We've polluted our oceans with single-use plastics, and only recently have we transitioned to re-usable water bottles and bags. Similarly, we are polluting space with single-use satellites and treating it like we did the oceans.

In 2023, there were 3 satellites that failed shortly after launch, resulting in more debris polluting the Earth's orbit and an estimated $800 million of insurance claims. These failures, like antenna deployment issues, could have been repaired rather than writing off the entire satellite. But; they weren't designed to be repaired. Repairing a satellite that hasn't been designed to be is too complicated, too risky and too expensive, with astronaut repair especially so. Single-use solutions are the norm. You wouldn't write off a car if the battery was faulty, so why do we continue to do this in space? Fortunately, unlike with our oceans, humanity is in the early stages of space exploration and its not too late to change. We founded Growbotics to address this by helping to encourage the introduction of re-useable solutions throughout the space supply chain.

In the video you can see a basic proof-of-concept of re-usable fasteners that we put together in the robotic prototyping facility at the Satellite Applications Catapult.

We’re working on answering the questions: Why aren’t satellites normally repaired? How would you do so? How can we help remove some of the blockers to encourage change in the sector?

We’re working together with robotics suppliers, satellite servicing companies and satellite manufacturers to solve this problem. If you fit into one of these, or you’re working on similar technology, commercial or policy enablers, we’d love to hear from you.