Showing posts with label Space Stations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space Stations. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Top 10 Things to Experience in A Space Hotel

A lot of excitement and talk has been about since the advent of Robert Bigelow's plans for launching hotels into space--and for good reason. An opportunity to stay overnight in space orbiting around the Earth and experiencing micro-gravity is definitely reason enough to be excited. What a lot of people don't know though is what you can do with this kind of setup. That is why I have decided to write this fun list:

The Top 10 Things to Experience in A Space Hotel

View from the Hubble Telescope. SpaceTelescope.org
# 10. Viewing the Northern & Southern Skies with hotel observatories.

With no light pollution and no atmosphere to interfere the view would be amazing. Stars would lose their distinctive "twinkle" without the atmosphere but different colors would become apparent. Those amazing images provided by Hubble could now be accessed by guests at any time.

# 9. Views of the Moon.

Simply put, a new perspective of that object in the sky that has been a fixture for eons. Again, without an atmosphere the view would be much clearer and telescopes would allow for very close views. Maps of the Moon could also be made available and you could point out different craters and and cracks.

# 8. Star... err... Earth Gazing.
Spectacular view of the Aurora Australis. Courtesy NASA.gov
Sitting in a space hotel that is at an altitude of approximately two to three hundred miles the Earth would almost entirely fill your view. Many of the fortunate few that have viewed the Earth from orbit have said it is impossible to be unaffected by the site. Other than being able to spot landmarks and geographical features there are many amazing things to see--even on the dark side of the Earth. Lightning flashes roughly 100 times a second and the aurorae (another awesome image taken from the ISS) near the magnetic poles dance brightly across as colorful rippling cones of light. Other amazing views include watching dusk and dawn outline the edges of the Earth with multicolored bands of light and the formation of different weather patterns.

# 7. Checking In.

Check in is a whole new experience in itself. You start by unbuckling yourself from your seat and gathering your luggage. After picking up your belongings you simply Velcro them to your body and float through the corridor! Guided by a railing you make your way towards the main entrance, gradually increasing in gravity until you can walk normally. The artificial gravity is produced by the slow rotations of the hotel container.

# 6. Checking Out.
Sunrise in orbit. Courtesy ESA.int
Checkout is more than the sad departure from this dream holiday; it has its own amazing experience attached too. After boarding the departing spacecraft you feel the sudden jerk of the ship separating from the docking bay and then the momentary surge of the thrusters as it moves away from the ship and towards the Earth for reentry. As you come back hurtling towards Earth at faster and faster speeds you start to see the air glow as it flies past the windows. Then the sky starts to change from a black into a dark blue until you hit the upper atmosphere. The sky is now a magnificent blue color. The sound of rushing air penetrates the cabin as clouds come closer and closer. The excitement soon comes to a close and you make a routine landing at the spaceport just like a plane does at the airport.

# 5. Weight Watching.

A space station presents an unique opportunity for experiencing different strengths of gravity. With multiple containers on the space hotel variable spinning speeds can be done. Set your containers speed to virtually zero and you can experience the weightlessness that astronauts of today encounter or if you're wanting to feel more at home you can set the revolutions per minute (rpm's) of your cabin to the equivalent of one G. Experimenting in between could also be quite fun. Simply adjust the rpm's so that you experience a weight of 100 lbs or even 20 lbs. Or, if you're wanting to build a little more muscle, you could even increase the relative gravity.
(see the physics behind this concept)

# 4. The Trampoline Room.

Not much to describe here, the title pretty much says it all. Micro-gravity + trampolines on the floor and ceiling = endless possibilities.

# 3. Space-Sports.
A Zero-G Arena. Courtesy Space.com
Variable artificial gravity opens up a whole new dimension for sports--literally. Games can now be played in 3-dimensions. A large, open container could be the new playing field for 3D tag or 3D dodge ball. Just imagining the more Earthly games such as soccer, basketball, and football in micro-gravity can make your mind swirl with excitement. Now, take wrestling and picture it in micro-gravity. Then, picture it in G-forces stronger than what we experience now. Are you starting to get the picture of all the possibilities? These are just different versions of already made games. New games are sure to be created. Anyone's guess is as good as mine when it comes to speculating the future of space sports but, just to get the ball rolling, I'll throw out a few ideas...
Once hotels are established in space bigger, newer inflatable stadiums could be launched into orbit or even constructed in space. Try to picture giant, inflated spheres with seating all around and the playing field, for whatever game/sport, right in the middle. Tweaking the relative G-force of the playing field could let humans fly like birds on Earth too. Strap on carbon-fiber (or some other lightweight material) wings and little stabilizers on the end of your feet, begin flapping, and away you can fly! After some practice you could eventually master diving and completing barrel rolls.
New (or old) contact sports could become a lot fiercer and at the same time a lot safer. With lowered gravity falling becomes less of a hazard. Couple that with padded walls all the way around and the risk for injury is almost gone! You could try all the stunts that you could ever imagine and remain almost worry free!

