Refueling satellites in space with the help of a robot

Many technologies that are essential for daily life—from communications to GPS navigation to weather forecasting—rely on the thousands of satellites that are orbiting Earth. When those satellites run out of gas and stop working, there's not much that can currently be done to fix them. "When a satellite runs out of fuel, and you don't have a way to refuel it, that satellite stops working," said John Wen, professor and head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. More

(Source: Phys.org - Dec 12)