New Mars Forums

spacetechsforum

Member

Registered: 2018-08-18

Posts: 32

Spacecraft design

Hello.
I am creating this topic in hope of finding an open source space projects. By "projects" i mean a real attempts at creating stuff in space with calculations and drawings, not just campaigns and initiatives to improve support for space industry.
I myself started to work on such project (as a hobby), did some initial calculation and idea of unmanned cargo transport vessel (space tug) seems quite feasible. Since this is probably the "easiest" (if there exists the "easy" in rocket science) possible construction that can be designed to fly in space i think that there might be some ongoing works that could use support or halted attempts that can pushed a bit forward. Any idea where things like that can be found?

tahanson43206

Moderator

Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 19,408

Re: Spacecraft design

This topic has been sitting around since 2018 with no replies...

This topic deserves a dustoff and restart.  We have significant and ongoing concerns about the safety of the ISS crew due to leaks in a tunnel connected to the Zvezda module of the ISS.  The Zvezda module itself does not appear to have any problems.

However, this topic has the potential to include detailed review of the three major space station designs in use today.

The Russians were first with "permanent" (ie, long lived) space station design, and the Chinese apparently started their program with the Russian design as a starting point. 

The Wikipedia article (as it stood in October of 2024) included mention of design philosophy by Soviet designers as compared to US designers who had the Soviet example to study.

A  critique i found in the Wikipedia article is that the Soviet design did not provide for removal and replacement of some components.

A reasonable deduction might be that the US practice of designing for replacement of everything in flight might be work considering for future stations.

GW Johnson has repeatedly recommended that the pressure shell of a space vessel should be accessible from the inside due to the need for emergency crew to be able to repair punctures.

We have members of NewMars forum who appear to insist upon disregarding GW's recommendation.

This topic is available for a vigorous discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of particular examples of spacecraft design from human experience to date.

This post is reserved for an index to posts that may be contributed by NewMars members over time.

(th)