Here's a cool article from Space.com that gives an early look at space sports going on now in a modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft that takes you for a free fall. They also speculate on the future of space sports.

# 2. Sleeping Arrangements.

The room! The setup would be similar to any Earthly hotel but the experience would be far from it. First, you have your window. Take a look outside at the Earth and the rest of space or get a fantastic view of the rest of the space hotel. With the room spinning to maintain artificial gravity your view will also be constantly changing.
Asleep in Space. Source: NASA.gov
The artificial gravity presents an unique aspect in itself too. Low-gravity could allow for perhaps the most comfortable sleeping conditions conceivable. When resting on the mattress in only a fraction of normal gravity your body is less compressed. That means your spine will straighten out and your body can completely relax. Blood circulation would also be at a maximum so you wouldn't have to worry about arms or legs falling asleep. Don't worry about falling off either; Velcro sheets could fasten you in. Evidence has supported this claim of better sleep in space too. Space.com wrote:
During a study of two 1998 space flights, five astronauts stopped snoring almost completely. The astronauts also experienced a significant decrease in sleep-disturbing periods of breathing cessation, called sleep apnea, as well as periods of slow and shallow breathing called hypopnea. more...


Oh, and with news of the plan for the first first ever honeymoon in space, I'm sure couples could**ahem** try various 'rendezvousing and docking' methods in partial or zero gravity.

and......

# 1. Low-G Swimming
Artist's rendition of a spinning, low-g swimming pool. Courtesy SpaceFuture.com
Artificial gravity has yet another fantastic exploit--a swimming pool! Water's properties combined with variable gravity make for an amazing combination. If the giant container is spinning the water will adhere to the inner walls. Imagine jumping out of the water, completing some acrobatics, and then flying back into the water on the ceiling above you! Large enough containers can allow for very high diving boards too. The typical 'daredevil' could make Olympic divers look like amateurs. Splashing games amongst friends will also suddenly have a whole new meaning with the addition of low G-forces. Swimmers can pick up large armfuls of water and hurl them in a wobbly mess across the pool--tidal-waving their friends rather than merely "splashing" them.

Take the water to a zero-G room and a slew of new forms of entertainment arise. You could literally grab blobs of water and throw them like snowballs across the room and watch them explode into pieces as they hit the wall. Jumping inside larger blobs of water is now possible too. Swim around like a goldfish in a fishbowl or simply blow bubbles on the inside of your blob. Next you exit the blob and mold it into various shapes. Pull the water out in strings or transform your blob into a donut by blowing a large bubble in the center and bursting it. Or you could try spinning it and watch it take all sorts of shapes.

...

Hopefully this list has piqued your imagination or at least given you some new information on the capabilities of space. If anyone has any other ideas for possible experiences in a space hotel let me know by adding a comment and I will add a "Bonus Section" for submitted ideas! I will also be sure to list your name (and website if applicable) next to the idea! I'm looking forward to your ideas so please add them!

Lastly I want to thank (and recommend) the book Your Spaceflight Manual for providing me inspiration for this piece and for providing me great information.

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at 8:04 PM 16 comments Category: , , , ,

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Money Backing the Private Space Industry... Part 3--Robert Bigelow

Continued from part 1 and part 2...
Robert Bigelow has expressed his disappointment in the development of manned space exploration. Growing up captivated by the Apollo 11 moon landing Bigelow has said, "It's been 30 years since the last beginning and we don't have anything to show for it but memories. People are tired of memories." This time he is doing something about it. After acquiring his fortune through his Las Vegas hotel chain Budget Suites of America, he pledged to spend up to $500 million by 2015 to give manned space exploration a much needed boost.

