Space Stations - White Elephants in the Sky?
The story of inhabited space stations is an epic of courage and determination in the face of tremendous challenges. Station crews have proved that humans can survive in space as they battled collision damage, fuel leaks, power failures, fires and countless other hazards to carry out their missions and – perhaps most amazingly of all – live and work in orbit.
Yet, as another station is painstakingly and expensively constructed, the question has to be asked: was it all worth it? As Earth’s population explosion continues, as pollution and overcrowding threaten our future, is it really worth spending so much money and effort on orbital stations?
The answer to that question is yes, and for the very reasons cited. Earth’s resources are not limitless. All the available living space will eventually be filled. And what then? We will hit the peak of the technological mountain… and begin to slide down the other side. With nowhere left to go, humanity will stagnate, fighting over a corner of the room rather than seizing a new frontier.
If we do not find a way to make a leap into the future, to take that next step outwards, then we will eventually collapse in on ourselves. Our descendents will live among the worlds of the solar system – perhaps even among the stars – or they will be medieval peasants scraping a living amid the wreckage of our civilization.
To avoid this collapse, humanity must look outwards, to seek new challenges and new frontiers. The ocean deeps offer us one such avenue for exploration, and space offers another. Orbital stations have several vital roles to play in that leap into the future.
Space Stations offer us several unique advantages over satellites and manned missions. Humans are more flexible than any satellite system; while many functions can be carried out automatically, a human presence gives far greater capabilities. Manned missions do offer these advantages, but require that equipment be lifted into orbit every time it is to be used. A permanent station need only be carried to orbit once.
Currently, orbital stations can fulfil several roles:
Orbital Monitoring Stations – Orbital stations can undertake mapping, pollution monitoring and weather prediction and also have military applications such as missile defence and orbital reconnaissance/monitoring in support of peacekeeping operations.
Observatories – huge telescopes can be placed in orbit away from the distorting effects of atmosphere and the restrictions placed imposed by gravity.
Laboratories – a “weightless” lab can undertake research that is simply not possible on Earth, such as investigating the effects of zero gravity on people and animals, or materials. Orbital labs are also about as secure as it is possible to be, reducing the risk of outside contamination, sabotage, security leaks etc. High-risk projects cannot “escape” the lab to affect the environment around.
Military Bases – Orbital missile defences and command posts offer significant advantages, though orbital weapons are currently banned by treaty.
Training Facilities – Astronauts can undertake realistic training and acclimatize to conditions in space before undertaking their actual mission.
Proving Grounds – stations can be used to test equipment in space, to try out techniques, or just to see how long people can operate in space.
These roles are available to us with current technologies, and will continue to expand as our capabilities increase. However, new roles are becoming possible, and in the future stations will have a number of important parts to play in our exploration of and expansion into space.
Exploration Bases
As we begin to send missions further out into space, a “staging post” will become necessary to launch the missions from. It is possible to launch short-duration missions from the Earth’s surface, but having to climb to orbit before setting out has significant drawbacks. Most of the mass of any space mission is “wasted” on the propulsion equipment (fuel, engines etc) required to boost a vehicle to orbit. Actual payloads are small compared to that prodigious drive unit.
A craft assembled in obit (brought up in stages by orbital lifters from Earth) and returning, not to Earth but to an orbital station, need not be equipped for re-entry, nor need it waste most of its fuel in reaching orbit. The weight saved could result in a smaller, cheaper craft or a one of the same size with far greater mission duration. Similarly, a vessel that will never enter atmosphere need not be constructed to resist massive g-loads and huge accelerations. It can be any shape necessary for improved functionality or habitability.
Connected to Earth by regular rocket, spaceplane or shuttle flights, a station can be used as a base for reusable exploration craft searching for mineral wealth among the Near-Earth Asteroids or farther afield. A reusable exploration ship makes missions far cheaper, and thus commercially feasible. In addition to its other functions, the International Space Station can be such a staging post, and can also function as a training ground for the mission crews as they make their final preparations.
