"Andrew Thompson" wrote:

After reading some of the recent discussions re the shuttle
loss I began to wonder at the practicality of small
'inspection craft' permanently in orbit to rendesvous with
shuttles and and other high risk / high value craft to gain
a closer inspection for damage.

If the orbits were known far enough in advance, perhaps
low thrust ion engines may be sufficient to maneuver the
craft into position for each successive encounter?

But, would ion engines be practical for maneuvering
close to the shuttle (the inspection craft would
obviously need to 'traverse' the shuttle)?

Is this completely impractical? Thoughts?

Practical, I can't say. But it makes a lot of sense to me to have some
sort of simple waldo-type robotic platform up there. It doesn't have to be
fancy, fast or smart. But something with eyes, mobility, and a basic set
of tools could probably be really useful.

Such a device could sit idle until needed, just like any other tool. It
could manoeuver on solar-powered ion thrusters most of the time, thus
requiring little fuel. I envision something with little or no on-board
intelligence, being almost entirely ground-controlled. It could visit
virtually any orbiting object object given sufficient time, performing
visual inspections, freeing stuck panels, and other such things that seem
to come up occasionally.

Certainly, anything complex would be impractical for such a platform. But
there are a lot of simple jobs that can't be done now, that might keep
expensive space hardware off the junk list.

/kenw
Ken Wallewein CDP,CNE,MCSE,CCA,CCNA
K&M Systems Integration
Phone (403)274-7848
Fax (403)275-4535

www.kmsi.net