RIS-2015-13 “Gateway Earth” – Low Cost Access to Interplanetary Space Derek Webber, FBIS, Senior Member AIAA Spaceport Associates PO Box 614, Damariscotta, Maine 04543, USA 207-563-2660
[email protected], www.SpaceportAssociates.com INTRODUCTION The paper describes some aspects of a proposed space development whose aim is to dramatically reduce the cost of missions, both crewed and robotic, to anywhere in the solar system. The concept uses a funding mechanism combining governmental and commercial financing working in new ways together. The aim is to enable interplanetary space transportation and exploration within realistic funding projections. The basic architecture uses a combined governmental/commercial space station (“Gateway Earth”) located in geostationary orbit (near the edge of Earth’s gravity well) and a logistical supply chain of reusable tugs going regularly between LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and GEO (Geostationary Orbit) and back. Part of the commercial station would be a GEO space tourist hotel. Other commercial uses of the Gateway complex would include servicing of GEO communications satellites. “Gateway Earth”, the station at the edge of interplanetary space, would consequently be partly funded by space tourism revenues, as would also be the operation of the tugs. It’s a way of exploring the solar system by using space tourism revenues to augment government funding. The paper addresses some design implications of including an industrial scale 3-D manufacturing facility at the Gateway complex, for building and assembling components of craft intended for ongoing interplanetary travel. Elements of a business case framework are presented, using market analogs for this next destination of space tourists beyond LEO, which supports the argument that the “Gateway Earth” architecture represents a way to achieve relatively low cost interplanetary travel.