate could soon befall the legendary Hubble space telescope, which is also gradually losing height for the same reason. Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee says that the next generation of his company’s robotic spacecraft could extend the life of the Hubble significantly in a few years.

A race against time in Earth’s orbit

So far, only China has carried out a similar mission, when four years ago it successfully moved one of its satellites into a higher, so-called “graveyard” orbit, where it no longer poses a threat.

​- This is the first American space robot that will perform this kind of mission. NASA has a number of large observatories that could benefit from such a service. With this mission, we show that there is a completely new way of maintaining spacecraft – said Lee to the Associated Press.

The Link autonomous spacecraft will need about a month to catch up with Swift and capture it, and then about two more months to raise its orbit from the current 360 to approximately 600 kilometers above Earth. The telescope, which weighs about 1.4 tons, must remain above the critical altitude of 300 kilometers in order for the rescue mission to be feasible at all.

In order to buy additional time, NASA shut down all scientific instruments on Swift back in February. This move reduced drag and slowed down its descent, but since then the telescope has stopped collecting scientific data.

An aircraft the size of a refrigerator with three robotic arms

The Link spacecraft itself is about the size of a smaller kitchen refrigerator, has a solar panel range of 12 meters and is equipped with three robotic arms that are just over a meter long. Each hand ends with two grippers that resemble the hands of Lego figurines.

Although the telescope is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it was never designed for repairs or capture in space. This is why Katalyst admits that the wordč about an extremely demanding mission without any guarantee of success. NASA signed the contract with the company last September with only two key requirements: the work must be done as quickly as possible without further endangering the telescope.

​- I have to be honest. No one believed that this was possible. No one expected that we would live forever. to be this far today – said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division.

Swift could become more important than ever

The head of NASA’s scientific missions, Nicky Fox, believes that the risk and effort are well worth it.

​- If we let Swift fall into the atmosphere, we will lose the telescope and much of our capabilities. At the moment, we don’t have the money to build a new one to replace it – she said.

Domagal-Goldman points out that it is not possible to save all spacecraft, but that Swift is special. In accordance with its name (eng. swift – fast), it is designed to turn very quickly and direct itself towards newly discovered phenomena.

With new discoveries expected from the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as the future Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, the rescued Swift could become more important than ever. It would serve as a kind of “NASA’s first responder” for more detailed monitoring of new cosmic events discovered by other observatories.

Katalyst sees this mission as the beginning of a whole new industry of spacecraft servicing in space. Their next robotic system, whose first launch is planned for next year, should be able to repair satellites at altitudes of up to almost 36,000 kilometers. Lee believes that one day there will be hundreds of robots in orbit repairing and moving satellites, refueling them, and building solar power plants and other space platforms. If this mission succeeds, Hubble would moreć In 2028, it could become the next big NASA telescope whose life will be extended by robots.