I notice that we got a lot of dead(?) metal canisters floating around in LEO. Some proposals have a "factory" in LEO and other proposals want the canisters reused. I've been pondering a scrapyard, to do both.
Our rockets will do to get extra fuel or at least propellant to any LEO station or beyond. Mind, when they do, that's potentially one more late-stage booster floating around LEO. I further assume that "ion drive" and other electromagnetic means to accelerate neutral propellants don't give us the thrust we want between orbital tiers - when I say fuel I mean things that go bang.
As we get better at handling liquids in microgravity I suggest we find ways to shift propellant across rockets. Some of those second-stage rockets likely still have fuel(s) sloshing around in them. If they don't, our orbital tiers will need this fuel, especially where inhabited by us primates who'd like to go back home some day.
Do we have plans for refueling spent "boosters", in space? Can an old booster with hydrazine, oxygen, and/or hydrogen be refilled with - say - paraffin / Nytrox or nonmetallic salts?
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