Nautilus-X: The Spaceship That Will Take Us Beyond Mars
Have you ever looked at the ISS and wondered why it doesn't have thrusters? Why we can't simply fly that whole sumbitch to Mars, such that the astronauts inside can luxuriate in roomy comfort for the duration of the trip? Sadly that's not possible. The ISS wasn't built to withstand the forces involved in escaping Earth orbit.
Its true value was as a testbed. We didn't actually know how to assemble spacecraft in orbit prior to the ISS. The concept appeared so frequently in fiction it was easy to take for granted but we needed actual experience doing it for real, learning what problems commonly arise, how to solve them, etc. before entrusting the lives of astronauts to it.
Among other reasons this is why the ISS recently recieved an inflatable module (B.E.A.M.). Besides testing the durability of inflatables in the LEO environment, there exist other NASA design reference studies which assume the use of inflatable modules. Since we've never actually done that before, it's being trialed on the good ol' ISS. A larger, ring shaped inflatable which spins to simulate gravity was planned, but shelved. Not forever I don't think, but pending the results of the B.E.A.M. test.
The Nautilus-X centrifuge demonstration project is a modest first effort at on-orbit artificial gravity, the ring not large enough in diameter to reproduce full Earth gravity but a useful fraction, and the interior just barely large enough in diameter to comfortably sleep in. This would give astronauts several hours per "night" of exposure to simulated gravity, which would slow their physical deterioration on long journeys.
The ring's name owes to the fact that it's the central component of a proposed deep-space exploration vessel called the Nautilus-X. The Apollo configuration of a crew module and lander can get us to Mars, albeit uncomfortably, even with the Orion capsule's greatly expanded interior volume and an added inflatable habitat. But to go beyond Mars, and to do it with an acceptable degree of safety, something more robust is needed.
Much in the sense that the Space Shuttle was meant to be a reusable, robust "Space bus" for going to and from LEO, the Nautilus-X is meant to serve the same purpose, but between planets. It will never land as it's much too large and not designed to withstand it. Remaining in space, its purpose will be to leverage the knowledge of modular construction from the ISS program to build what is essentially a mobile ISS that can take astronauts to any destination in the solar system.
Like the ISS, the Nautilus-X can be expanded over time with additional inflatable storage modules, different types of propulsion and power generation, whatever the mission requires. The abundance of storage when compared to the Orion capsule means astronauts will be able to take along more supplies than they need. More oxygen, more water (though of course both will be reused) more food, more redundant replacement parts and so on.
The redundant landers increase options in the event of a disaster which strands one or more astronauts on a planetary surface. The ring makes it possible to endure much longer missions without serious health complications, and the VASIMR (variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket) this thing is slated to use will make much faster travel times within the solar system possible.
While it is still interesting to see live feeds from the ISS on the news, to hear what they are up to, just imagine if every time, it was in orbit around a different planet. Our very own rudimentary Starship Enterprise, on its own ongoing mission to and from various destinations in our solar system, reporting what they find to an eager global public!
This is really awesome and I have never came across this. I have been following Bigelow Aerospace since around 2004 so it is cool to see their inflatables still being worked on. Also it was hilarious you said "Why we can't simply fly that whole sumbitch to Mars, such that the astronauts inside can luxuriate in roomy comfort for the duration of the trip?" That cracked me up. I imagined a hill billy with a Mississippi mud flap mullet saying that. Hahahah, But it is still sort of a good question. I know you said "The ISS wasn't built to withstand the forces involved in escaping Earth orbit." I guess that is really interesting to me because they use the Soyuz to push the ISS into higher orbit so I don't get why they couldn't just push it into a higher and higher orbit so there is less atmospheric drag because there is still faint atmosphere up there and I think that is why the orbital altitude decays overtime. Then once they get it into a really high altitude they could push it faster so instead of constantly "falling" around the Earth it would escape orbit. What causes all the pressure when trying to escape orbit? Is it still the faint atmosphere causing friction? Or the acceleration would crumple it like an aluminum can because it wasn't made strong enough to accelerate?
The acceleration, as I understand it. But really, we needed to learn certain lessons about multimodule spacecraft first before attempting such a thing, and do it close enough to Earth that we could evacuate astronauts in a hurry if necessary.
I guess the Russians are planning to detach some of the newer modules when the ISS is decommissioned and build a new space station out of them. So the entire thing won't be thrown away which is good. I guess over the lifespan of the space stations (Mir and ISS) eventually maintenance becomes such a significant fraction of the astronauts time that they can't do much research anymore.
Sweet! I was wondering how long it would be before we were actually able to do space travel. Next we have to implement warp drive! I liked the images you posted here.
Interesting post! Love following the space-realm. I am curious to know more about your perspective on this and other space-related adventures. What is your take on the Secret Space Program?
Great article. Is this similar to the Atlas?
The only Atlas I know is a rocket. This differs in that it does not launch from the Earth to space, it is built in space and stays there. It also uses nuclear electric propulsion rather than chemical.
A vision of the future...
lol wtf
There's absolutely no reason to believe that anti-gravity technology is not already in use for space travel. Personally, I don't buy the idea that we cannot already travel to mars.
Automobiles haven't changed in over 100 years! Just 4 wheels and gasoline. Meanwhile, we make plenty of other tehcnological advancements and we're supposed to believe we don't have ships that can cruise around our solar system? Laughable.
NASA is talking about "progress", I'm talking about progress.
Don't let science fiction films distort your sense of how far along we are.
I'm speaking from research, however it's not really important or anything I obsess about.
Love me some space. Can you write about the concept of moving all manufacturers off the planet, would that be feasible? Do we have all the minerals we need outside of the earth?
It depends where you go. On the Moon? Sadly no, it has only some of the metals needed. Mars has them all. Anything we manufacture on Earth could be manufactured on Mars. The asteroid belt also has everything needed. We could still make some things on the Moon. The low gravity means very little fuel cost to launch from there. But asteroids have even less gravity. This is why the focus has been on a Mars mission and an asteroid mission recently.
Will you buy a ticket too mars from spacex?
No. My dream is to live underwater.
The sad truth that lies beneath every exciting news about progress in space travel in my opinion, is that our planets society is still to concerned with maximising profit. Which country or government would voluntarily start expanding mayor ressources in aerospace engineering without any possible return on investment in the foreseeable future ?
My hope is that it will be the technology behind plattforms like steemit, that might empower society to work together, to achieve goals like this.
Nonetheless a read your article with great interest !
You got my vote and i will make sure to follow you in order to stay well informed ;)
Lol! great post ! thank you! I'm vote))