Comment by richardwhiuk

9 months ago

Free in the sense of astronomical capital and operational costs.

r&d sure, not sure about ops as you can probably just detach a faulty module and launch a replacement.

  • Not an expert in this area, but I think that that "just" is hiding a lot of complexity. Plus you also need some remotely operated robots to mount the replacement.

  • Stationkeeping is not free, satellite monitoring is not free, and any replacement to any component is now a multi-year, at least 1+ million dollar affair (or most likely a complete replacement, since not many satellites have done in-situ repairs).