en.Wedoany.com Reported - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has begun testing a new on-orbit refueling system for spacecraft, which could provide critical support for future deep-space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The core component of this system is a cryogenic connector developed by L3Harris. This connector can be seen as an automatic "fuel nozzle" for space, capable of docking a spacecraft with an orbital refueling station and transferring liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Travis Belcher, project manager at the Marshall Space Flight Center, stated that no organization has yet achieved fully automatic cryogenic fuel transfer between two spacecraft, a task considered one of the most complex challenges in modern space technology.

The main advantage of the new system is its ability to repeatedly connect and disconnect the fuel interface without astronaut involvement, while its design allows the connecting elements to function properly even with minor alignment deviations during docking.

In the first phase of testing, engineers used liquid nitrogen at approximately -196°C to repeatedly connect and disconnect the connector, testing its sealing, reliability, and low-temperature performance, and simulating non-ideal docking scenarios to ensure system stability under real-world conditions.

The technology is still in its early development stages. NASA plans to adapt it for specific missions such as lunar exploration and Mars expeditions in the future. The agency believes that on-orbit refueling could transform long-distance spaceflight, enabling spacecraft to carry out larger-scale missions without needing to transport all their fuel from the start.

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