A Design for an Orbital Assembly Facility for Complex Missions Simon Feast and Alan Bond Reaction Engines Ltd., D5 Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 3DB, UK
- Paper number
IAC-08.D3.3.1
- Author
Mr. Simon Feast, Reaction Engines Ltd., United Kingdom
- Year
2008
- Abstract
A design is presented for an Operations Base Station (OBS) in low earth orbit that will function as an integral part of a space transportation system, enabling assembly and maintenance of a Cis-Lunar transportation infrastructure and integration of vehicles for other high energy space missions to be carried out. Construction of the OBS assumes the use of the SKYLON SSTO spaceplane, which imposes design and assembly constraints due to its payload mass limits and payload bay dimensions. It is assumed that the space transport infrastructure and high mission energy vehicles would also make use of SKYLON to deploy standard transport equipment and stages bound by these same constraints. The OBS is therefore a highly modular arrangement, incorporating some of these other system elements in its layout. Architecturally, the facilities of the OBS are centred around the assembly dock. This is a large cylindrical enclosure in the form of a spaceframe structure with two large end doors enclosing the dock. A skin of aluminised Mylar is incorporated in order to control space debris, both protection from it for astronauts and equipment and also to minimise the creation of it from lost items during assembly and maintenance operations. The skin also controls sunlight, with internal floodlights to illuminate the interior to a uniform level. Longitudinal rails provide internal tether attachments to anchor vehicles and components relative to the assembly dock. The interior is also equipped with manipulators that can together, cover the entire volume whilst handling and assembling structures. The exterior has docking provisions to accommodate four SKYLONs, docked adjacent to the goods inwards doors; each door having an exterior manipulator capable of payload transfers. The exterior of the assembly dock carries habitation modules for workforce and vehicle crews. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant farms are also located along the dock exterior and employ the same tankage modules used in the transport infrastructure vehicle stages. Smaller farms accommodate pressurants such as helium and nitrogen. Solar cells provide a base load and fuel cells using hydrogen and oxygen from the propellant farms provide the additional variable part of the power load. Operational issues of the OBS are considered, such as its relative orbital position and resonance with space vehicle departure orbits and Earth launch sites.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.D3.3.1.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.