Space Transportation - mmmt_transportation.pdf - Moon Society

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MMM #128 - September 1999 A Reusable Lunar ferry - A Flexible Design Concept © 1990 John K. Strickland, Jr - with permission To save vehicle development costs, one basic type of lunar ferry (possibly also used for LEO - Lunar Orbit transit without landing gear) should be developed. The modular vehicle should be able to: 1. land cargo for the base and return to lunar orbit without refueling (before the oxygen plant is running). In this case, extra oxygen tanks replace part of the available cargo pallet space. 2. NORMAL OPERATION (after the oxygen plant is running). In this case the ferry refuels Hydrogen in lunar orbit, lands, refuels Oxygen from the base, returns to lunar orbit where the cycle continues. Oxygen received at the base is used to take off, and also to land. Hydrogen received in orbit is used to land, and also to take off. 3. Land extra heavy cargo by being linked together in tandem and operating at least 2 or 4 ferries as a single unit. Ferries should be able to be linked together without a lot of EVA work, and should use active mechanical linkages to lock the vehicles together. 4. Carry LOX back into Lunar orbit for use by the LEO-lunar vehicles. 5. 1 + 3 to land heavy cargo before the oxygen plant is ready. If a non-reusable ferry vehicle is developed first, the design and development costs would be doubled over the cost of a single design. In addition, the expendable ferries would not be available for reuse, parts, or for emergencies. A case could be made for building a few large expendable ferries for landing large items for the base, but using a modular ferry design removes this requirement. An analysis of maximum required cargo weights and dimensions would allow definition of the optimum ferry size. An initial design decision must be whether 2, 4, or more ferries can be linked. If the individual vehicles are considered as being 4 sided, a 2 ferry system involves a linkage on 1 side of each vehicle, a 4 ferry system means 2 adjoining sides linked per vehicle, and so forth. Critical questions for such a design would include: • redundant systems in case the propulsion for a single ferry failed (making composite vehicle attitude control while boosting impossible). • Linking the electronic controls for each ferry into the composite. • either designing the landing legs not to interfere with each other, or to allow some central legs to be removed temporarily. (This might require an unacceptably high amount of EVA time and ). One solution might be entire modular vehicle sides including legs. • EVA time analysis for linking and unlinking vehicles, andways to reduce this to an absolute minimum. • Having a private company design, build, and operate the lunar ferry (as a space transportation service) is strongly recommended. • Such a ferry design would save development costs and increase the flexibility of the system. • It would increase the maximum unit payload capacity of the system and the total number of vehicles available. • It would support early use of lunar derived LOX for ferry fuel. MMM #141 - December 2000 What to do with MIR? There would seem to be two ways to remove MIR from service: L) a cheap but dirty deorbit mission with unknown damage to property and people on the surface. R) a more expensive major boost to a significantly higher parking orbit, as a Space Historical Monument. 54
The M IR Station World Space Monument A Better Option for Decommissioning By Peter Kokh How many times have we heard “if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail!” NASA is committed to seeing the MiR Station removed from service. But need removal from service necessarily mean removal from orbit? To be sure, MIR will not stay in orbit by itself. At its altitude range, there is still enough wisps of atmosphere to continually drag down Mir’s orbit to the point where it will eventually, controlled or not controlled, partially incinerate in the atmosphere, its remnants crashing into the ocean -- or onto land. It takes money to keep boosting up Mir’s orbit periodically. So it would seem that to decommission Mir must mean either to allow its orbit to decay in uncontrolled fashion, or to deliberately accelerate the process in a way we can control it. A “controlled de-orbit” has two costs: • a Progress freighter bringing the fuel for the de-orbit burn • the impossible to estimate costs of the crash landing in inhabited areas of the many fragments too heavy and dense to burn up in the atmosphere This second cost is the sleeper, as no one can estimate it in advance. If we take a median of optimistic and pessimistic assessments of the damage to property and citizens, and add it to the costs of the Progress freightor deorbit refueling mission, we come up with a higher dollar figure which should send us