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From: Stig Agermose <Stig_Agermose@online.pol.dk>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 02:40:48 +0200
Fwd Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 07:43:43 -0400
Subject: Mars Ship May Also Be Crew Quarters


Source: AP via Popular Science magazine

http://www.popsci.com/news/08241998.mars_sleeper.html

Stig

*******

August 23, 12:01 EDT


Mars Ship May Also Be Crew Quarters
by Marcia Dunn

AP Aerospace Writer


SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)  - Astronauts aboard NASA's future
space station may find themselves eating, sleeping, exercising
and unwinding inside a balloon, rather than a can.

Space station managers expect to decide by the end of September
whether to replace the aluminum cylinder that's known as the
habitation module with a larger yet lighter inflatable chamber
designed for Mars trips.

It's called Transhab, short for transit habitat.

This huge pop-proof balloon, folded for launch and filled with
air in space, is envisioned by NASA as Home Sweet Home for
astronauts journeying to and from Mars. Similar balloons sent in
advance would house the crews once they land.

NASA figures if Transhab is feasible for Mars or possibly an
asteroid, then why not for the international space station, due
to begin soaring by year's end? And what better way to further
interplanetary travel than to tack on a Mars ship to the
orbiting laboratory, giving both programs a plug?

"Anything that we can do that excites people and makes it more
real to them, the better the chances overall" of sending
astronauts beyond Earth orbit, says Doug Cooke, head of the
explorations office at Johnson Space Center.

With sufficient funding, NASA could launch a Mars expedition as
early as 2012, Cooke says. The agency would be a step closer to
that goal, he notes, by testing Transhab on the international
space station.

If Transhab is approved for the mostly metal space station being
built by Boeing, construction likely would begin at Johnson in
2001. A space shuttle would carry Transhab up in early 2004,
making it the last piece of the station to fly.

It would cost about the same as the original, still-incomplete
habitation module - less than $200 million - but provide three
times more room, according to Transhab deputy project manager
Horacio de la Fuente.

Astronauts have helped de la Fuente develop a rudimentary
three-level mockup, which is on display at Johnson, and a
winning floor plan.

Among the frills: Cathedral ceilings. Picture windows. Penthouse
gym. Kitchenette with a table that can seat 12. Six bedrooms
equipped with desks and personal computers and surrounded by a
2-inch-thick wall of water to shield against noise and surges in
radiation. And, of course, storage galore.

Never mind that all this luxury would be in a balloon that would
be in an Earth orbit littered with dangerous space junk.

The 1-foot-thick shell would be "bulletproof" in space, de la
Fuente says. The 17 or so layers would be made of ceramic
fabric, polyurethane foam, polymer film and Kevlar, a tough
material used in police vests, and be better than metal.

"This is very different from a child's balloon," de la Fuente
explains as he shows off samples of padding. "This is much more
like a football. You can drive a nail into a football and it
doesn't just pop."

Like a football, the 40-foot-long, 27-foot-diameter Transhab
would have a bladder system that holds in the air. The shell
encompassing Transhab would have three bladders, in fact, for
redundancy.

Outside these thin-film bladders would be Kevlar webbing and
then sheets of ceramic fabric, each separated by 3 inches of
foam. It's this ceramic, called Nextel, that would protect
against micrometeoroids and other orbital clutter zooming by at
tens of thousands mph.

In ground tests, aluminum marble-sized balls fired into the
Transhab padding at orbital speed were pulverized by the outer
ceramic layers before reaching the air-containing bladders.

Even skeptics were impressed.

"Once they see our micrometeoroid and orbital debris shots ...
they begin to realize, 'Hey, this isn't a bad thing at all,' "
de la Fuente says.

"You also have to remember that the aluminum (space station)
module is a balloon, too. Any pressure vessel is truly a
balloon. Just because it's made out of aluminum you still get
the same pressure stresses."

Indeed, when identical balls were shot at 1 1/2 -inch-thick
aluminum plates, 3-inch-wide craters emerged and the shock waves
ripped chunks of metal off the back of the plates.

If fired at the reinforced aluminum plates intended for the bulk
of the international space station, the balls would penetrate
the skin, de la Fuente says.

Even in a nightmare case like last summer's near-catastrophic
collision between a Russian cargo ship and Mir, astronauts and
cosmonauts would be "much safer" in Transhab because of all the
protective padding, de la Fuente says.

"I would feel much safer if I was in there," he says.

Unfortunately, NASA cannot use the ultrathick Transhab padding
on the conventional aluminum modules that will make up the rest
of the international space station, de la Fuente says. The
cylinders barely fit into the shuttle cargo bay; another foot of
insulation on either side would make them too wide.

That's the beauty of Transhab, de la Fuente says.

It's relatively lightweight -- only about 26,000 pounds -- and
can be folded for launch. So more of it can soar.

Astronauts would have three levels instead of one in which to
spend their off-duty time, providing a homier touch as well as
additional privacy. What's more, an opening between the first
and second floors would create the sense of open space.

All that's missing is a color scheme.

Astronaut Andrew Thomas, who returned from a 4 1/2 -month Mir
tour in June, would choose blue.

"The colors inside Mir tended to be browns and grays," Thomas
says. "You need to have bright, uplifting colors rather than
these dull shades."


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