Seeking expert on LAR and sep systems 1

[Calvin Murphy]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this site, and I'm hoping to find anyone who has experience with launch adapter rings (LAR) or their installation.
If you can answer any of the questions below, please reply or message me.

• How common is it for components on the satellite to be located within the inner diameter of the LAR?
• Are there consistent guidelines for where those components can be located within the LAR on the satellite?
• How common is it for LARs to be insulated with MLI or foil, and how much of the LAR is guaranteed to be exposed?
• During installation, are they coated in any lubrication that might still be present in space?
• Are the LAR's manufactured by launch providers and left to clients to install, or are clients responsible for designing their own LARs that will interlock with the one on the rocket?
• Is there a way to track which LAR shapes and sizes are in space currently?

Ultimately, this information will be used to help clean up space debris.


All pictures are from publicly available payload user interface guides.
Picture of LAR pair and clamp-band for context:


Cross sections of some sizes of LAR:

 

[GregLocock]

Vice grips. Nasty but useful.

 

[rb1957]

Apologies, but this sounds somewhat "hare brained". It is one thing to catch a newly launched satellite that got placed in the wrong orbit, and transfer it to the correct one. This takes massive amounts of calculation and design. Sure Northrop did this, once, but most times it is "better" to claim the insurance loss and launch another. Hubble was designed to be serviced and this happened only 2 or 3 times in its life ... ie not much market for this. Building an apogee booster is no easy thing, not knowing the intended target satellite makes this almost impossible (IMHO), trying to push this unknown satellite by some tenuous attachment to the launch ring

And then you described the mission as "the servicer can take over maneuvering for satellites that are low on fuel or unresponsive, towing them to a better orbit" Towing a satellite that is unresponsive or low on fuel to a different orbit is hardly likely to rejuvenate the defunct satellite.