Space Transportation - mmmt_transportation.pdf - Moon Society

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• Thermal Protection System -- This was sized for a direct return reentry from the Moon. Run the numbers and you see the heat load from an Earth orbital reentry was less than 50% of that of a lunar return. The heat shield was not replaceable in sections, but you could have theoretically remachined down the uneven remaining unablated honeycomb and reused it for an Earth orbital mission. (With inspections, of course!) Theoretically, you could replace the entire ablative reentry shield. But that was never considered. • Avionics -- Reusable, yes, with replacement and testing of batteries, etc. • ECLSS -- Most of the ECLSS was in the service module. You would have to renew the ECLSS LiOH [lithium hydroxide] and it was reusable. You would have to replace the connections to the service module. • ACS -- The CM ACS was really only used post SM separation (and primarily for roll control). At a minimum, you would have to clean and replace all the burst disks, etc. But from a first look, you could probably reuse the tanks, valves, engines etc. • Parachutes, etc. --Definitely replace them. They were rampacked and certified for only one use. Also the pyros, etc. would need to be replaced. • Soft Goods -- Inspect and replace seals, rubber gaskets, etc. You do need to look at them. • Of course, if any vehicle was used outside of the expected operational conditions, reuse might not be possible -- land landing, hot-hot reentry, sea water sloshing around inside for weeks, etc. But for a run-of-the-mill Earth orbital mission -- probably most of it could have been refurbished and reused. Dale Gray As I understand, the capsules evolved over time even after Apollo 8. Reusing an old capsule would be to take a step backward in safety, performance, mass. The returned capsules were far more valuable as national treasures, complete and untouched than any conceived salvage part or in whole. Andrew Newstead I believe the Apollo 14 docking probe was reused with one of the Skylab Apollos or the ASTP Apollo. Because of the difficulties with it during the flight of Apollo 14, it was brought back for engineering analysis, which found nothing wrong with it and it was reused as an economy measure. It gave trouble again when reflown, so go figure! Ben Huset
• having the winged Shuttle as a carrier allows direct return to Earth with atmospheric braking and without a depot stop in low Earth orbit. The drawbacks seem to be more considerable: • Lugging along the entire 80 ton shuttle greatly multiplies the amount of fuel needed to make the translunar orbit injection even if there is to be a direct high-velocity return to Earth with atmospheric braking. • To bring along this much fuel requires bringing an External Tank to orbit and perhaps a number of dedicated fuel shipments, along with in-orbit cryogenic refueling, something we have never tried (there is a first time for everything!) A more sensible proposal If the passenger cabin has to make both the ride up from Earth, and the return to the Earth’s surface in a Shuttle payload bay, it could still be made self-sufficient in communications and life-support. If so, it could be removed from the payload bay in orbit by the Shuttle’s manipulator arm. Then it can be mated with a much smaller 2 stage booster for the lunar loop trip, the second stage responsible for braking the cabin back in a low Earth orbit where it can be recaptured by the Shuttle. This proposal would require only off-the-shelf components and is basically identical with the Artemis Project LTV stack. That is, we can make such a passenger cabin out of a specially designed gang of Space Hab modules. At the time that J.R. Thompson made his proposal, Spacehab, a pressurized module that rides in the Shuttle payload bay, was itself just a dream on paper. SpaceHab is now a reality and has made many shuttle flights. There are even “ganged” versions with double (and potentially triple or more) the interior space. Modifications would have to be made to both the interior and exterior of the SpaceHab modules, of course. An ASI Design Team is looking into this. The SpaceHab mission would do three things: • prime the pump for Lunar Overflight tour enthusiasm • loosen the purse strings for needed additional capital for space module entrepreneurs like Bigelow Aerospace • shed advance light on redesign needs It would seem to be highly advantageous to the Artemis Project to plan the initial test flight of its Moonbase “stack” as a paying tourist venture. • Tourist dollars as well as a contract from Bigelow to test various items, features, and services would help defray the cost of such a test flight. • Public stay-at-home armchair enthusiasm of the pioneer lunar overflight passenger excursion will: • spill over into enthusiasm for the Moonbase project itself • build momentum for sales of “edutainment” products both from this initial overflight tour and from the ensuing moonbase mission. Thus for the Lunar Resources Company (TLRC, the owner of the Artemis Project and Artemis Moonbase@ trademarks and conductor of the Projects) to conduct the test flight of the Moonbase stack as a tourist offering would seem to be a win-win situation with few drawbacks. “Deadman’s” Spacesuit Thruster Pack with Fail-Safe “Homing” Capabilities EVA Assured Safety without Tethers By Peter Kokh Astronauts in space suits gliding off into oblivion and certain death is a standby of science fiction film melodramas. The tether breaks - or is “cut” - or a hero-martyr disconnects the tether to retrieve something just out of reach. The umbilical tether has been part of Extra-Vehicular Activity [EVA] ever since Alexei Leonov took the first plunge out the airlock in March of 1965 (Voshkod 2), beating Edward White’s solo (Gemini 4) by six weeks. 57
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INDEX MMM THEMES: Transportation AR
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NASA is charged by the government (
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Page 8 and 9: MMM #33 - March 1990 An Easily Lost
Page 10 and 11: Forward [snip] I. THE VISITING “A
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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
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Page 38 and 39: MMM #101 - December 1996 Our 10th A
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Page 48 and 49: MMM #121 - December 1998 No air = N
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Page 52 and 53: MMM #124 - April 1999 Man-rated Mas
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Page 60 and 61: A Plan in its Infancy NASA’s Expl
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Page 64 and 65: MMM #164 - April 2004 The Interluna
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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
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Page 86 and 87: Above: The Orion craft left, with a
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Page 92: The MMM Editor boarding the Moonshi
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Space Transportation - mmmt_transportation.pdf - Moon Society

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