Space-Tugs

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-11 07:41:55

Trucking in Space. A future space Tug could be used to take spare parts to a station on the Moon or Mars.

Current missions

Sherpa for dispensing of minisatellites or CubeSats.

Sherpa space tug failing
https://advanced-television.com/2022/10 … g-failing/
Sherpa tug starts raising orbit more than a month after launch
https://spacenews.com/sherpa-tug-yet-to … er-launch/

Zeus, it would have been considered for outer planets before the Russian invasion and War in Ukraine
(probably dead after sanctions)
https://www.leonarddavid.com/russias-ze … ug-details

Others that worked in past missions Cygnus Orbital Sciences Northrop Grumman, ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle aka ATV, Tianzhou China spacecraft, Dragon 2 unmanned partially reusable spacecraft, HTV-X possible use of robot arms considered Japanese successor of JAXA H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)

STS could be seen as a space truck during the Space Shuttle era, VASIMR electric plasma could be used to power a high-efficient space tug, Lockheed Martin made a concept proposal called the Jupiter space tug, China's Shijian-21 space debris mitigation satellite has docked with the defunct Beidou-2 G2 navigation satellite, the French proposed a Space van called 'Exotrail', D-Orbit an Italian space logistics company with Space-X.
https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-r … ssion.html
Old NASA ideas cut during the end of the Apollo program
https://web.archive.org/web/20111011090 … acetug.htm

Another new mars discussion
'Space stations beyond ISS'
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=5594

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-10-11 07:42:52)

tahanson43206 · 2022-10-11 07:54:43

For Mars_B4_Moon ...

Best wishes for success with this new topic...

GW Johnson has published extensively on this topic.

His papers are listed in the GW Johnson Postings topic.

In particular, he has shown that a cleverly designed Space Tug orbit can push a 5000 Metric Ton Large Ship on a path to Mars, such that the Large Ship need carry only a small amount of propellant, and the Space Tug can return safely to Earth after completing it's massive effort.

(th)

GW Johnson · 2022-10-14 08:57:25

The "trick" to this space tug departure notion is to use the tug for a portion only of the departure delta-vee. Its burn is complete, and it undocks from the big ship, at a speed relative to the planet which is just under escape. The big ship must then supply the remainder of its departure delta-vee, there is no way around that.

Meanwhile the tug, now unladen, is in a elliptical orbit about the planet. Unladen, not much propellant is required to re-circularize in low orbit, for refueling and reuse.

Big ship arrival is the reverse of that process. The big ship supplies only that delta-vee needed to capture into that elliptical orbit, where the space tug goes to dock with it, and bring it to low orbit, for refueling and reuse. The unladen tug uses little propellant to reach the big ship in the elliptic orbit, but laden, it uses a lot of propellant to bring the ship back into low orbit.

Depending upon where you have established the requisite orbital infrastructure, this can be done at both Earth and Mars. You will need a fuel depot in low orbit, and you will need surface-to-orbit-and-back transportation. And you will need propellant manufacturing facilities on the surfaces. The requirements for surface-orbit transportation are a lot more severe at Earth than at Mars (or the moon).

That infrastructure is NOT something you will have in place at Mars during the initial exploration and experimental-base phases. But it is something you will have in place, by the time significant colonization begins.

We have the propellant manufacturing in place here at Earth. Maybe we have the orbital transportation, and maybe we do not, yet. Maybe soon. We'll see, and expensive-and-rare SLS ain't it. We do not yet have an orbital refueling depot of any kind, and it will have to transfer massive quantities of cryogenic propellants (something NOBODY is yet doing).

But, those are the big technology puzzle pieces you must have in place to do any sort of real colonization of Mars (or the moon), with any possible chance of long term success.

Actually, the same applies to the moon, except that flight times and energy requirements are lower, so you really don't need the whole infrastructure package in place at the moon. Although, in the longer term, having it in place at the moon as well as Earth just makes things easier.

Note that my refueling infrastructure is NOT in the extreme elliptic orbit, it is in low orbit, to greatly ease the velocity requirements for surface-to-orbit transportation. By roughly 40%. Because the periapsis speed of the elliptic orbit is very nearly escape velocity, while low orbit velocity is much smaller, at just about 70% of escape. The actual ratio is the square root of 2.

This kind of runs counter to the NASA Gateway concept, but the delta-vee math doesn't lie. I'd recommend a polar orbit at the moon, if it's really the south polar region that you want to explore, do experimental bases, and settle. We won't know the answer to that until people have actually gone there with drill rigs and excavation equipment to find out if and where the ice really is, how hard it will really be to recover it, and what quality it is (which determines treatments required to use it).