Commercial and Manufacturing Centres
If mineral exploitation of asteroids, colonization of the moon etc is undertaken, then an orbital station may be useful as a commercial interchange. Containerized raw materials inbound from mining stations on Luna or the asteroids, and supplies to support the mining and prospecting operations, can be transferred between haulage vessels plying the space lanes of communication and interface craft linking the station to earth. If bases are built on Mars or Luna (or any other large body) then an orbital station may be constructed at that end of the route to facilitate interface and exchange. This arrangement is expensive to set up but far more efficient than using a single vessel for the whole trip.
Some processing of raw materials and limited fabrication or manufacturing is likely to take place aboard any commercial station. At first this will be a very minor activity mainly directed at maintaining functionality of the station and its craft, but in time the capability will expand and small orbital factories turning out specialist items will appear.
If a station is equipped to handle cargo, and to undertake repairs and maintenance on small spacecraft, then it is a small step to establishing an orbital assembly yard for space vessels, or perhaps even a major factory complex to build their components. This would be most economical if using minerals mined elsewhere than on Earth, of course, since hauling bulk loads of raw materials up the gravity well would not be cost-effective. However, raw materials mined in the outsystem could be processed in orbit before making the journey to Earth in finished form, and of course the manufacturing centre could serve orbital or system-wide communities.
Cities in Space
It is unlikely that huge orbital cities will be created unless gravity can be somehow reliably created. However, large communities serving the scientific, exploration, mercantile and manufacturing facilities may take on the aspect of a coastal port-city, with dock workers, medical staff, technicians and support personnel such as chefs and administrators living and working in the station alongside those working in its primary industries. Nursing, plumbing or even bar work in space will present wholly new challenges!
Making It Happen
The challenges involved in creating an orbital station are prodigious, and the dangers inherent are vast. Components are immensely expensive and yet fragile, and repair or maintenance is horribly difficult. For example, two Cosmonauts spent one entire hour of their (at the time) record-breaking 5-hour spacewalk trying to undo a single jammed nut on one of the Salyut stations.
Yet it can be done. Stations can be – are being – built. The budgets required are immense, but within the reach of nations, international organizations, and even some private companies. The technology is still in its infancy. If the will is there, ways will be found to improve the means.
New technologies and ground-breaking techniques are likely to come from the national programs of the US and other great powers. The increasing importance of space in defence programs ensures continued interest in orbital launch technologies, and the planned Mars mission may use an orbital “marshaling point”. The International Space Station is the obvious choice; this would demonstrate the capability and open the way for further missions making use of orbital marshaling.
Thus the pieces of the puzzle are being assembled; the International Space Station, the planned Mars mission, cheaper launch methods and reusable spaceplanes developed privately to serve the lucrative satellite-launch market… but the expansion into space requires something more.
The key is commercialization. If, for example, private ownership of territory in space is recognized, it will be possible to stake claims to asteroids and mine them. If money can be made from manufacturing in space, then private firms will begin looking for cheaper launch methods and the technology will leap forward. One major stumbling block is the existing legislation banning territorial ownership in space. However, it is possible that changing needs will cause these treaties to be re-evaluated or ignored by early space pioneers, be they nations or commercial interests.
Already plans exist for orbital hotels, which are “doable” with current technology, though unlikely to actually happen in the foreseeable future. Other commercial enterprises are possible, however. The breakthrough will come when a visionary private company undertakes some form of directly profitable activity in space.
Given the advances in technology currently ongoing, and the fact that high-technology aerospace firms are finding the defence sector less lucrative since the end of the Cold War, it seems likely that attention will be focused more on space during the next few years, and that sometime in the period 2010-20, the breakthrough will come – i.e. a firm will demonstrate that it is possible to make direct profits from activity in space.
