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by yencabulator
1034 days ago
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Their goal is to develop a reusable craft, this is a single-use prototype. I don't think they've published any concrete plans for how they'll achieve reusability. Maybe a future version of the catcher would have a large/refillable gas tank that lets it catch things, change their trajectory just enough to hasten their descent, and then continue on mission? A no-fuel way to drag things down would be even better, like the sibling comment talks about tethers. Imagine a catcher that attaches a tether line that slows down LEO objects purely by drag. Adjusting orbits to match multiple satellites is a tough requirement, with a heavy delta-V cost. Especially more so if it needs to get to a deorbiting trajectory in between each catch. |
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