re space station redesign jsc alternative in article apr aio jsc nasa gov kjenks gothamcity jsc nasa gov writes description of external tank option for ssf redesign deleted mark proposed this design at joe shea s committee in crystal city and he reports that he was warmly received however the rumors i hear say that a design based on a wingless space shuttle orbiter seems more likely yo ken let s keep on top of things both the external tank and wingless orbiter options have been deleted from the ssf redesign options list today s edition of the new york times reports that o connor told the panel that some redesign proposals have been dropped such as using the giant external fuel tanks used in launching space shuttles and building a station around an existing space shuttle with its wings and tail removed currently there are three options being considered as presented to the advisory panel meeting yesterday and as reported in today s times option a low cost modular approach this option is being studied by a team from msfc as an aside there are ssf redesign teams at msfc jsc and larc supporting the srt station redesign team in crystal city both lerc and reston folks are also on site at these locations helping the respective teams with their redesign activities key features of this option are uses bus a modular bus developed by lockheed that s qualified for sts and elv s the bus provides propulsion gn c communications data management lockheed developed this for the air force a power station capability is obtained in shuttle flights ssf solar arrays are used to provide kw of power the vehicle flies in an arrow mode to optimize the microgravity environment shuttle spacelab missions would utilize the vehilce as a power source for day missions human tended capability as opposed to the old ssf sexist term of man tended capability is achieved by the addition of the us common module this is a modified version of the existing ssf lab module docking ports are added for the international partners labs taking the place of the nodes on ssf the shuttle can be docked to the station for day missions the orbiter would provide crew habitability eva capability international human tended add the nasda esa modules and add another kw of power permanent human presence capability add a rd power module the u s habitation module and an acrv assured crew return vehicle option b space station freedom derived the option b team is based at larc and is lead by mike griffin this option looks alot like the existing ssf design which we have all come to know and love this option assumes a lightweight external tank is available for use on all ssf assembly flights so does option a also the number of flights is computed for a inclination orbit for both options a and b the build up occurs in six phases initial research capability reached after flights power is transferred from the vehicle to the orbiter spacelab when it visits man tended capability griffin has not yet adopted non sexist language is achieved after flights the u s lab is deployed and solar power module provides kw of power permanent human presence capability occurs after flights by keeping one orbiter on orbit to use as an acrv so sometimes there would be two orbiters on orbit the acrv and the second one that comes up for logistics re supply a two fault tolerance capability is achieved after flights with the addition of a nd power module another thermal control system radiator and more propulsion modules after flights the internationals are on board more power the habitation module and an acrv are added to finish the assembly in flights most of the systems currently on ssf are used as is in this option with the exception of the data management system which has major changes option c single core launch station this is the jsc lead option basically you take a ft diameter cylinder that s ft long slap space shuttle main engines on the backside put a nose cone on the top attached it to a regular shuttle external tank and a regular set of solid rocket motors and launch the can some key features are complete end to end ground integration and checkout tangentially mounted fixed solar panels body mounted radiators which adds protection against micrometeroid orbital debris centerline docking ports one on each end berthing ports a single pressurized volume approximately cubic feet twice the volume of skylab floors center passageway between floors kw of housekeeping power graceful degradation with failures power channels thermal loops dual environmental control life support system increased crew time for utilization micro g thru out the core module