Bigelow envisions a whole new breed of hotels: Space Hotels. He has plans of offering a 330-cubic-meter space station (about the size of a 3 bedroom house) for a paltry $1 million a night. Guests will fly around the Earth every 90 minutes traveling 17,500 miles/hour and absorb spectacular views of the Earth and the surrounding galaxy. Learning weightless acrobatics will also become a common pastime for guests.

Already built, inflatable Nautilus modules.
These incredible ambitions are not from idle words either. His pledge to front $500 million for the project and the successful launch of Genesis I, the 1/3 scale model Transhab, have already been mentioned (see article) but what else has brought this project closer to reality than most would have ever thought possible? Well, for one, a deal has already been made between Bigelow Aerospace and Elon Musk's SpaceX to have the Falcon 9 launch an expandable space-station in the first quarter of 2008. A $50 million "America's Space Prize" has also been presented by Bigelow for the group who can create a spacecraft that can take 5 or more people to an altitude of 400 km, demonstrate the ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and repeat the trip within 60 days. The deadline is Jan. 10, 2010. The real prize though, is the potential $200 million purchase agreement for six flights of a selected vehicle. This can be awarded to a company after the deadline if it is preferred over the winner's design. In addition to the $200 million deal there is another $800 million available in options contracts for 24 flights over a span of about 4 to 4.5 years!

Like Jeff Bezos (see part 1), Bigelow displays sincere ambitions too. His life's dream is very similar to mine (see site purpose). He was only 15 years old when he vowed to devote his life to establishing a permanent human presence in space. Already aware of the difficulties it would take he knew he would need money--lots of it. Soon after his vow, he aggressively began laying the foundation for accumulating his wealth. He followed in his father's footsteps by studying real estate and banking at Arizona State University. Upon graduation, he immediately put his real estate education into practice by buying small rental properties. Three years later, in 1970, he constructed his first apartment house, a 40-unit building. For the next two decades he continued expanding by building dozens of apartment buildings and motels in the Las Vegas area. In 1988 he founded his lucrative Budget Suites of America.

Concept design of a completed space hotel.
All throughout this time, Bigelow kept space in the back of his head and only in the back of his head. The motivation for his ambitious expansion of his company was kept entirely secret. “I didn’t even tell my wife,” he says. “She never knew. Because it’s possible that that kind of dream would never happen.” Serendipity struck in 1999 when Bigelow stumbled upon a NASA project for a radical new space station concept. The radical concept was called the Transhab project. In 2000 NASA canceled it for no apparent reason and so Bigelow bought the exclusive development rights. Bigelow believes he can accomplish what NASA couldn't because of his business expertise. "I’ve put together many, many projects involving a lot of money and a lot of people,” he says, and unlike NASA, “I’m used to doing things pretty darn well on budget and pretty darn well on time.”

Thus ends my 3 part series on the money behind the dream. I hope you learned something new about the private space industry or perhaps became inspired yourself to join the industry!

To read more about the Transhab technology NASA provides a great article that covers the basics.

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at 9:35 PM 6 comments Category: , , , , ,

Monday, January 15, 2007

Space Elevators: A Future I can Envision.. Part 2

A Space Elevator (see original post...) seems pretty glamorous and looks to have lots of potential, but what exactly is that potential? A Space Elevator could provide a safe, consistent, and cheaper method of bringing cargo to space. This is the key to its limitless potential. With space easily accessible, permanent settlements could be established and always have supplies on demand. Expanding out towards the asteroid belt could also mean the start of outer-space mining operations. Gigantic solar satellites could also send enormous amounts of energy back to Earth and other satellites could increase communication abilities on earth.

Concept art of a space elevator. Source: CelestialMotherlode
One potential use or derivative of a space elevator that I thought of but haven't heard anything about is a construction site. Things can be manufactured in space with less difficulty than they can on Earth. Micro-gravity lets very heavy objects to be reasonably maneuvered. Enormous cargo ships could be put together quickly and easily. Such ships couldn't even feasibly be made on Earth and sent to space. The micro-gravity presents another interesting advantage too. Designs of such ships would not need to be able to hold themselves up. Without any gravity putting pressure on it, designs wouldn't need to be as sturdy and without an atmosphere aerodynamics is useless. Now, a fleet of huge cargo ships could be quickly and cheaply put together. Distributing materials also becomes even more efficient than with the space elevator alone. Since the cargo ships need not escape a planets atmosphere it will never require large amounts of fuel to transport goods. All it would need is one boost towards its destination and one back. Materials/people could be carried by these cargo ships/shuttles and simply be "dropped off at the door." Re-entry vehicles released by the cargo ships could release goods in similar fashion to the current Mars rovers' method. As you can see a space elevator could be the catalyst for an interplanetary highway.


