Stations in space that allow for long-duration stays and a permanent human presence throughout the Solar System are a time-honored concept. The concept achieved fruition by the late 20th century.
Host | Matthew S Williams
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/matthew-s-williams
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Episode Notes
Stations in space that allow for long-duration stays and a permanent human presence throughout the Solar System are a time-honored concept. The concept achieved fruition by the late 20th century. In the not-too-distant future, we may be seeing rotating wheels and cylinders in space that can accommodate the "Great Migration" of people to space.
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Resources
Space Station 20th: Historical Origins of ISS (NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/history/space-station-20th-historical-origins-of-iss/
The First Space Stations (National Air and Space Museum): https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/first-space-stations
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For more podcast Stories from Space with Matthew S Williams, visit: https://itspmagazine.com/stories-from-space-podcast
The History and Future of Space Stations | Stories From Space Podcast With Matthew S Williams
[00:00:00] The authors acknowledge that this podcast was recorded on the
traditional unceded lands of the Lekwungen peoples.
Hello and welcome back to Stories from Space. I'm your host Matt Williams
and today we're going to take a look at space stations. These contraptions, these
modules, when put together and provided with an internal atmosphere,
sufficient electricity, water, and supplies, allow human beings to not only go to
space via rockets or other launch vehicles, But stay there for extended periods
of time, conducting research, experiments, observing astronomical phenomena,
and extending the reach of human beings out into space.
Possibly even facilitating the great migration away from Earth and into the
cosmos someday. Now, when I say space stations, for most people, the first
thing that would come to mind is likely the International Space Station, the ISS.
[00:01:00] For others, we're old enough to remember, Mir may come to mind,
as well as Skylab.
However, we're going to be looking much, much farther than just these
examples. We're also going to take a look at the future of space stations. What
does the future hold for us when it comes to living and working in outer space?
What stations are planned? What have the various proposals been? And of
course, we're also going to be looking at the history of the concept and how it's
evolved.
Because, as I can attest personally, it makes for some really interesting reading.
And, if all goes well here, Listening. So to give you a brief rundown on the
history of space stations and the proposals and ideas that have been pitched over
the years, as with most advanced planning, ideas and visions that really looked
at the future of humanity in space, the first recorded mention [00:02:00] of a
station in space populated by human beings is attributed to Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky.
The Russian aeronautical scientist and one of the forefathers of rocketry, who
has come up in previous episodes, including, but not limited to, an episode
dedicated to him. It was in his book, The Exploration of the Universe with
Reaction Machines, released in 1903, that he popularized his famous rocket
equation and offered up designs that have become the basis of all modern
rockets.And in addition, this book contained a description of a pinwheel station, which
would rotate to simulate gravity. Basically, for people inside, the centripetal
force generated by the constant rotation would cause them to be pulled down,
thus creating the sensation of gravity. And, interestingly enough, it was around
this time that From 1905 onward that Einstein, he was [00:03:00] refining his
theories on relativity.
And one of the breakthroughs that he proposed was that acceleration is really no
different than gravity. And so essentially, people are being accelerated by the
rotation of the space station, and this keeps them literally grounded.
Tsiolkovsky's description of this pinwheel station also indicated that it would
have airlocks, so spacecraft could dock with it, and a closed loop biological life
support system that would provide food for the crew as well as oxygenation.
Recycling carbon dioxide out of the air, and like many ideas proposed by
Tsiolkovsky, this concept would go on to inspire other astronautical engineers
and theorists. In this case, that includes Slovenian engineer Herman Noordung.
Also known as Hermann Potochnik. In 1929, he released a book called The
Problem of Space Travel, and it contained 100 handmade [00:04:00]
illustrations of concepts that would allow for a permanent human presence in
space.
And this included rockets, but also designs for a space station, which were
generally regarded as the first technical drawings. In particular, he showed how
a rotating habitat could be powered by a solar collector and would contain an
observatory and a machine room connected by an umbilical that would allow
for human beings to both live and work in space.
