Location
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/ Discovery Rooms
Start Date
25-4-1990 2:00 PM
End Date
25-4-1990 5:00 PM
Description
Space Station Freedom has been designed with the capability to evolve in functionality and size. A likely direction for Freedom evolution will be toward the establishment of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) transportation node for solar system exploration vehicles. The Human Exploration Initiative proposed by President Bush in July of 1989 takes advantage of Freedom's evolutionary nature by utilizing Freedom's on orbit resources for the assembly, check-out and refurbishment of lunar and Mars transfer vehicles. This paper discusses a concept for accommodating lunar vehicles on Space Station Freedom. Lunar vehicle processing requirements and their associated impacts on Freedom are evaluated with respect to need for additional crew, EVA, power and thermal rejection capability. A preliminary definition of a lunar vehicle processing facility is described and an assessment is made of support equipment required in the facility to accomplish the processing tasks. Additional resource requirements coupled with the need for new structure and the lunar vehicle processing facility, induce a major change in the physical characteristics of Freedom. Mass properties, microgravity environment, flight attitude, controllability and reboost fuel requirements are all evaluated to assess the impact on Freedom of accommodating the massive lunar transportation vehicles. The results of the above analysis indicate that Freedom can evolve into a highly capable lunar transportation node with respect to accommodating the assembly of vehicles, fuel tanks and aerobrakes, the check-out and validation of the assembled vehicles and their associated subsystems, and the refurbishment of these same vehicles after a mission has been completed.
Paper Session II-A - Lunar Vehicle Assembly and Processing on Space Station Freedom
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/ Discovery Rooms
Space Station Freedom has been designed with the capability to evolve in functionality and size. A likely direction for Freedom evolution will be toward the establishment of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) transportation node for solar system exploration vehicles. The Human Exploration Initiative proposed by President Bush in July of 1989 takes advantage of Freedom's evolutionary nature by utilizing Freedom's on orbit resources for the assembly, check-out and refurbishment of lunar and Mars transfer vehicles. This paper discusses a concept for accommodating lunar vehicles on Space Station Freedom. Lunar vehicle processing requirements and their associated impacts on Freedom are evaluated with respect to need for additional crew, EVA, power and thermal rejection capability. A preliminary definition of a lunar vehicle processing facility is described and an assessment is made of support equipment required in the facility to accomplish the processing tasks. Additional resource requirements coupled with the need for new structure and the lunar vehicle processing facility, induce a major change in the physical characteristics of Freedom. Mass properties, microgravity environment, flight attitude, controllability and reboost fuel requirements are all evaluated to assess the impact on Freedom of accommodating the massive lunar transportation vehicles. The results of the above analysis indicate that Freedom can evolve into a highly capable lunar transportation node with respect to accommodating the assembly of vehicles, fuel tanks and aerobrakes, the check-out and validation of the assembled vehicles and their associated subsystems, and the refurbishment of these same vehicles after a mission has been completed.
Comments
Space Station
Session Chairman: John Cox, Director, Program Utilization and Operations for the Space Station Program, NASA
Session Organizer: Nancy Lorenz, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company, Florida