Project "Starlab" space station

[Dantassii]

...Naturally, this orbit is difficult to reach with ordinary resupply spacecrafts. It is out of range for Eridanus and Antares SR, requiring the long range Antares LR. Verrazzano is perfectly suited for BLEO operations, at the cost of a very limited cargo capability.

Why not put 1 station in LEO, and another in the high orbit in such a way that the orbits sync up with each other every so many orbits to allow an easy transfer between the 2 (easy = low delta V). Then build a specially designed spacecraft to fly from the LEO station to the high orbit station and back, refueling only at the LEO station. Then the LEO station becomes a 'gas station' of sorts (lots of additional missions for your heavy lift vehicle).

Remember, that's the only way a heavy lift vehicle is going to be economical. Lots of missions.

You could even use one of those inflatable modules as the gas tank, not a lot of additional weight to the LEO station as you would launch the gas tank uninflated and then fill it up with an additional mission or 2 with your heavy lift vehicle. You could even go so far as to launch your LEO station as planned, then have a 2nd mission bring up the gas tank (along with the secondary module or some other stuff), and then a 3rd (and 4th?) mission to bring up the gas. The next mission brings up the high orbit station and the one after that brings up the throw away booster to get the high orbit station into its orbit.

A similar sequence could be used to get a station to the Moon with each 'lower orbit' station acting as a gas station for the next one. Lots of specialized vehicles to design and build and the infrastructure can be built as fast as funding and designs become available. No rush.

Having stations in LEO, GEO, the Earth-Moon L1 point, and LLO (Low Lunar Orbit, say 100 km) would allow specialized transfer vehicles to fly crew and payload between each station with a lot of payload missions being fuel transfers. Those can be unmanned. From LLO you could build a Lunar Base or further away missions (Sun-Earth L5 missions, NEO asteroid missions, even Mars). Once again, no rush. You would only build the next station when the previous stations are fully complete and stocked and all the specialized vehicles are in place and ready to use.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[Malky]

Dantassii, this sounds amazing, I wish I could play Orbiter for living!

 

[Astro SG Wise]

I don't expect it to be an easy thing getting this ship out of LEO but it seems like design well suited for the task.

Yeah, I was thinking of using it for deep space missions, and it is quite large. Oh well, who said space was easy?

 

[K_Jameson]

OK, perhaps the package will include a tug or propulsion module, sostantially another Quasar third stage with some additions in the same manner of the HES-5 deep space stage utilized on some Jarvis M launches. Such a stage requires a separate Quasar 452 launch and a LEO rendez-vous and docking; it can nearly put Starlab in the Earth-Moon L1 libration point (assuming this point is implemented in Orbiter - I never flied to it so far).

 

[K_Jameson]

IR telescope and "cupola" animations:





---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

Docking ports test.
Verrazzano docked at docking port 1.



Starlab with Delphinus.

 

[Dantassii]

Dantassii, this sounds amazing, I wish I could play Orbiter for living!

Coming up with ideas for use in space is one of the things I excelled at in College. BS Aerospace Engineering, MS Mechanical Systems Engineering, 3 years towards Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. Although my major was Computational Fluid Dynamics, I had a minor in Spacecraft and Mission Design. In our design courses (AIAA Graduate Spacecraft Design Competition) I was the one that the team always came to with design problems that needed solutions from someone who lived outside the box. At least 2 of my bosses since college have told me that I live so far outside the box that I can't see the box.

We won all 3 years that I participated BTW.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[K_Jameson]

Dantassii, your scenario is very interesting. My addon is more focused on the spacecraft itself, rather than on the development of a comprehensive space exploration/colonisation scenario.

Well, this is my "wishlist" of the various components/expansions that I hope to include in the addon or in next expansion packages:

1 - "Starchaser" expansion module (derived from the Jarvis HES-5 upper stage).
2 - A space tug for BLEO operations (derived from the same Quasar upper stage utilized for Starlab).
3 - Canadarm and experiments pallet
4 - A simple inflatable module for extra living space.

A variety of FOI-made vessels can be anyway attached at Starlab, expanding it: for example the Malerba inflatable station, or the Torricelli and Nobile modules, both available in the last Antares package.