Once profitability is proven, the puzzle is complete. Within 10 years of the first demonstration of feasibility, new space-exploitation partnerships (and firms offering supporting services and equipment) will appear. The “Orbital Gold Rush” will be trivial in terms of personnel involved, yet vast when the sums of money involved are considered. Once it is proved that it can be done, competition will drive the project forward from there. Governments (and the UN) will be left trailing behind, hurriedly legislating to cover the issues thrown up in the wake of the pioneers.
Once the big money becomes involved, the high frontier will be thrown open. That first step, proving the commercial viability of space for something other than satellite TV, will be one of the greatest quantum leaps in human history, right up there with steam power or even the wheel.
Once the industry is established, an ad-hoc system of service providers is likely to be the result. Thus a firm specializing in asteroid prospecting may sell its findings on to a mining firm. Its analysis equipment will be aboard a unit leased from the operators of an orbital station, while another private firm supplies spares and maintenance on the prospectors’ vessels. Interface with Earth is provided by companies operating commercial spaceplanes, while transit vessels leave for stations orbiting Luna and Mars, where interface is again handled by separate concerns. Some of these firms may be government-operated, others will be wholly private.
In time, some of these firms will merge or be bought out by larger concerns, until the lucrative market is dominated by the big players who can do it more efficiently and reliably. These space conglomerates are the megacorporations of the future as the industry settles down and becomes established. Extrapolating from the pattern established by aerospace and defence firms in the 20th Century, this emergence of integrated super-companies is likely by 2040 or so.
By this time, orbital stations will be no more remarkable than a coastal town serving a seaport. Once, sea-going vessels could not venture out of sight of land. Crossing the oceans was once a desperately dangerous undertaking, and yet today it is more or less mundane. Thus it will be with these new ports on the seas of space. Coastal vessels will bring trade and prosperity, and they will grow.
And some day, perhaps, a pioneering vessel will set sail and leave our coastal waters, beginning the oceanic voyage to another star. If it ever happens, it is more than likely that the departure point will be an orbital station, not the ground. The effort required to lift the vessel into orbit can be offest by using a station as a staging post.
Yet, as another station is painstakingly and expensively constructed, the question has to be asked: was it all worth it? As Earth’s population explosion continues, as pollution and overcrowding threaten our future, is it really worth spending so much money and effort on orbital stations?
The answer to that question is yes, and for the very reasons cited. Earth’s resources are not limitless. All the available living space will eventually be filled. And what then? We will hit the peak of the technological mountain… and begin to slide down the other side. With nowhere left to go, humanity will stagnate, fighting over a corner of the room rather than seizing a new frontier.
If we do not find a way to make a leap into the future, to take that next step outwards, then we will eventually collapse in on ourselves. Our descendents will live among the worlds of the solar system – perhaps even among the stars – or they will be medieval peasants scraping a living amid the wreckage of our civilization.
To avoid this collapse, humanity must look outwards, to seek new challenges and new frontiers. The ocean deeps offer us one such avenue for exploration, and space offers another. Orbital stations have several vital roles to play in that leap into the future.
Space Stations offer us several unique advantages over satellites and manned missions. Humans are more flexible than any satellite system; while many functions can be carried out automatically, a human presence gives far greater capabilities. Manned missions do offer these advantages, but require that equipment be lifted into orbit every time it is to be used. A permanent station need only be carried to orbit once.
Currently, orbital stations can fulfil several roles:
Orbital Monitoring Stations – Orbital stations can undertake mapping, pollution monitoring and weather prediction and also have military applications such as missile defence and orbital reconnaissance/monitoring in support of peacekeeping operations.
Observatories – huge telescopes can be placed in orbit away from the distorting effects of atmosphere and the restrictions placed imposed by gravity.
