Hundreds of military, governmental and commercial satellites are now located in a geostationary orbit (about 36.000 kilometers from the Earth), an ideal telecommunications positioning, meteorological and national security services but so remote as to prevent the inspection and diagnosis of components malfunctioning, even less updates or repairs.
Sometimes, fully functional assets see the end of their operational life simply because of obsolete equipment: a frustrating situation for property owners costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The DARPA program Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) is developing technologies that will allow the inspection and maintenance of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, in particular for those vehicles not originally prepared for interventions and upgrades in orbit.
A spacecraft is being developed that will allow dozens of missions and a robot for work on satellites. The system should be operational within 5 years.
