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NASA needs a design for $1 billion space-tug for International Space Station
Taking the aging International Space Station (ISS) out of orbit will require a potentially $1 billion space-tug – and NASA just recently kicked off its search for design proposals of such a spacecraft.
The space-tug that NASA has started fielding proposals for will be "focused on the final deorbit activity" of the entire process that will ultimately see it come out of orbit somewhere over an ocean far away from people, NASA said earlier this month in a blog post. The spacecraft, which can be a novel design or a modification of an existing one, has been officially referred to as the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle
NASA indicated earlier in the year that the spacecraft could cost around $1 billion, according to reports. Industry members have until Nov. 17 to submit their design proposals.
The decision to pursue the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle came after NASA and partners conducted reviews that "indicate a new spacecraft solution would provide more robust capabilities for responsible deorbit," the agency said. Russian spacecraft having a role had previously been weighed.
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For designing, developing, testing and evaluating the spacecraft, those submitting proposals can either seek a "Firm Fixed Price" or "Cost Plus Incentive Fee," while the other portions of the contract will use a "Firm Fixed Price," according to NASA. Value and competition reasons prompted the agency to do so.
NASA will require the space-tug to "function on its first flight and have sufficient redundancy and anomaly recovery capability to continue deorbit burn," according to its blog post.
It will, however, be some time before the spacecraft has to do its job in the ISS deorbit, for which NASA has said all the agencies involved in the ISS have responsibility.
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NASA and three other space agencies – the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency – plan for about seven more years of ISS usage. By that time, it will have been in space for three decades.
The other agency involved in the ISS, Russia’s State Space Corporation, has pledged to do so "through at least 2028," according to NASA.
NASA said it expected the full process of bringing the U.S. Deorbit Device to fruition to span years.
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Post-ISS, the agency has goals of using commercial space stations for its low orbit efforts, according to the blog post. Some big-name companies have been working on concepts for those.
One astronaut for NASA and two for Russia recently left the ISS, returning to Earth on Wednesday morning, according to another blog post. The ISS is now hosting seven astronauts, including two affiliated with NASA, one with ESA, one with JAXA and three with Russia.
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For SpaceNut re new topic ....
Thanks for setting up this new topic! It should be ** really ** interesting to follow developments over a number of years, culminating in the Grand Finale !!!
Even the Mars Society could (theoretically) participate in the competition, by sponsoring papers or perhaps even a student competition to try to figure out the best solution. There ** should ** be a number of major players on the boards, and only one is going to get the nod in the end.
(th)
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I don't interact much with AI but some un-credited AI bots seem to be one of our big players and almost an expert on these boards...I'm not really joking.... but I once asked Tahanson about dealing with Nuclear and Chemical waste in space, and I asked if Tahanson would continue the conversation with AI and pass one one of my own questions
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by asking an Artificial Intelligence chatbot what to do with space-waste, the bot suggested Solarsails were a promising technology if you had patience and wanted to take time to correctly send a hazardous payload dumped into the Sun. Perhaps it could be done on Earth but in reverse and safely de-orbit a station into a part of the Sea.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-09-30 17:03:15)
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