Aeronautics and astronautics – Spacecraft – Reusable or returnable
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-10
2002-08-27
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3643)
Aeronautics and astronautics
Spacecraft
Reusable or returnable
Reexamination Certificate
active
06439508
ABSTRACT:
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No government finding, no government support or government contract or clause is related to this concept.
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A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates generally to a pressurized volume in space, transported in the deflated condition and inflated in the vacuum and microgravity of orbit for use as habitation or other volumes like space stations.
2. Background Art
Space tourism is expected to be a future industry in space, but many believe two orders of magnitude in cost reduction must be achieved before this new industry emerges. A traditional habitation module in the range of $425m is transported in the space shuttle for approximately $500m. The typical metal module weighs approximately 38,000 pounds and provides approximately 4,600 cubic feet of pressurized interior volume. This means the current state of the art habitation module costs approximately $24,000 per pound or approximately $201,000 per cubic foot of internal volume. Habitation in space is important to this emerging space tourism industry. The current reusable launch vehicle transportation is in the range of approximately $4,000 per pound, so additional innovation is required in both transportation and module design to reach the space tourist cost goal. Getting the cost reduced is important to the emergence of this new industry. Two orders of magnitude in cost reductions are difficult to achieve.
If an innovative, inflatable habitation volume in the range of $50m is transported in a reusable vehicle for approximately $20m, then a near term space tourist market may emerge. The module weighs approximately 5,000 pounds and provides approximately 21,000 cubic feet of useful pressurized interior volume. Assume a second trip of a reusable vehicle for approximately $20m is required to infill the volume with additional ECLS equipment worth $30m for a total $80m in orbital habitation hardware costing $40m to transport. This means the inflatable state of the art goal for a habitation module could be in the range of costs like $15,000 per pound or $7,142 per cubic foot of internal volume. This assumption is still too expensive to satisfy the two orders of magnitude in cost reduction.
Assume the space tourism industry matures and the space transportation, in hardware and operations, brings costs to a point closer to the airline tourist industry, then what assumptions are anticipated in cost? If maturity in reusable transportation and inflatable technology is achieved in cost, then a second-generation inflatable habitation volume in the range of $25m is transported in the reusable launch vehicle for approximately $10m. The module weighs approximately 8,000 pounds and provides approximately 21,000 cubic feet of pressurized interior volume. This means the inflatable state of the art goal for a habitation module is in the range of $4,375 per pound or $1,667 per cubic foot of internal volume. This is still above two orders of magnitude of the goal of $240 per pound, but just below the $2,010 per cubic foot goal for space tourist industry stimulation and emergence.
The advantage of the present invention is an operational habitation module that works together in an integrated cost effective manner to contain the interior pressurized volume, provide Environmental Controlled Life Support Systems (ECLSS) required for humans, protect the integrity of the pressure envelope, transfer cargo, maintain the pressure and other gases at proper pressure including timely repair, and expansion as required. The inflated pressurized volume provides near earth pressure, protection from temperature extremes, particle impact and other hazards in microgravity.
The present invention relates to inflatable structures in space, specifically to a new design for an inflatable habitation volume, to an improvement or modification of the fabrication/design of an early NASA inflatable design and to the future utilization of both the new concept and the enhanced NASA inflatable TransHab Module design. The transportation costs are reduced, because the inflatable is transported to orbit before it is inflated and can be further enhanced by future launches.
Metal habitation modules are currently used for space stations, because these high strength alloys are needed to withstand the three gravity launch loads, the pressure loads from the 14.7 psia interior habitation pressure in orbit, the high speed particle impact and puncture loads in orbit and other loads resulting from the temperature extremes and misc loads. These loads vary greatly with location, transportation and duration and result in significant metal weight. The design loads from transportation are relatively short in duration, but generally drive the design, because they are in the range of three times gravity. The interior pressure load is significantly different from the launch loads and drive the metal design toward becoming a sphere in shape, while the typical transportation volume is a cylinder. The particle impact loads force the design into a series of mass barriers used to break up the particle before it strikes the pressure shell. The key to an impact barrier is the proper spacing of each impact barrier from the pressure bladder or other barriers and requires a specific distance to become effective, which reduces the interior volume of a metal module solution. This design weight required to resist these separate loads must be transported to orbit on expensive transportation systems in the range of $10,000 per pound.
The background art explores various ways of obtaining more interior volume with less transportation cost by composite forms, clever packing methods, folding struts, furlable metal segments, air supported earth based structures, inflatable nose missile cones, flat end caps, telescoping walls and salvaging existing hardware in orbit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,797, to Minovitch, et. al., entitled “INFLATABLE CORE ORBITAL CONSTRUCTION METHOD AND SPACE STATION” is a construction form inflated in orbit and used to hold wraps of other materials to form large space volumes. Although suggested as automatic, outside (extra vehicular activity, EVA) labor in orbit for the portions of this device that can not be automatic must be performed in a microgravity vacuum, which is very expensive. Without gravity, typical construction techniques in one gravity do not work in microgravity and vacuum. There is no mention of solutions for launch loads and pressure used for habitation in orbit, plus the high-speed particle impact protection that works in orbit. There is no phased build up to soften the initial financial impact of the project.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,533, to Mullen, et. al., entitled “MODULAR SPACE STATION,” is altering the building materials into hollow module “U” shaped segments designed to fit within the space shuttle's payload bay and assembled in orbit. The resulting square hut shaped space station with a square structural shape is not consistent with a minimum material/weight structure similar to a sphere, which drives pressure volume designs in a vacuum. The structure requires many joints to be made in space and appears to require many outside labor intensive joints. The details of the joints are not given, but the joints are in tension and worse result in a ripping load configuration. The outside labor in orbit for the joint portions must be performed in a microgravity vacuum and is very expensive, because no joints can be made from the inside, until the entire structure is pressurized, which requires all joints to be completed. Without gravity, typical labor intensive construction techniques in one gravity do not transfer well in to microgravity
Jakel Kevin
Jordan Charles T.
Taylor Thomas C.
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