looking for alternatives. We propose instead, that a more expensive refueling mission boost Mir’s orbit up to an altitude where it would remain safe for generations. It can then be given the status of a World Space Historical Site, or Monument. At some future date -- no need to determine that now -- an orbiting Visitor’s Center could be built for students of space history and tourists to visit under careful guidance. Mir should be seen as a priceless treasure of technology and achievement. That as long as it remains in service, it will be a thorn in NASA’s side should not leave a destructive solution as the only option. It is not to the credit of NASA, or the agency’s leash holders, let alone to the Russian authorities, not to seriously pursue this other option. Those Russians who object to scuttling Mir are being dismissed as ultra-nationalists and communists. Alas, having lived through McCarthyism once, it is distressing to see it arise anew this way. We call on all parties to take the time to look at this new option. Especially considering the potentially high cost of the inevitable rain of Mir-debris on property and people, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to take another look. PK Could we have reused the Apollo Capsules, or any part of them? (As in theory, reusing something is cheaper than replacing it. So the following discussion is very interesting) An exchange on artemis-list@asi.org November 22, 2000 Gregory R. Bennett We did not reuse the Apollo capsules, or any part of them. But, could we have? I was just wondering if there were anything inherent in the design of the Apollo capsule that precluded reusing it. It was a tiny part of the spacecraft, but it did contain a lot of expensive equipment. I often wonder whether flying a whole new spacecraft is really more safe than using one that has been proven in flight. Perhaps the fact that each capsule went through extensive testing made up for lack of operational experience with the spacecraft, Apollo 13 notwithstanding. Wallace A. McClure “The short answer is yes to part of them, or at least some of them could have been refurbished to fly again. I also assume you are using a new Service Module with them. In particular, those used for Earth orbital missions could probably have been reused for Earth orbital missions. • Structure -- Could have been reused, but you would have to inspect to ensure no sea water intrusion or corrosion (e.g. don’t get salt water in the structure, particularly inside the pressure vessel.) 55
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INDEX MMM THEMES: Transportation AR
Page 4 and 5: NASA is charged by the government (
Page 6 and 7: NB.** 2800 °K = safe operating tem
Page 8 and 9: MMM #33 - March 1990 An Easily Lost
Page 10 and 11: Forward [snip] I. THE VISITING “A
Page 12 and 13: orbit, couldn’t make a non-landin
Page 14 and 15: to date, J. M. Snead, an SSI Senior
Page 16 and 17: As every gram of pest potentially t
Page 18 and 19: √ pressurized crew compartment hu
Page 20 and 21: vehicle and habitat parts, furnitur
Page 22 and 23: MMM #94 - April 1996 Lagrange P i t
Page 24 and 25: L1 also appears to offer more advan
Page 26 and 27: [Note: a space suit is a form of ve
Page 28 and 29: By Peter Kokh By “stuffs” we me
Page 30 and 31: Mountains without the Right Stuff E
Page 32 and 33: Bogota and Nairobi Interplanetary A
Page 34 and 35: Kick Motor “Tugs for Hire” - Or
Page 36 and 37: 25% calcium alloy is be easier to k
Page 38 and 39: MMM #101 - December 1996 Our 10th A
Page 40 and 41: A recent article (Breck, Henderson,
Page 42 and 43: Magsail Mars Missions (SEI & Staffo
Page 44 and 45: “fringe-space”, the potential f
Page 46 and 47: “More to Mars” is our best chan
Page 48 and 49: MMM #121 - December 1998 No air = N
Page 50 and 51: ABOVE: “coach can” loaded with
Page 52 and 53: MMM #124 - April 1999 Man-rated Mas
Page 56 and 57: • Thermal Protection System -- Th
Page 58 and 59: While eventually, NASA would test t
Page 60 and 61: A Plan in its Infancy NASA’s Expl
Page 62 and 63: The whole point of having a pair of
Page 64 and 65: MMM #164 - April 2004 The Interluna
Page 66 and 67: All these ideas need extensive test
Page 68 and 69: MMM #198 - September 2006 Technolog
Page 70 and 71: what personnel on the Moon will be
Page 72 and 73: adopt a “we are poor” posture,
Page 74 and 75: Meanwhile, the original second stag
Page 76 and 77: http://link.brightcove.com/services
Page 78 and 79: MMM #232 - February 2010 An L1 Spac
Page 80 and 81: Dave Dietzler and Peter Kokh have b
Page 82 and 83: MMM #238 - September 2010 “In thi
Page 84 and 85: wasting fuel. Second, by reusing as
Page 86 and 87: Above: The Orion craft left, with a
Page 88 and 89: Additional Science Goals on Farside
Page 90 and 91: creation of construction shacks and
Page 92: The MMM Editor boarding the Moonshi
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