The economics of a space elevator is also interesting. Currently the price/kg to send something into geosynchronous orbit is about $20,000/kg. According to Dr. Bradley Edwards, who has put forth a space elevator design, the price would drastically reduce to around $220/kg.

Costs of Edwards design (mentioned in part 1) has been estimated at $40 billion. In order for the design to be privately funded a $6 billion annual revenue would be needed and 2 million kg/year would be lifted into space. A cheaper estimate for another design was proposed at the 55th International Astronautical Congress in Vancouver in October 2004. The sticker price was a mere $6.2 billion. $6.2 billion may still sound extraordinary but when comparing that to the costs of bridges, skyscrapers, and other large projects it starts to look a lot more enticing.

Personally, I believe that the space elevator concept is pretty far-fetched but, then again, so was walking on the moon at one time. I can't say the space elevator will lead humans into a space-colonization age but I can say that it is a very worthy idea to consider.

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at 11:46 PM 7 comments Category: , ,

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Space Elevators: A Future I can Envision.. Part 1

Concept art of a space elevator. Source: Lift Port Group
(see part 2) So, what exactly is a space elevator? It's exactly what you'd imagine; an elevator that goes into space. Basically the ideas proposed for a space elevator consists of a "base station" that has a geosynchronous counterweight tethered to it.

The four basic elements required for such a concept are: the base station (as previously mentioned), a cable sometimes referred to as the "ribbon", climbers (the elevator portion), and the counterweight.

The base station could come in a variety of forms. One being a mobile form. The base would most likely be positioned in the ocean or another large body of water. Its mobility could be used to maneuver away from satellites and other orbiting objects but I think something as amazing
Concept art of a potential Base Station. Source: Lift Port Group
and "game-changing" as a space elevator would take precedence. It would be much simpler to change the orbits of everything else and use the cost/material advantageous method of a stationary base. A stationary base could theoretically have a significantly shorter, required cable length depending on altitude. A shorter cable could also reduce the required thickness of the cable as a whole, eliminating even more cost and materials necessary.

The technology for cable construction is not as far away as one might think. It is estimated that the tensile strength required for the tether would have to be in the range of 65-120 Gigapascals. To put it into perspective steel has a mere 2 GPa or less of tensile strength. Fortunately, the advent of carbon nanotubes has produced strands that could resist as high as 52 GPa before snapping and the theoretical capability is beyond 120 GPa. Mass production and creating large strands is currently an issue but the future looks optimistic as the demand for carbon nanotubes is way beyond just space elevators. We're talking computers, planes, bridges, rockets, and other materials in general. Demand is high and likewise research too.

Concept design of a Climber. Source: Lift Port Group
Climbers would serve as the "elevator" of the system but due to a construction requiring a larger center than tips ( necessary because of centripetal forces) it would not use typical elevator methods. Hence, the name climbers. The proposed designs, friction held rollers and robotic arms with hooks, present less of a challenge than actually powering the climbers. The best method I've read about so far has been powering it by lasers. The concept would be similar to a laser powered solar sail (look for a post about this in the upcoming future). This technology is still in its infancy and isn't very efficient currently but it looks very promising.

Lastly, we have the counterweight. Many have pushed the idea of an asteroid as a counterweight but I happen to like the potential of the alternative: a space station. Not a whole lot to explain here and I'm sure you could imagine some of the capabilities a space station on top of a space elevator could have. I.E. spaceport, research labs, weightless space construction, space hotels, etc. etc.

Lifting the cable into space presents a bit of a problem but Bradley C. Edwards (former Director of Research for the Institute for Scientific Research) has proposed a highly efficient method for doing so. The method involves creating an initial, "seed" cable that is very thin and launching it first. Next, small climbers would progressively add thicker and thicker cables from the ground up until the desired proportions are reached.

Initial costs are also relatively "affordable" for a system similar to the seed cable, starting at an estimated $5 billion.

My next post will concern the advantages and the costs that a space elevator would have in more, specific depth. I invite you all to come back and read it and to also post any questions or comments that you would like to see addressed in the next article.

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at 10:22 PM 17 comments Category: , ,

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