Imagine if you couldn’t refill your car’s gas tank but still needed to travel long distances. When the car runs out of gas…you walk? Unfortunately, that’s what happens today for all space systems built and launched; they can’t be refueled and are thrown away. They are built, fueled once, launched, do their one job, and then retire (or burn up if in LEO). Transitioning space into a reusable economy requires bold thinking, innovative technology, and a lot of imagination. Arkisys and GATE Space teamed up to tackle this challenge by enabling space systems to move around and last longer by adding gas tanks plus rockets—or Jetpacks—to them after they achieve orbit.

​A recent demonstration on Arkisys’s testbed proved it’s possible to add a GATE Space propulsion system to a mock satellite, after it gets to orbit, robotically. “Using our autonomous robotics on our Port Module, we validated transferring a full-scale Jetpack onto a separate spacecraft is possible,” says Dr. Rahul Rughani, Chief Systems Engineer for Arkisys. “The sea change to in-space mobility that GATE Space separable Jetpacks offer fundamentally shifts any satellite system from single orbit single life into a multi-orbit extended life and orbital capability.”  Jetpacks extend the range of a satellite from one orbit to another or allow much lower altitude satellites the ability to stay up longer.