Slide 36(A) of 99
Notes:
NASA/JSC awarded a study contract to Eagle Engineering Inc. in 1984 to examine the effects
of advanced manned lunar and unmanned planetary missions on the "Power Tower" Space Station.
The basic idea was to use the Station with a fleet of reusable OTV "space tugs" for ambitious
missions such as the unmanned biconic 8,890kg Mars sample return vehicle depicted here (top/left).
The space tug would require a propellant load of 27,760kg for this mission, which was scheduled
for a November 1996 launch. The samples would be returned to the Space Station in 1998 for analysis
in a dedicated "Quarantine Facility" laboratory. This module would have required an additional
5KW of power. The other
mission requirements are summarized below. "Type of OTV" (column four) refers to Reusable
space tugs which return to the Station for reuse, or Expendable OTVs which do not carry a
3,731kg aerobrake. The final column lists the additional Space Station crew man-hours for OTV
refurbishment, aerobrake removal, payload refueling & integration, sample retrieval etc..
All missions except MSR would have used the
Mariner Mk.II robotic spacecraft as payload carrier.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date C3 Type of Payload Total OTV Launch Req. Crew
(km/s2 OTV mass propellant MH Req.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Titan Probes/Saturn Orbiter 4/1993 50.5 1E 6.34t 53.54t 41.81t 48.15t 109
Mercury Orbiter 6/1994 18.7 1R 5.63t 41.62t 28.90t 34.53t 106
Ceres Sample Return 10/1994 9.9 1R+1E 43.57t 131.59t 75.47t 119.04t 247
Mars Sample Return 11/1996 9.0 1R 8.89t 44.03t 27.76t 36.65t 138
Kopff Sample Return 7/2003 80.7 1R+1E 8.38t 92.49t 71.51t 79.89t 236
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OTV/lunar lander "stack" departing from the Space Station.
The OTV primary mission would have been to deliver 9t to geostationary orbit using a single
stage and 18t payloads to lunar orbit using two OTV space tugs in tandem (pictured above).
Each OTV weighs 7t empty and carries up to 42t of oxygen & hydrogen propellant (engine Isp=455.4s).
The primary lunar mission payload would be modules for a permanent 18-crew Moonbase in 2005-2015;
this plan was developed by a Johnson Space Center team lead by Barney Roberts in 1984.
A 3.5t expendable landing vehicle with 13.5t of
propellant would land 17.5t Space Station-derived modules on the lunar surface. 100t of
propellant would have to be launched per lunar mission; NASA proposed to develop a
Shuttle-derived unmanned heavy-lift launch vehicle for this purpose.
The Space Shuttle would
transport the empty 21,000-kilogram lunar lander+payload to the Space Station, where they would
rendezvous with the 100t propellant module. Hardware required to be added to the Space Station-based
"spacedock" included:
- Hangars, storage & shops for 4 OTV tugs+3 OTV passenger modules and two
Orbital Maneuvering Vehicles. Temporary storage for the lunar lander & payload would also be
required.
- A gantry for preparing up to 40-meter long OTV+OTV+lunar lander stacks, plus various
lunar cargo elements.
- A propellant depot for at least 200t of cryogenic oxygen & hydrogen propellant, plus
facilities capable of transferring 5t/hour of propellant to the OTVs & lunar lander.
- An additional habitat module for housing the additional Space Station crew & 4-6 transient
moonbase personnel. Each lunar mission would require 14 man-weeks of crew time (5 for OTV
turnaround and maintenance, 5 for OTV/lander integration and refueling, 1 for OTV passenger
module refurbishment and checkout, plus 3 man-weeks for OMV operations and traffic control)
- 10KW of continuos additional power for propellant depot refrigeration, 5KW for the
extra habitat, and 5KW for the gantry.
The unmanned Shuttle-derived vehicle would be launched every three months on average while one
Space Shuttle mission every two months would deliver the rest. The average payload mass would
thus be about 630t/year.
The Space Station would have to support an average of 14 space tug launch, return and refurbishment
cycles per year.
Unloading of Space Station-derived moonbase habitation module on the lunar surface.
25 base elements would have been delivered over ten years for a total of 465t, all by expendable
one-way lunar landers. An additional 233t of miscellaneous cargo would be delivered during 86
manned resupply missions in 2005-2015.
Manned OTV space tug returning from lunar orbit. For manned lunar crew exchange missions,
the OTV would carry 5,500kg or 8,000kg cylindrical passenger modules for 4 or 6 astronauts,
respectively. The passenger OTV would rendezvous in lunar orbit with a 10,000kg 6-crew
lunar lander which would be fueled by 4t of hydrogen brought from Earth and oxygen produced
from lunar soil. This would reduce the launch requirement from Earth. The manned missions would
also carry an expendable 7,600kg lander plus 3,250kg logistics module for life support of four
crew members during lunar launching and landing.