Laboratories – a “weightless” lab can undertake research that is simply not possible on Earth, such as investigating the effects of zero gravity on people and animals, or materials. Orbital labs are also about as secure as it is possible to be, reducing the risk of outside contamination, sabotage, security leaks etc. High-risk projects cannot “escape” the lab to affect the environment around.
Military Bases – Orbital missile defences and command posts offer significant advantages, though orbital weapons are currently banned by treaty.
Training Facilities – Astronauts can undertake realistic training and acclimatize to conditions in space before undertaking their actual mission.
Proving Grounds – stations can be used to test equipment in space, to try out techniques, or just to see how long people can operate in space.
These roles are available to us with current technologies, and will continue to expand as our capabilities increase. However, new roles are becoming possible, and in the future stations will have a number of important parts to play in our exploration of and expansion into space.
Exploration Bases
As we begin to send missions further out into space, a “staging post” will become necessary to launch the missions from. It is possible to launch short-duration missions from the Earth’s surface, but having to climb to orbit before setting out has significant drawbacks. Most of the mass of any space mission is “wasted” on the propulsion equipment (fuel, engines etc) required to boost a vehicle to orbit. Actual payloads are small compared to that prodigious drive unit.
A craft assembled in obit (brought up in stages by orbital lifters from Earth) and returning, not to Earth but to an orbital station, need not be equipped for re-entry, nor need it waste most of its fuel in reaching orbit. The weight saved could result in a smaller, cheaper craft or a one of the same size with far greater mission duration. Similarly, a vessel that will never enter atmosphere need not be constructed to resist massive g-loads and huge accelerations. It can be any shape necessary for improved functionality or habitability.
Connected to Earth by regular rocket, spaceplane or shuttle flights, a station can be used as a base for reusable exploration craft searching for mineral wealth among the Near-Earth Asteroids or farther afield. A reusable exploration ship makes missions far cheaper, and thus commercially feasible. In addition to its other functions, the International Space Station can be such a staging post, and can also function as a training ground for the mission crews as they make their final preparations.
Commercial and Manufacturing Centres
If mineral exploitation of asteroids, colonization of the moon etc is undertaken, then an orbital station may be useful as a commercial interchange. Containerized raw materials inbound from mining stations on Luna or the asteroids, and supplies to support the mining and prospecting operations, can be transferred between haulage vessels plying the space lanes of communication and interface craft linking the station to earth. If bases are built on Mars or Luna (or any other large body) then an orbital station may be constructed at that end of the route to facilitate interface and exchange. This arrangement is expensive to set up but far more efficient than using a single vessel for the whole trip.
Some processing of raw materials and limited fabrication or manufacturing is likely to take place aboard any commercial station. At first this will be a very minor activity mainly directed at maintaining functionality of the station and its craft, but in time the capability will expand and small orbital factories turning out specialist items will appear.
If a station is equipped to handle cargo, and to undertake repairs and maintenance on small spacecraft, then it is a small step to establishing an orbital assembly yard for space vessels, or perhaps even a major factory complex to build their components. This would be most economical if using minerals mined elsewhere than on Earth, of course, since hauling bulk loads of raw materials up the gravity well would not be cost-effective. However, raw materials mined in the outsystem could be processed in orbit before making the journey to Earth in finished form, and of course the manufacturing centre could serve orbital or system-wide communities.
Cities in Space
It is unlikely that huge orbital cities will be created unless gravity can be somehow reliably created. However, large communities serving the scientific, exploration, mercantile and manufacturing facilities may take on the aspect of a coastal port-city, with dock workers, medical staff, technicians and support personnel such as chefs and administrators living and working in the station alongside those working in its primary industries. Nursing, plumbing or even bar work in space will present wholly new challenges!
Making It Happen
The challenges involved in creating an orbital station are prodigious, and the dangers inherent are vast. Components are immensely expensive and yet fragile, and repair or maintenance is horribly difficult. For example, two Cosmonauts spent one entire hour of their (at the time) record-breaking 5-hour spacewalk trying to undo a single jammed nut on one of the Salyut stations.
