The Mini-Me ARM; A Modified Geo Comsat as SEP Tug and Asteroid boulder retrieval mission

The ARM will be a challenging system to develop and there will be costs, Brophy compares GEO Comsats with the current state of the art and the proposed ARM

is there a middle ground?

perhaps an all-electric comsat could carry Xenon tanks in place of the communications payload with alternative missions such as a tug or surveillance missions. gradually the systems would be upgraded as ARM infused technologies become available.  Brophy writes the opposite ARM will infuse commercial comsats!   I think both are true.

Comsat space act agreements,NASA/DARPA/NRO want ARM technologies transfused into the commercial comsat industry in exchange for a Mini-Me Comsat based ARM/surveillance.tug/refueling/repair capability

So camsat companies want in exchange an actual mission flown in exchange for the space act funding they employed

space systems loral

Lockheed Martin Space Systems

Boeing Satellite Development Center

this space act agreement should be for the commercial procurement of three items or goals

A  a modest NEO or boulder

B transfer a decommissioned comsat into solar orbit with the return of the tug to LEO

C  refueling a comsat

this commercial ARM based vehicle should have infused at least 1/3 of the capabilities of the ARM subsystems

IAC-14-A5_3-B3_6_7x26388_Brophy