tater Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 (edited) https://www.gravitics.com/ Kinda kerbal... Bending metal... Edited January 26 by tater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FleshJeb Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 We've all built this in KSP and we're lying if we haven't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 Very glad something like this is actually being built. Looking at the actual specifications, this thing is wider than Skylab. It also anticipates StarShip if "Capacity for 50+ tons of interior outfitting" is any indication. I can't help but imagine this coupled to the Spacecoach concept: simple spacecraft with water walls for radiation protection, clustered electrical water-propelled thrusters for travelling between Luna, Mars and Earth, and partially-open-loop life-support. Hydrogen peroxide can be generated onboard to fuel the attitude control thrusters. You'd need a powerful solar array, but that's not too onerous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tazooka Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 8 hours ago, FleshJeb said: We've all built this in KSP and we're lying if we haven't. The PPD-10 Hitchhiker Storage Container with tons of solar panels surrounding it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted March 8, 2023 Author Share Posted March 8, 2023 7.6m diameter 9.8m height 400 m3 volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 Am I wrong to be leery of all the 'Space Station Startups'? Even if SS gets up and flying this year or next... Is there a demand for this? Aside from the Billionaire Lookatme crowd - I'd think there would have to be some kind of industrial /commercial need (beyond hostelry) to make even one of these viable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenperforce Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 20 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said: Am I wrong to be leery of all the 'Space Station Startups'? Even if SS gets up and flying this year or next... Is there a demand for this? Aside from the Billionaire Lookatme crowd - I'd think there would have to be some kind of industrial /commercial need (beyond hostelry) to make even one of these viable. Yep, this is what worries me too. Hard to say "if you build it, they will come" when people can't just drive or walk to the thing you're building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeSchmuckatelli Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 20 minutes ago, sevenperforce said: Yep, this is what worries me too. Hard to say "if you build it, they will come" when people can't just drive or walk to the thing you're building. It's a very interesting dilemma. Should someone get access to research from university / NASA indicating that some kind of LEO manufacturing could be profitable - the initial size of any facility isn't going to scale well. 7m sounds huge for a human spaceflight container - but for some kind of factory? (Eyeroll). Also; given launch costs, there are likely to be pressures to combine assets. So - who really wants tourists poking around the factory floor, even here? All that aside; someone has to be first - or we're not getting off this rock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted March 16, 2023 Author Share Posted March 16, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenperforce Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 9 hours ago, tater said: Wouldn't they need to get to 29.4 psi to prove space worthiness? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted March 16, 2023 Author Share Posted March 16, 2023 23 minutes ago, sevenperforce said: Wouldn't they need to get to 29.4 psi to prove space worthiness? You'd think they'd want 2 atm (1 over ambient). Maybe a typo? (I'll admit I didn't do the math when I saw it, and I don't think in PSI) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piscator Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 It's above the cabin pressure in airliners, so I guess it would be sufficient. There's not really a need to use the ISS standard, is there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomf Posted March 16, 2023 Share Posted March 16, 2023 A lower pressure at higher 02 would be easier to manage and shouldn't have and adverse effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 I'm thinking this was minus ambient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 On 3/8/2023 at 4:41 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said: It's a very interesting dilemma. Should someone get access to research from university / NASA indicating that some kind of LEO manufacturing could be profitable - the initial size of any facility isn't going to scale well. 7m sounds huge for a human spaceflight container - but for some kind of factory? (Eyeroll). Also; given launch costs, there are likely to be pressures to combine assets. So - who really wants tourists poking around the factory floor, even here? All that aside; someone has to be first - or we're not getting off this rock! Agree, now most research its easier. NASA states it want to rent in on an commercial space station, they pay for hotel services and to dock multiple labs to the station. That is the obvious money tourists is an bonus, and the long term crew would enjoy spending dinners with very rich space geeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted March 18, 2023 Author Share Posted March 18, 2023 Not sure what the market is for this. It's a bit of chicken and egg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K^2 Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 On 3/8/2023 at 6:56 AM, JoeSchmuckatelli said: Even if SS gets up and flying this year or next... Is there a demand for this? Aside from the Billionaire Lookatme crowd - I'd think there would have to be some kind of industrial /commercial need (beyond hostelry) to make even one of these viable. From a venture capitalist perspective, there are two ways you make a return on your investment in a startup. It either starts making huge profits, or you sell the company to someone else. I'm pretty sure all of these space startups are in the latter category. I don't think anyone investing in these expects them to start making independent space stations. The expectations is that they get bought up by someone like Boeing, Lockheed, or SpaceX for work on a gov't contract. Whoever gets the contract to build the Lunar Gateway, for example, might be looking to buy three or four of these startups just to get access to their talent. That's not to say that people working at these startups think that way. Many of them might actually believe in the idea of building private space stations. And heck, one or two of these might actually get contracted to build something and could even grow as a company that way. But it's not the sort of hope on which you invest money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 4, 2023 Author Share Posted October 4, 2023 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenperforce Posted October 4, 2023 Share Posted October 4, 2023 I really like the armored solar panels and gas-gas bipropellant attitude thrusters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 4, 2023 Author Share Posted October 4, 2023 I also like the fact they are planning on 3 different diameters, making them launch vehicle agnostic. The move to a bespoke diameter for Bigelow must have contributed in some way to their failure (ignore the flat out kooky component of the owner). As soon as it required a vehicles that did not exist, they were on borrowed time—and I'd say the same about one that required Starship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 11, 2023 Author Share Posted October 11, 2023 Cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 So I believe the intent here is to have the inner hull plate protected, so the outer hull plate and ballistic pillow can be replaced. I approve. Though how I loathe the word 'proprietary'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 12, 2023 Author Share Posted October 12, 2023 2 hours ago, AckSed said: Though how I loathe the word 'proprietary'. I don't. Proprietary is why we all have supercomputers in our pockets, fighting it out each year to top the other guy's brand of pocket supercomputer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 24 minutes ago, tater said: I don't. Proprietary is why we all have supercomputers in our pockets, fighting it out each year to top the other guy's brand of pocket supercomputer. I notice you wrote "have supercomputers in our pockets" and not that they are ours. Between Google, Apple, AT&T, Verizon, etc. they certainly do not belong to us even if you paid for it, ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 12, 2023 Author Share Posted October 12, 2023 47 minutes ago, darthgently said: I notice you wrote "have supercomputers in our pockets" and not that they are ours. Between Google, Apple, AT&T, Verizon, etc. they certainly do not belong to us even if you paid for it, ha Or literally every other thing we own that is better than what we used to own, or better than our parents owned, or our grandparents. The supercomputers we all own (also on desktops)—obviously relative to compute capability in the past, say when ISS shielding was developed, not present supercomputers—can be ours, everything is not subscriptive (yet). The more "old school" someone is about their use of such a product, the less any limitations exist. All I get from verizon is lousy comm coverage in my own house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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