And that same year, John Desmond Bernal, for whom the Bernal Sphere is
named, he released a book titled The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, an Inquiry
into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul. And while it doesn't
really sound like a scientific treatise, it nevertheless was. And he described in
his book a non rotating habitat, once again the Bernoullis sphere, which could
be constructed using materials harvested in space.[00:05:00]
Then, of course, you had Wernher von Braun. The German rocket scientist who
was vital to the production of the V 2 rocket and who was recruited to NASA
under Operation Paperclip and became a chief advisor in the 1960s and helped
create the rockets that would send the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In
addition to all that, he had many detailed proposals for how human beings could
explore space, and eventually live there.And these were featured in a series of articles in Collier's magazine titled, Man
Will Conquer Space Soon, released between 1952 and 54. And included a
concept for what came to be known as a von Braun wheel. A space station
measuring 76 meters or 250 feet in diameter that would rotate to provide what
he described as synthetic gravity.
However, it was Gerard K. O'Neill who really broke the bank when in
[00:06:00] 1974, as a result of a cooperative study with physics students at
Princeton University where he was a professor, they came up with a concept of
what is now known as a O'Neill cylinder. And in the study, they described how
a space station could be constructed using raw materials from the moon and
near Earth asteroids, using then available technology.
And in 1976, O'Neill published a book that described all this more extensively,
and it was titled The High Frontier, Human Colonies in Space. And, as O'Neill
said in an article that was published in Physics Today called The Colonization
of Space, he described the O'Neill Cylinder in the following way. It is possible,
even with existing technology, if done in the most efficient ways.
New methods are needed, but none goes beyond the range of present day
knowledge. The challenge is to bring the goal of space colonization into
economic feasibility [00:07:00] now. And the key is to treat the region beyond
Earth not as a void, but as a culture medium rich in matter and energy. Then, in
a time short enough to be useful, the exponential growth of colonies can reach
the point at which the colonies can be of great benefit to the entire human race.
And this thinking has been echoed many times by many scientists, theorists, and
also commercial space ventures, which we'll get into in a minute. Essentially,
what O'Neill was talking about was the Great Migration, words that came to be
synonymous with human beings getting out beyond Earth, settling in space.
And harvesting the natural resources to sustain themselves and eventually
becoming not only self sustaining communities, but ones that that would
provide exports in terms of resources and cultural products, ideas and so forth to
earth and to the [00:08:00] rest of the human race. In any case, what O'Neill
detailed in his book, The High Frontier, he said that the architecture of the
O'Neill Cylinder would consist of three main habitats, or islands, supported by
many other small cylinders that would be used for growing crops, and zero
gravity industrial modules that would take advantage of microgravity in order to
conduct advanced manufacturing processes.And so first you have Island 1, which would be a rotating sphere measuring
about 1. 6 kilometers or a mile in circumference and 512 meters or 1, 681 feet in
diameter. And people would be living in the equatorial region of the cylinder.
where they would, of course, experience a feeling of gravity due to the rotation.
Island two would be another spherical station measuring 1600 m or [00:09:00]
520 ft in diameter, while Island three, the main event, so to speak, would consist
of two counter rotating cylinders, each of which measured 32 km long or 20
miles and 8 km in diameter or 5 miles. There would be an outer ring supporting
farming modules, and in the center of the counter rotating cylinders, where the
gravity would be the lowest, would be the manufacturing block.
And all these habitats would be illuminated and powered by solar power. And,
of course, the largest population would live in Island 3. And it would be aimed
at the sun. and rely on solar collectors to provide power, but also have a system
of internal adjustable mirrors in order to simulate a day and night cycle.
And of these, O'Neill wrote, the cylinder circumference is divided into six
regions, three valleys, alternating with three arrays of windows. By locating
three [00:10:00] light planar mirrors above the windows and pointing the
cylinder axes always towards the sun, we can arrange that the valleys will
receive natural sunshine.
And that the sun will appear motionless in the sky, even though the cylinder is
rotated. Varying the mirror angle will give dawn, the slow passage of the sun
across the sky during the day, and sunset. The day length, weather, seasonal
cycle, and heat balance of the colony can be regulated by the same schedule of
mirror angle variation.
A large paraboloidal mirror at the end of each cylinder can be collecting solar
energy 24 hours a day to run the community's power plant. And finally, you had
the concept of the Stanford Torus, which was a scaled up version of the von
Braun wheel that was designed as part of a cooperative study hosted by NASA
and Stanford University.
