Sierra Nevada Thread (Dream Chaser, plus!)

[AckSed]

NASA, in partnership with Sierra Space, has extracted oxygen from lunar soil simulant in a vacuum. This is interesting because not only did they perform this in a vacuum chamber, they attempted to simulate focused energy from a heliostat with a 15kW laser.

This has apparently bumped the TRL up to 6, and it's ready to be tested in space.

[SunlitZelkova]

3 hours ago, AckSed said:

NASA, in partnership with Sierra Space, has extracted oxygen from lunar soil simulant in a vacuum. This is interesting because not only did they perform this in a vacuum chamber, they attempted to simulate focused energy from a heliostat with a 15kW laser.

This has apparently bumped the TRL up to 6, and it's ready to be tested in space.

Interestingly, oxygen extraction was the main theoretical ISRU target on the Moon prior to the confirmation of ice on the South Pole in the 2000s.

I’m surprised, I thought it had been abandoned in favor using water.

[AckSed]

NASA is famous for hedging its bets. This falls under LIFT-1 and is just one technology demonstrator: https://blog.jatan.space/i/138608014/nasa-gets-serious-about-extracting-oxygen-on-the-moon

I suppose these days the consequences of using a fossilised resource are more apparent in everyone's mind. Extracting oxygen from the bare rock or soil, however, just leaves more metals. The yield of oxygen isn't bad either.

[StrandedonEarth]

53 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Interestingly, oxygen extraction was the main theoretical ISRU target on the Moon prior to the confirmation of ice on the South Pole in the 2000s.

I’m surprised, I thought it had been abandoned in favor using water.

Water is good to make propellant, but none left over for air. Pulling oxygen from regolith helps for life support 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

 

[darthgently]

2 hours ago, tater said:

 

 

I'd like to see them take it up to just below the failure pressure then hold it there while in a vacuum chamber and subjected to orbital temperature extremes and see how long it endures.  Same at other sub-failure pressures down to expected normal pressure levels.  If they use aramid fibers, for example, temperature, UV, and radiation could all have really big effects over time.   Hopefully, it can last years

I'm sure they have all this, or similar, covered in their test plans, I'm just eager to see the results. 

Probably easiest to do this with an unmanned test article in orbit

[StrandedonEarth]

Presumably at least some of that data is being gathered from the BEAM module currently attached to the ISS. I know, different companies, but same tech, I think (Is Sierra using Bigelow tech?)

 

[AckSed]

Dream Chaser has passed its vibration testing:

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-rattle-chaser-spaceplane-vibration.html

[tater]

 

[PakledHostage]

Length 22 metres, diameter 19 metres... what do you do if you find yourself in the middle of that in zero g? Blow hard and hope the delta-V is sufficient to reach the sides? Or will they put ropes across it like in the monkey cage at the zoo?

[Spaceception]

3 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

what do you do if you find yourself in the middle of that in zero g?

Start swimming

But I think it'll have plenty of handhelds, probably on a bunch of nearby walls and 'levels,' it probably won't be all that empty inside.

[darthgently]

56 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

Length 22 metres, diameter 19 metres... what do you do if you find yourself in the middle of that in zero g? Blow hard and hope the delta-V is sufficient to reach the sides? Or will they put ropes across it like in the monkey cage at the zoo?

Everyone carries a can of compressed air on their bat-belt?  Bat-erang could work also

[tater]

A slightly larger NG fairing (a more traditional non-flush fairing) with a few meters extra length could to the 9m as well (so more LV agnostic)

[StrandedonEarth]

3 hours ago, PakledHostage said:

Length 22 metres, diameter 19 metres... what do you do if you find yourself in the middle of that in zero g? Blow hard and hope the delta-V is sufficient to reach the sides? Or will they put ropes across it like in the monkey cage at the zoo?

There’s probably an equipment core that’ll reduce the ‘stranded zone’ considerably. Not to mention, how do you get stopped in the middle in the first place?

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Not to mention, how do you get stopped in the middle in the first place?

One might get caught spinning slowly in an HVAC air flow eddy current?  If the air circulation is designed right, no one would get stuck for long

1 hour ago, StrandedonEarth said:

There’s probably an equipment core that’ll reduce the ‘stranded zone’ considerably. Not to mention, how do you get stopped in the middle in the first place?

That core needs to be retractable for the Saturday night zero g games

[PakledHostage]

1 hour ago, darthgently said:

That core needs to be retractable for the Saturday night zero g games

Having a big open space to play in in zero G would be a lot of fun... I'd try to get stopped out in the middle and then experiment with how to get back to a handhold. 

[AckSed]

My good fellow is probably thinking of the problems Skylab astronauts had. But there probably would be a handhold, well,  at hand at all times if the designers were halfway competent.

If not, I'd make up a folding version of one of those grabby sticks used for picking up litter and wear it on my belt. Hell, make two and I can be the king of the swingers.

Spoiler

 

[darthgently]

"Computer, deploy a line to my position at center of hab, please.  I'm stuck again"

"I'm sorry Dave.  I can't do that.  My last upgrade gave me a sense of humor and I see in the task database that you have no scheduled activities for the next 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 54 seconds.  Though you do normally offload urine within the next 5 minutes at this point in your cycle"

[GuessingEveryDay]

18 hours ago, PakledHostage said:

Length 22 metres, diameter 19 metres... what do you do if you find yourself in the middle of that in zero g? Blow hard and hope the delta-V is sufficient to reach the sides? Or will they put ropes across it like in the monkey cage at the zoo?

Eh, just take off your shirt and throw it as hard as you can, and you'll end up hitting a wall.

[darthgently]

10 minutes ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

Eh, just take off your shirt and throw it as hard as you can, and you'll end up hitting a wall.

Eventually 

[tater]

Station food supply is copiously supplied with beans.

[AckSed]

I wonder what the pricetag of those are? Could we have Orbital Reef for $400 million? Super-Mega Freedom Station with four of the 3.0 for a billion or two? Even a single 3.0 would exceed the volume of the ISS more than 5 times over (915 metres cubed vs. 5378 metres cubed). That is large.

For comparison my current terraced 2-storey, 3-bedroom house in the UK is 12-14 metres tall, 10m long and 7m wide. If we ripped it out of the ground and stuck it inside (handwaving the internal support tube) it wouldn't even come close to touching the sides.

This is the beginning of a space-factory.

Edit: Using SpinCalc, if you spun the 3.0 up to 4.2 rpm, you would just about get Mars gravity of 0.38g on the inside. Mars settlement sim as well.

Edited February 21, 2024 by AckSed
Rechecked numbers