Exploiting extraterrestrial graveyards

The US Department of Defense wants to use those parts that operate in "satellite graveyards" outside the globe to build new satellites.

The illustration of a satellite has stopped operating in orbit. (Photo: AP)

When satellites 'die', parts such as antennas and solar panels still function normally. However, now we do not think about utilizing and reusing satellite parts after launching them out of the planet. This situation makes the universe a real landfill, while the cost of building new satellites also increased significantly.

DARPA's Department of Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) spends $ 180 million on a program dubbed "Pirates of the Space Universe" to reduce the cost of manufacturing new satellites by reusing parts. The value of 'dead' satellites remains . The official name of the program is "Phoenix," the AP reported.

Many companies have invested in DARPA's promising new project. According to the plan, DARPA will test the reuse of antennas of old satellites in new satellites in 2016. Scientists will launch programmed robots to dead satellites, detonating them to get them. active part. At the same time separate mini satellites are also launched into space. The robot system then assembles the active parts of the old satellite into the mini satellites to create a new communication system.

DARPA has identified 140 old satellites that could become targets in their first experiment.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University and a satellite expert, sees this as an "interesting idea" that , in the long run, could reduce the cost of making satellites. The biggest challenge in the upcoming experiment is the separation of antennas from dead satellites without breaking them and connecting them to mini satellites.