Project Mirai (Hatsunese Space Station)

[Cosmic Penguin]

If I wanted the station's crew to see most of Japan/Hatsunia, then I could place it on the arbitrary inclination of 39 degrees.

I could imagine the station being at the same inclination as the ISS so Russians can visit for short periods of time, but the station's plan currently supports only APAS docking ports, not the Soyuz probe-and-drogue (or maybe, I could put another docking adapter on the same node module as the solar truss). If I put it on Cape Canaveral's inclination, then the astronauts won't be able to see the northern island of Japan/Hatsunia.

Sounds like 39 degrees it is then. :thumbup: Apparently this orbit inclination was actually used on several Space Shuttle science research missions to maximum de-orbit opportunities: STS-40/58/62/73/77/78/90 & (most famous of them all ) 107. The very first 3 Space Shuttle missions used similar orbital inclinations too - 40 for STS-1 and 38 for STS-2/3.

 

[Pipcard]

I didn't know that before! I thought Shuttle flights were all either 28.5 or 51.6 degree orbits. So it was a compromise between a high inclination (number of available emergency landing sites) and a low inclination (more payload delivered into orbit).

So the HSS will orbit at 39 degrees, at 390 km (however, this will fluctuate if I turn on the non-spherical gravity sources option).

 

[K_Jameson]

If I put it on Cape Canaveral's inclination, then the astronauts won't be able to see the northern island of Japan/Hatsunia.

It is so important? Besides of the funny Hatsune theme, the addon itself must have some kind of "serious" rationale, and the observation of the fully Hatsunia don't reenter in the definition, IMHO...

For me, if other specific objectives are not involved (eg. global reconnaissance, interplanetary staging point), the station must be placed in the most convenient orbit, namely the orbit that assure the highest payload and that is accessible from the most popular launch sites on Orbit Hangar.

 

[Pipcard]

But Galactic Penguin SST just gave me a somewhat practical justification with the Space Shuttle.

 

[orbitingpluto]

I can see where K_Jameson is coming from, but being able to use the Hatsunese space station to monitor the national forests, croplands, bodies of water, and so forth as a addition to dedicated Earth-resources satellites sound like a serious enough justification to me. Setting the inclination too low would lower the potential uses of the station for things like that, and possible be a sticking point in (imaginary) budgets should nationalist politicians decide to argue the purpose of a station that can't do things that other countries can claim of their stations.

Generally, my thought is if your going to have a single space station, you should bias towards including as many areas of study as possible to maximize both potential users and potential backers; having a inclination that gives a large groundtrack to gaze down at can certainly help that.

If that involves too much imaginary politics, I guess allowing more landing sites and deorbit opportunities is a solid technical argument for a higher inclination.

 

[K_Jameson]

I can see where K_Jameson is coming from, but being able to use the Hatsunese space station to monitor the national forests, croplands, bodies of water, and so forth as a addition to dedicated Earth-resources satellites sound like a serious enough justification to me.

The main purpose of the 1.3 meters infrared telescope onboard Starlab is Earth and planetary surveillance. I'm wondering what is the minimum inclination that allows an oblique view of the full Earth surface from an orbit of about 550 km (Starlab is designed for an higher orbit than ISS).

Also, for high inclination orbits, the beta angle should be taken in account...

 

[asbjos]

I'm wondering what is the minimum inclination that allows an oblique view of the full Earth surface from an orbit of about 550 km (Starlab is designed for an higher orbit than ISS).

At 550 km altitude, the minimal inclination required to get a full view of the Earth over time is 67.004 degrees.

You can calculate this for yourself with the equation [math]\varphi = \sin^{-1}{ \frac{R}{R+alt}}[/math], where [math]\varphi[/math] is the inclination, [math]\sin^{-1}[/math] is the inverse sine(also called [math]asin[/math] and [math]\arcsin[/math]), [math]R[/math] is the radius of your planet (the Earth) and [math]alt[/math] is the orbital altitude (here 550000 meters).

 

[K_Jameson]

Thank you! :thumbup:

 

[Pipcard]

Sounds like 39 degrees it is then. :thumbup: Apparently this orbit inclination was actually used on several Space Shuttle science research missions to maximum de-orbit opportunities

I did some research into this, and figured out that these "de-orbit opportunities" were likely about opportunities to land at Edwards AFB in California (ctrl-f "39").

As you can see, one orbit passes near Cape Canaveral, and the next orbit passes near California.