 

[K_Jameson]

Yesterday, launch tests of Starlab with Quasar 452 superheavy rocket.

I was a bit worried, because the two vessels together can be framerate killers, but after the fairing separation (and before the staging of the huge core stage) i got a reasonable 20/22 fps even in my crap laptop, with D3D9 obviously.
Without D3D9, even with Starlab alone in LEO I have 12/15 fps. Somehow better in my desktop PC, but it don't support D3D9.

This evening, some screenshots.

---------- Post added at 08:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:43 AM ----------

Screenshots:

Quasar 452


After boosters and fairing separation


After core separation

 

[Hank]

Awesome!!!

 

[Cras]

fantastic pictures

 

[K_Jameson]

Configuring thrusters: main auto-reboost engines now are working.

 

[Dantassii]

Dantassii, your scenario is very interesting. My addon is more focused on the spacecraft itself, rather than on the development of a comprehensive space exploration/colonisation scenario.

No problem with your area of focus, but eventually you will finish what you're currently working on and your next question will be "What next?". Having a long range plan of what you want to do, always with the option to change your plan should something interesting present itself, will give you a lot of background story for why you did what you did, and what you plan to do with it once you have done it.

My Lunar Station (which has been on-hold since Christmas-time) is still a long way from being finished, however, I'm already using it to construct 2 Solar System Transport Vehicles (SSTVs) and 1 Emergency Tranport Vehicle (ETV) and have posted some blog entries concerning the first flights of these vehicles. This was the 'reason' for building the Lunar Station in the first place. It is a place to construct, repair, maintain, and refuel manned and unmanned vehicles (mainly HUMONGOUS ones) that then fly off to far away places in the solar system.

During construction, I've changed my mind dozens of times about what the Lunar Station will look like although most of the changes were relatively minor ones. The general look-n-feel of the entire station has not changed since I flew Assembly Mission #1 (I'm now up to Assembly Mission #245).

I love to see folks building new modules and/or stations for use in Orbiter. People exercising their imaginations are what got mankind to the moon in 1969. People exercising their imaginations today is what will get us to the stars.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[K_Jameson]

in the latter image you can see the weird illumination problem on the main solar panels. One appears bright, the other is dark. The properties are reversed if you watch the panels on the other side. I'm sure that the problem is related to the type of animation utilized for the deployment of the panels (you can notice it even in the KH-11 satellite, included in the Jarvis package, that make use of an analogous system), and i don't have idea of how to fix it.
I don't want to remake the animation system of the main panels...

 

[K_Jameson]

All animations completed, all engines configured; the main solar panels was extended and their surface increased by 25% (this evening some screenshots).
Sadly, no solution for the weird illumination effect.

I have to configure the five grapple points for experiments and canadarm (one at the aft extremity of the main workshop and four radials around the shelter module). After this, the work on the station will be substantially closed and I can pass to the Starchaser expansion module.

I have to decide how implement the canadarm: arguably will be sent at the station aboard an Eridanus spaceplane.

---------- Post added 03-03-15 at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous post was 03-02-15 at 01:55 PM ----------

The station with the enlarged solar panels.



Comparation with the previous configuration.

 

[Hank]

Looks great!!!

 

[Robitaille_Fan]

All animations completed, all engines configured; the main solar panels was extended and their surface increased by 25% (this evening some screenshots).
...

Can you post those news also on Forum Orbiter Italia, please? :thumbup:

 

[K_Jameson]

:lol:


ASAP!

 

[K_Jameson]

In order to improve the station's capabilities, I think that a node module with multiple docking ports can be useful. Only three docking ports can be a limiting factor. The Starchaser expansion module can be equipped with such a node...

 

[Hank]

Great idea!

 

[ISProgram]

In order to improve the station's capabilities, I think that a node module with multiple docking ports can be useful. Only three docking ports can be a limiting factor. The Starchaser expansion module can be equipped with such a node...

Like the Russian OPSEK proposal, it would also allow for modules that are no longer needed to be discarded, and replaced with new modules as the mission life dictated. Only the core node would be more or less permanent.

Dammit, now I really want to tease a space station concept...