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On Orbital Fuel Stations

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the complete-with-nukable-burritos dept.

dylanduck writes "Being able to fill up your spacecraft from a fuel depot in orbit round the Earth or Moon is key to the long-term prospects of astronauts exploring the solar system, according to NASA engineers. Trouble is NASA doesn't want to build it themselves. So there's $5 million for any enterprising groups who can develop a simple version themselves."

4 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Orbital Mechanics by solitas · · Score: 2, Informative

    By and large, a change in mass shouldn't affect an orbit - speed and altitude (orbital radius) are interdependent. It would affect drag (atmospheric & from the 'solar wind' - less mass = less momentum so drag would slow it down faster), but that's about all.

    --
    "It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)
  2. Re:I, for one, welcome our oxygen yielding overlor by susano_otter · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, the article summary is a little misleading.

    NASA's role has always been vision, specification, oversight, and operations. Design and construction have always been contracted out to the public sector, and to the universities.

    Classic examples of this method are the Gemini and Apollo projects. NASA's document, Chariots for Apollo gives a fascinating account of how this process works.

    --

    Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.

  3. Re:Hmmm by NOLAChief · · Score: 3, Informative
    If we go to mars any time soon it might make sense to launch the cruise stage unmanned and then hook it to the command module in earth orbit. That would be a kind of fuel dump.

    Effectively that's what's being planned with the earth departure stage for the proposed lunar missions. That stage would be launched on the Cargo Launch Vehicle into earth orbit, where a CEV launch would rendezvous with it for a trip to the moon. See the Project Constellation article here.

  4. Re:Water? by Larthallor · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, hydrogen is explosive. I'm not sure what neat trick you saw, but I would guess it was likely a decrease in pressure after an explosion caused by two gases combining to become a much denser liquid. In other words the container (attached to a balloon?) contained the explosion and then the water vapor condensed lowering the overall pressure.

    Anyway, one of the reasons why to use hydrogen is that the hydrogen/oxygen reaction has an extremely high specific impulse for a chemical rocket. Here is a Wikipedia link that explains more, but basically it is generally one of the most efficient chemical rocket fuels available.

    Also, of course, it (water) is super cheap, abundant and safe to lift.