If I wanted the most "de-orbit opportunities", the station should be at 3.9 degree inclination, because it would pass near Negishima with minimal cross-range on almost any orbit. But I really like the idea of the astronauts getting to see Hatsunia/Japan, despite it being more sentimental and less practical (unless Earth observation is involved). For observation of the entire Earth, the minimum inclination is about 70 degrees at 390 km. Or I might just go with the "coplanar with the ISS" option.

Actually, there may be another justification for the 39 degree orbit. During STS-107 (before the infamous and tragic disaster), the purpose of the 39 deg orbit was to "maximize the time spent over the Mediterranean" for a certain onboard experiment (MEIDEX). So one of the station's missions might be similar: to focus on and observe Hatsunia/Japan from space for as long as possible with experiments that for some reason can only work in low Earth orbit.

 

[K_Jameson]

The "coplanar with the ISS" option can enable both the osservation of Hatsunia and HSS-ISS missions...

..surely, placing a third station in the same orbit can be a little dangerous :lol:

 

[Pipcard]

You should know, I'm actually doing this in the CAD program "Solid Edge" (with a student license) first for a college project. The Orbiter version will not be exactly the same. And no, you can't export from Solid Edge to a format compatible with Wings3D or other similar modeling programs that could export it to .msh.

But I don't think I should include as much mesh details in the version that is released for Orbiter, in order to have better performance (there will be an interior as well). Textures and normal maps might work better.

 

[K_Jameson]

Beautiful!

 

[Pipcard]

(note: not final appearance)

The Hatsunese Space Station will be called "Mirai" (未来, future). The names of the main modules will be:

01. "Mirai core module"
The initial phase of the station. Solar arrays, and two docking ports.

02. Node-01 "Akarui" (Light, or bright)
A node module containing additional life support systems. An airlock/docking module (still considered part of Akarui) will be attached at the back. The truss containing radiators and large solar arrays will also be attached to this module.

03. Lab-01 "Azayaka" (Vivid)
This module contains a hydroponics laboratory and cupola.

04. Node-02 "Kotai" (Solid)
Another node module, for storage of experiments and spare components.

05. Lab-02 "Amai" (Sweet)
HASDA's Kibo equivalent. (Kotai will already act as the storage module instead of having an Experiment Logistics Module)

06. Lab-03 "Kurai" (Dark)
A module containing a large magnetic spectrometer, mostly to investigate dark matter. Originally, this was going to have a telescope (which is why it was at the zenith), but I learned that vibrations from the crew would cause problems.

07. Lab-04 "Yawarakai" (Soft)
An experimental inflatable module. Although it appears soft, it is actually as hard as concrete.

Basically, six main modules are "appended" to the station. The total mass of the HSS will be 239 tonnes.

 

[K_Jameson]

The Hatsunese Space Station will be called "Mirai" (未来, future).

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Robo_Daltanious"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Robo_Daltanious[/ame]
:thumbup:

...

Excellent work. Appears as a capable science platform, very ISS-esque.
Also, the Kibo-like experiment pallet is something that lacks at Starlab, at least in its current form. A reference to the pressurized volume would be interesting at this point.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

06. Lab-03 "Kurai" (Dark)
A module containing a large magnetic spectrometer, mostly to investigate dark matter. Originally, this was going to have a telescope (which is why it was at the zenith), but I learned that vibrations from the crew would cause problems.

Would an unmanned free-flyer be out of the question? It would alleviate the crew-induced vibration.

 

[Pipcard]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Robo_Daltanious
:thumbup:

Actually, it's because

The name of the character comes from merging the Japanese words for first (初 hatsu), sound (音 ne) and future (Miku (ミク) sounds like a nanori reading of future, 未来, normally read as "mirai")

Would an unmanned free-flyer be out of the question? It would alleviate the crew-induced vibration.

That would be a solution, but all of the modules are going to be part of the same station.

 

[K_Jameson]

Actually, it's because

Jesus, how much you're obsessed with Miku? :lol: ;-)


Anyway... vibrations can be a problem but, IMHO, mainly for narrow angle observations and for tracking small details. Vibrations from the solar panels are, for example, a concern for the Europa Clipper mission, with the potential of affecting the sharpness of the images provided by its camera. But I'm sure that the problem is not that serious and will be solved.

Wide angle images, as can be environmental surveillance images (as the ones performed by the Starlab infrared telescope), can be relatively immune to the problem. If it not so, as Starlab designer, I'm confident that the vibrations can be effectively shielded... :rofl:

 

[Pipcard]

Solid Edge render + post-processing in GIMP (remember, details are not final)

 

[K_Jameson]

Brilliant!

 

[Malky]

Oh my god, that looks amazing! I can't wait to fly to this beauty

(At firt glance I thought it's a photo and didn't understand how is it possible.)