Known as the NASA Summer Study, and this rotating pinwheel station was
specifically designed to house up to 10, [00:11:00] 000 people in simulated
gravity equal to that of Earth. And the detailed drawings, they showed how the
interior of the wheel would consist of struts interspaced with long window
panels that would allow for natural light, and how the interior would consist of
habitats in a natural environment, very much like Earth's, with flora and fauna.Thereby providing a natural and bioregenerative life support system for the
population. So all of these concepts essentially were built around the idea of, so
all of these concepts, with the exception of the Bernal sphere, they envisioned
Settlements in space that will allow for large human populations living in a
Earth like ecosystem, all of which would be sustained by solar energy and
maybe some additional power provided by other means such as nuclear reactors
or Possibly fusion reactors [00:12:00] that would rotate in order to ensure Earth
like gravity.
In addition to sufficient shielding, these concepts essentially address all the
challenges and hazards of spaceflight. There are, of course, other problems that
would come up there. Placing these throughout the solar system, there'd always
be the chances of collisions with asteroids, comets, or Just dust and debris
scattered throughout the solar system, but they would effectively allow people
to make the migration off earth.
And of course, and of course, these ideas have been featured in science fiction.
Perhaps the greatest example was in Stanley Kubrick's movie, 2001, a space
odyssey, which was co written by famed scientist and futurist Arthur C. Clark.
The movie was also based on short stories of his, and in this film we see a
rotating pinwheel station in space.
It consisted of two wheels [00:13:00] connected by a large central docking
facility where space planes and spacecraft coming and going from Earth would
dock. And how people would be able to live, work, or just, or just commute to
and from earth on the space station and not have to worry about all the
challenges posed by microgravity, which were also illustrated in the film.
We have scenes where the space plane is it's. Reaching orbit, things are floating
around. Everyone who's working there has to have the adhesive boots on so
basically they can grip the floor, scale the walls and reorient themselves inside
the spacecraft because up and down are a little bit arbitrary.
More recent example would be Elysium, where there was also a rotating habitat
in orbit of Earth, where all the rich and powerful lived in very, very upscale,
pristine environments. And an interesting feature in that movie, [00:14:00]
though, was that the, the pinwheel station, it was large enough and the rotation
was strong enough that the atmosphere didn't need to be contained.
It didn't need to be sealed. Basically, the outer rings were open to space and the
atmosphere just Remained in place, and so people didn't have to worry about
atmospheric loss and decompression. Thanks to the simulated earthlike gravityand of course fans of Larry Niven and the Halo franchise, they also recognized
the concept of a massive ring structure that would orbit a sun at the habitable
zone distance and would constitute this vast, vast band with.
enough room to accommodate billions or possibly even trillions of life forms.
This was originally invented by Larry Niven. It was his sort of updated take on
the Dyson sphere, where he said it's not necessary to enclose the entire star to
get enough energy and room to [00:15:00] grow for a species, that a basic ring
like structure or a series of islands that form a ring would be sufficient.
And so this became known as a Nevin ring. It is one of many megastructures
that are collectively referred to as Dyson structures. And in much the same way,
the rotation of this ring would impart the feeling of gravity to its inhabitants,
and it would allow the ring structure to hold on to its atmosphere.
And in terms of execution, in terms of what we've seen from the development of
space stations, it was in the post Apollo era that both the Soviets and NASA
began to turn to this idea. Essentially, now that the Apollo program had
succeeded in sending astronauts to the moon, both nations and their space
agencies were interested in developing the technology that would allow for long
duration stays in space.[00:16:00]
In short, if the space race was all about getting there and getting there first, the
post Apollo era was, how do we stay there for longer? And much like the early
space race, the Soviets achieved a bit of a lead in this, with the deployment of
the Salyut space stations. And these were the first modular space stations sent
into space, which is to say that you have a series of prefabricated modules,
which you then put together in orbit in order to facilitate different types of
experiments and astronaut living.
And the Salyuts consisted of a single module that could accommodate a crew of
three, and which would be docked with a Soyuz spacecraft. The Salyuts were
then And allow for increasingly long stays in space. And the first of these was
launched on April 19th, 1971. Having seeded the race [00:17:00] to the moon,
to NASA, after multiple accidents and delays and failures with their lunar
program.