Yet it can be done. Stations can be – are being – built. The budgets required are immense, but within the reach of nations, international organizations, and even some private companies. The technology is still in its infancy. If the will is there, ways will be found to improve the means.
New technologies and ground-breaking techniques are likely to come from the national programs of the US and other great powers. The increasing importance of space in defence programs ensures continued interest in orbital launch technologies, and the planned Mars mission may use an orbital “marshaling point”. The International Space Station is the obvious choice; this would demonstrate the capability and open the way for further missions making use of orbital marshaling.
Thus the pieces of the puzzle are being assembled; the International Space Station, the planned Mars mission, cheaper launch methods and reusable spaceplanes developed privately to serve the lucrative satellite-launch market… but the expansion into space requires something more.
The key is commercialization. If, for example, private ownership of territory in space is recognized, it will be possible to stake claims to asteroids and mine them. If money can be made from manufacturing in space, then private firms will begin looking for cheaper launch methods and the technology will leap forward. One major stumbling block is the existing legislation banning territorial ownership in space. However, it is possible that changing needs will cause these treaties to be re-evaluated or ignored by early space pioneers, be they nations or commercial interests.
Already plans exist for orbital hotels, which are “doable” with current technology, though unlikely to actually happen in the foreseeable future. Other commercial enterprises are possible, however. The breakthrough will come when a visionary private company undertakes some form of directly profitable activity in space.
Given the advances in technology currently ongoing, and the fact that high-technology aerospace firms are finding the defence sector less lucrative since the end of the Cold War, it seems likely that attention will be focused more on space during the next few years, and that sometime in the period 2010-20, the breakthrough will come – i.e. a firm will demonstrate that it is possible to make direct profits from activity in space.
Once profitability is proven, the puzzle is complete. Within 10 years of the first demonstration of feasibility, new space-exploitation partnerships (and firms offering supporting services and equipment) will appear. The “Orbital Gold Rush” will be trivial in terms of personnel involved, yet vast when the sums of money involved are considered. Once it is proved that it can be done, competition will drive the project forward from there. Governments (and the UN) will be left trailing behind, hurriedly legislating to cover the issues thrown up in the wake of the pioneers.
Once the big money becomes involved, the high frontier will be thrown open. That first step, proving the commercial viability of space for something other than satellite TV, will be one of the greatest quantum leaps in human history, right up there with steam power or even the wheel.
Once the industry is established, an ad-hoc system of service providers is likely to be the result. Thus a firm specializing in asteroid prospecting may sell its findings on to a mining firm. Its analysis equipment will be aboard a unit leased from the operators of an orbital station, while another private firm supplies spares and maintenance on the prospectors’ vessels. Interface with Earth is provided by companies operating commercial spaceplanes, while transit vessels leave for stations orbiting Luna and Mars, where interface is again handled by separate concerns. Some of these firms may be government-operated, others will be wholly private.
In time, some of these firms will merge or be bought out by larger concerns, until the lucrative market is dominated by the big players who can do it more efficiently and reliably. These space conglomerates are the megacorporations of the future as the industry settles down and becomes established. Extrapolating from the pattern established by aerospace and defence firms in the 20th Century, this emergence of integrated super-companies is likely by 2040 or so.
By this time, orbital stations will be no more remarkable than a coastal town serving a seaport. Once, sea-going vessels could not venture out of sight of land. Crossing the oceans was once a desperately dangerous undertaking, and yet today it is more or less mundane. Thus it will be with these new ports on the seas of space. Coastal vessels will bring trade and prosperity, and they will grow.
And some day, perhaps, a pioneering vessel will set sail and leave our coastal waters, beginning the oceanic voyage to another star. If it ever happens, it is more than likely that the departure point will be an orbital station, not the ground. The effort required to lift the vessel into orbit can be offest by using a station as a staging post.