If you haven't noticed, there's 3 phases to this overall process. You have to do the right things in the right phases, or it will NOT work! These are the lessons of colonization from 300-500 years ago. Space is even harder, and far more lethal. You MUST do this right, or suffer catastrophic failure.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2022-10-14 09:19:43)

SpaceNut · 2023-01-15 12:16:14

Bump here it is the space tug for such uses and its already well defined by GW it is only lacking the power point slide information as created to add to it.

SpaceNut · 2023-02-17 21:27:26

1st private Launcher space tug fails after launching on SpaceX rocket

AA17CNYG.img?w=534&h=300&m=6

kbd512 · 2023-02-18 11:15:51

SpaceNut,

Detail level of a failure matters. The electronics in their GPS antenna failed, and then the spacecraft could no longer point its solar arrays at the sun to make electrical power for propulsion. This is not a vehicle or propulsion system or even a solar panel failure. Maybe some level of redundancy is required to ensure that these electronic gadgets function correctly.

This failure is the same reason all these battery operated aircraft have at least a half dozen or more electric motors and quadruple redundant controller electronics onboard. The companies making the flight hardware know full well that electronics are fundamentally unreliable, even if the electric motors that have their input regulated by said electronics are almost perfectly reliable.

The universe is unkind to electronics, so if your machine requires electronic gadgets to function, then you'd better have backups.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-12-30 18:22:36

OTV
http://astronautix.com/o/otv.html

It was an integral part NASA's space station, lunar and Mars exploration plans in the 1980's.

'SPACE TUGS'

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/ … acetug.php

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-01-18 13:29:27

The new China craft almost looks a little like Northrop Grumman design of Cygnus

Chinese entered the "prototype phase" of development

https://twitter.com/CNSAWatcher/status/ … 3720015269

SpaceNut · 2024-01-27 13:32:43

Need a tow Your Satellite Needs a Tow? Call the Semi Trucks of Space

Efforts to build rockets designed to blast cargo or crews into space often grab the spotlight. But a number of companies are also working to develop vehicles to fill another need they see coming: moving those satellites and other payloads around in space.
“We should view the rocket as like the cargo ship regularly coming to port, and then we should have a semi truck that lives in space and takes that cargo everywhere else,” says Robert Carlisle, co-founder of startup Argo Space. The company is working on a space-transport vehicle that it hopes will one day source water for its propellant from the dusty material that covers the moon.
Such ships would work hand-in-glove with big rockets that are being developed, including SpaceX’s Starship, New Glenn from Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, which blasted off for the first time earlier this month. Those rockets, along with others, are designed to be capable of hoisting large amounts of mass into low-Earth orbit. The spacecraft or satellites deployed during launches could then get a lift from the space-transport craft to their final destinations.
These semi trucks of space, also known as orbital-transfer vehicles, could shift satellites and other devices between orbits, or transport them deeper into space. Space-transport vehicles might change how missions are set up from the outset.
Much remains to be done before this becomes reality. Engineers working on orbital-transfer vehicles need to demonstrate that their craft can fly as designed. And several large rockets that would blast payloads into space to begin with aren’t proven yet either. However, many executives and policymakers already see transit within space as an important part of a beyond-Earth economy.

SpaceNut · 2024-03-01 19:38:39

NASA shuts down $2 billion satellite refueling project after contractor Maxar is criticized for poor performance

NASA said it is shutting down a $2 billion project to test satellite refueling in space.
The agency's auditor recently criticized the OSAM-1 program's lead contractor, Maxar, for "poor performance."
OSAM-1 has been in development since 2015, with the goal of docking with Landsat 7 imagery satellite in orbit, to repair, refuel and extend the life of the aging spacecraft.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-03-02 08:43:52

ESA to begin work on Mars transfer vehicle mission concept

https://europeanspaceflight.com/esa-to- … n-concept/

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#1 2022-10-11 07:41:55

Space-Tugs

#2 2022-10-11 07:54:43

Re: Space-Tugs

#3 2022-10-14 08:57:25

Re: Space-Tugs

#4 2023-01-15 12:16:14

Re: Space-Tugs

#5 2023-02-17 21:27:26

Re: Space-Tugs

#6 2023-02-18 11:15:51

Re: Space-Tugs

#7 2023-12-30 18:22:36

Re: Space-Tugs

#8 2024-01-18 13:29:27

Re: Space-Tugs

#9 2024-01-27 13:32:43

Re: Space-Tugs

#10 2024-03-01 19:38:39

Re: Space-Tugs

#11 2024-03-02 08:43:52

Re: Space-Tugs

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