The 1984 NASA/JSC plan called for the development of OTVs and lunar landers in 1995-2003 to
permit the creation of small semipermanently manned "camp" on the lunar surface in 2005-2006. The
total cost up to the first manned landing in 2003 would have been $20 billion in 1999 dollars,
including $4 billion for space transportation. NASA would have launched a lunar orbiting space
station in 2008-2009 to support the creation of a permanently manned moonbase by 2009-2010.
This operational surface base would have contained an expanded mining facility, lunar materials
processing pilot plants and a lunar agriculture research laboratory; pilot oxygen production and
experimental mining facilities would have been landed previously.
The lunar surface facility would have grown to an 18-crew "advanced base" in 2013-14, consisting
of five habitation modules, a geochemical laboratory, chemical/biological lab, geochemical/petrology
lab, a particle accelerator, a radio telescope, lunar oxygen, ceramics & metallurgy plants, two
shops, three power units (90% lunar-materials derived), one earthmover/crane and three trailers/mobility units... The moonbase
would eventually "pay for itself" by exporting lunar oxygen ("LunOX") to space industries in
Earth orbit produced by lunar mining and oxygen production/manufacturing facilities like the
one shown here.
The "ultimate goal" would be a self-sustaining moonbase by 2017-18. This facility would support
full scale export of lunar oxygen to Earth orbit and the need for Earth imports would be
reduced thanks to "closed" ecological life support systems, lunar power stations entirely
derived from lunar materials as well as volatile production for agriculture and local transportation
needs. Tools, containment systems, fabricated assemblies etc. would also be produced by the
lunar factory. By this time, the number of
manned expeditions from Earth would be six per year. The first manned landing would take place
in 2003, followed by one mission in 2004, two in 2005, three in 2006, four flights per year
in 2007-2009 and six missions/year in 2010-.
The total cost [1999 $'s] of the undertaking is shown in the table+graph below. This "Lunar
Self-Sufficiency Research Colony" scenario described here was the most expensive of three options studied by NASA.
It would have cost $90 billion at 1984 economic conditions or close to $150 billion today.
The least expensive option (lunar resource utilization/production base) would have cost
$79 billion (1984 $) while a science base would have been slightly more expensive.
|
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT |
1st LAUNCH |
HARDWARE COST,$B [1999] |
TRANSPORT COST,$B [1999] |
PHASE I: SITE SELECTION |
|
|
|
|
MAPPER & L-2 RELAY SATELLITE |
1992-1996 |
1996 |
$0.3 |
$0.5 |
SURFACE EXPLORER ROVER |
1995-1999 |
1999 |
$1.0 |
$0.5 |
|
|
|
|
|
TRANSPORTATION ELEMENTS |
|
|
|
|
MANNED CAPSULE / OTV |
1999-2003 |
2003 |
$2.0 |
|
EXPENDABLE LANDER |
1995-1999 |
1999 |
$2.0 |
|
EXPENDABLE ASCENT STAGE |
1999-2003 |
2003 |
$2.0 |
|
LUNAR ORBITAL FACILITIES |
2004-2008 |
2008-2009 |
$9.4 |
$1.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
SCIENCE ELEMENTS |
|
|
|
|
NETWORK & REGOLITH SCIENCE |
|
2002-2004 |
$0.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
SUPPORT ELEMENTS |
|
|
|
|
CAMP, TEMP. MANNED |
2000-2004 |
2005-2006 |
$11.2 |
$4.7 |
BASE, PERM. MANNED |
2004-2009 |
2009-2010 |
$25.5 |
$4.1 |
ADVANCED BASE |
2008-2013 |
2013-2014 |
$22.9 |
$1.0 |
SELF-SUSTAINING BASE |
2012-2016 |
2017-2018 |
$15.5 |
$0.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
MANNED SORTIES (86 IN 2003-20) |
|
|
|
$36.0 |
OPERATIONS COST |
|
2003-2020 |
$9.6 |
|
T O T A L |
|
|
$100.9 |
$48.4 |
(COST TO 1st MANNED MISSION) |
|
|
($16.0) |
($4.0) |
SOURCES:
- IMPACT OF LUNAR AND PLANETARY MISSIONS ON THE SPACE STATION (Babb, Davis, Phillips & Stump),
Lunar Bases and Space Activites of the 21st Century, ISBN: 0942862023 [1985]
- THE BUDGETARY FEASIBILITY OF A LUNAR BASE (Sellers & Keaton),
Lunar Bases and Space Activites of the 21st Century, ISBN: 0942862023 [1985]