right now 'envisat' is a huge DEAD piece of space satellite with MASSIVE SOLAR PANELS. the whole european satellite is considered dead. not only does this massive thing have lots of amazing panels, but it also has a lot of heavy mass

my proposal is to send a small motherbot with a small solar panel to power her after she lands on the satellite do the following in sequential order using her initial small solar panel to power her.

1) remove the unused solar paneling of envisat and reattach them to the mombots input power ports, serial/power panel connections. the mombot will then have lots more power. envisats panels are old so maybe they will have to be refurbished? worst case scenario you target a different dead sattelite that has better solar panels.

2) use the new found source of power to MELT those scavenged parts of the dead satellite carcass which can be used for a) building a container b) used as propellant

3) make the container

4) place the proellant in the container.

5) mombot posses 3 components as part of its original launch package that will now be deployed.

5A) the solar powered ion beam machine. mombot uses the ion beam machine powered by solar power to form an ion beam that is comprised of a directed beam of the propellant (scavenged from the carcass of envisat) ----- this beam is then used to propell ...babybot

5b) babybot is a small cargo carrying robot lunar impactor with a little reflective 'butt' that serves as the ion beam target . babyout is pushed towards the moon as an impactor. the particle ion beam adds minute but consistent amounts of thrust (powered by the scavenged envisat's solar panels) to babybot's butt. over time, baby bot gets to the moon much like smarter 1. however, because babybot is not itself carrying propellant, it is even lighter in weight relative to smarter 1 because babybot is not using up propellant in order to thrust existing on board reserves of propellant. there are none. only cargo. babybots sole job is to impact the moon and safely give birth to.....grandbaby bot.

now the fun part

5c) babybot succesfully impacts the moon at relatively low , yet still, energetically intensive speed. babybot possess internal structure specifically constructed as crumple zones to absorb energy in order to protect its contents and deliver them safely to the lunar surface: welcome grandbaby bot. ( hence the babushkbot name of the mission ).

grandbaby bot tours the moon with solar panels. and does whatever you want like a good grandbaby.

*6) and for the icing on the science fiction cake, mombot is sophisticated enough to build baby bot and grandbaby bot out of the raw melted carcass parts of the envisat. mombot is also under 200 pounds in weight, and is launched as part of a package on someone else's satellite rocket.
-- teslaberry, Feb 12 2014

smart1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART-1
[teslaberry, Feb 12 2014]

envisat? http://www.space.co...sat-dead-space.html
you could use other sattelites i suppose, but a huge unused and reuseable array of solar panels already in orbit is worth a fortune. [teslaberry, Feb 12 2014]

other dead sattelites to use http://en.wikipedia...ites_orbiting_Earth
you could launch your own solar panels on motherbot and just use dead sattelite for scavenging meltable mass. [teslaberry, Feb 12 2014]

envisat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envisat
the wiki of envisat [teslaberry, Feb 12 2014]

junk envisat deorbiting mission http://m.theepochti...iling-satellites-2/
surely 18,000 pounds of orbital mass has more value than simply spending money to 'deorbit' it? [teslaberry, Feb 12 2014]

Is it in other:[general] because it generates another thing?
-- pocmloc, Feb 12 2014


funny that people junked me as i found out that darpa funded the idea a year or more before i posted it.
-- teslaberry, Apr 12 2014



random, halfbakery