Concepts for a Shroud or Propellant Tank Derived Deep Space Habitat Robert L. Howard, Jr., Ph.D. Habitability and Human Factors Branch NASA Houston, TX, USA
[email protected] repair. It was utilized by three crews before re-entering the Abstract – Long duration human spaceflight missions Earth’s atmosphere in 1979. beyond Low Earth Orbit will require much larger spacecraft than capsules such as the Russian Soyuz or The International Space Station (ISS) was born from American Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. A concept cancelled plans for the NASA Space Station Freedom, spacecraft under development is the Deep Space Habitat, Russian Mir 2, and the European Columbus space station. with volumes approaching that of space stations such as All US, European, and Japanese designed components were Skylab, Mir, and the International Space Station. This designed to fit inside the payload bay of the Space Shuttle paper explores several concepts for Deep Space Habitats and the Russian components were designed to launch as constructed from a launch vehicle shroud or propellant payloads of the Proton rocket. The first component was tank. It also recommends future research using mockups launched in 1998, with the final US launch in 2011. and prototypes to validate the size and crew station (Additional expansion remains possible with at least one capabilities of such a habitat. planned Russian expansion and potential commercial expansions.) It has been continuously occupied since Keywords: Exploration, space station, lunar outpost, NEA, November 2000 and is expected to remain in service at habitat, long duration, deep space habitat, shroud, least through 2020, potentially as long as 2028.