In sci.space.policy Jorge R. Frank wrote:
Chuck wrote in
:

Jorge, what do you think about John's idea in an earlier post about
using an ion propulsion system to push Hubble into an ISS compatible
orbit? Would that be a viable option or would the development/
transition fuel costs, etc. be too prohibitive?

As far as the ion propulsion goes, the basic concepts were proven with DS1,
but that was a smaller beast than HST. To transfer HST to ISS inclination
in a reasonable time (on the order of months rather than years), you'd need
a larger engine than has been successfully developed so far. Some
development cost but no show-stoppers that I can see.

There is also SMART-1, happily on its way towards Moon. I think the PPS-1350 is
rated to work for 7000 hours of propulsion, so long transfers are ok.


Likewise, using DS1-class ion engines with HST might work but would require
longer transfer times (on the order of years), so you'd need an engine that
can work reliably over a very long period, or multiply-redundant engines.
Again, no showstoppers, just development work and tradeoffs to be made.

In either case, the fuel costs are negligible compared to development
costs. Take all of the above with a grain of salt - I'm a rendezvous guy,
not a low-thrust propulsion guy. I haven't actually run any numbers on how
long these transfers would take.

Just use off the shelf ion engines. Sure, having the PPS-5000 or similar around
that are designed for station keeping 10 ton satellites would be nice, but I
don't think the present options are too meager either. So you should be able to
eliminate teh need to spend large amounts on the propulsion part.

[snip]


That is not to say that it's impossible to develop an automated system to
rendezvous and capture a non-cooperative, inert, and (by 2007-08) possibly
slowly tumbling target. But the challenge of developing such a system will,
IMO, be greater than that of getting the ion propulsion to work.


Surely some of the ASAT technology can be reused in such a mission? Such would
by defaulkt have needed to be able to rendezvous with a non-co-operative target.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++