OLEV

Overview

Putting a large telecommunication satellites into geostationary orbit (GEO) is a major cost driver for the corresponding companies. The typical 15 years lifetime of such satellites is mainly driven by the depletion of propellant, although the telecommunications payload is still funtional. This is the case for more than 140 satellites during the next 10 years. Hence the idea of the Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (OLEV) is to prolong the lifetime of such satellites. Accordingly, OLEV docks to the GEO satellite and prolongs the lifetime up to 12 years by providing attitude and orbit control. This includes the provision of a propulsion system, as well as guidance and navigation for a coupled spacecraft system. Furthermore the OLEV shall allow docking and undocking of up to five times. In this way servicing of multiple satellites is possible. The docking system itself connects to the apogee kick motor enabling the possibility of docking to the majority of three-axis stabilized satellites in GEO. Furthermore the propulsion system builds up on an electrical propulsion system to reduce mass and prolong the lifetime of the OLEV. The overall OLEV spacesegment is optimized to service spacecraft with a dry mass of up to two tons.



Fig. 1 The OLEV spacesegment with the Servicer docked to a communication satellite

Mission Scenarios

The business case of orbital satellite services envisages multiple opportunities for a usage of OLEV in GEO. Among those are:

Further Reading

Sellmaier, F., Boge, T., Spurmann, J., Gully, S., Rupp, T., Huber, F.;
On-Orbit Servicing Missions: Challenges and Solutions for Spacecraft Operations;
AIAA 2010-2159; SpaceOps 2010 Conference, Huntsville, Alabama, 25-30 April (2010).

Orbital Satellite Services Homepage on former Smart-OLEV (OSS, 2010)

Adaptation of CX OLEV to Smart-OLEV (ESA, 2008)

Contact

DLR/GSOC
Jörn Spurmann
Space Flight Technology
D-82234 Weßling

Tel.: +49 (8153) 28-1593
Fax: +49 (8153) 28-1450

J. Spurmann
Last Updated: 2010/05/19