The Soviets decided to get an early lead in this respect. And so, while NASA
would continue with the Apollo program for another year, the Soviets began
deploying these single module space stations. And between 1971 and 1986, they
would deploy six of them in total. Four of them were for scientific research, and
they conducted all sorts of experiments into the long term problems of living inspace, including space radiation, micrometeoroids, and other hazards, as well as
conducting experiments in microgravity.
However, two of them were actually The military type Almaz stations. Same
design, but they were part of a reconnaissance program. Basically spying on
their adversaries. And meanwhile, NASA [00:18:00] conducted its own
experiments with the launch of the Skylab on May 14, 1973. And the
configuration was different, but similar to the Salyut space stations, in that you
had a single habitation and scientific module, which, like the Salyuts, was
powered by a series of large solar panels.
And in addition, you had the Apollo telescope mount positioned on it, so that it
could conduct astronomy from orbit. And that research and the experiments
using space telescopes on behalf of both the Soviets and NASA, they would
help pave the way for orbital observatories such as Hubble and the James Webb
Space Telescope.
There were no such observatories in space at this time, so these experiments
proved rather lucrative. And then the Soviets, they followed up with the Mir
space station, whereas Salyut is Russian for salute or fireworks. Mir,
unambiguously, [00:19:00] means peace. And this was a more complex design
that consisted of several modules, a core module with additional modules added
over time.
And this included the KVANT 1 and 2 modules, which contained the equipment
and instruments for scientific experiments and astronomical observations. As
well as the Kristall module, also designed for scientific experiments, followed
by the, followed by Spektor and Priroda, which were respectively designed for
remote observations of Earth, study of its atmosphere and its environment.
And to conduct Earth resource experiments, and to verify remote sensing
methods. And these modules began launching in 1986, on the heels of the
Salyut program, and were finished in 1996, a few years after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. And the station not only allowed for several long duration stays
in space, by rotating crews [00:20:00] of astronauts, similar to Salyut, who take
on crews of three cosmonauts, and also allowed for international cooperation.
For example, in 1994, the Shuttle Mir program was initiated where the NASA
Space Shuttle and NASA astronaut crews would dock and perform scientific
experiments and research cooperatively with Russian cosmonauts and
astronauts from other nations. And this paved the way for the International
Space Station.which represented the combination of two proposed programs. Since 1988,
NASA had been planning to deploy the space station Freedom, and the Soviet
Union had planned for a follow up station known as Mir 2. However, both
nations decided to combine these programs and all the proposed modules that
they were going to send to space into a single architecture.
And as of 1998, the first major [00:21:00] components were delivered to orbit,
courtesy of the Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets and the NASA Space Shuttle.
And by 2000, the first crew, the Expedition 1 crew, arrived on the station, and
since then, the station has remained continuously occupied for almost 25 years.
An anniversary, which will be coming up on November 2nd, 2025.
And this represents the longest continuous human presence in space, with close
to 300 astronauts from 22 countries participating in all the research and
experiments that go on there. Also, since 1998, several additional modules were
added to the Space Station, making it the largest artificial object in space.
In terms of international participation, the structure of the space station is
broken down between the American and Russian segments, the Russian
consisting of the Zarya module, or Sunrise in Russian, [00:22:00] and the
American Unity module. Both of which were launched in 1988. And gradually,
both countries deployed additional modules, like the Zvezda service module
launched in 2000, and the Destiny laboratory module deployed in 2001.
And these were mated with docking collars and airlocks, and the Canadarm2
robotic arm provided by the Canadian Space Agency, which was not only vital
to the station's continued construction and addition of new modules over time,
But also with docking spacecraft. And by 2007, the European Space Agency
began adding its own modules, and this included the Harmony module,
followed by the ESA's Columbus and the Japanese Space Agency's Kibo
laboratories.
And the final module to be added was in 2016, when Bigelow Aerospace
installed an experiment known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module,
[00:23:00] or BEAM. And literally, all the experiments, everything that came
from the 25 years of continued occupation of the ISS, which is currently
planned to continue till 2030, Unfortunately, without the participation of the
Russian space agency Roscosmos, which ended its cooperative agreement
shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, nevertheless, this station has allowed for
the type of international cooperation and science experiments that will be vital
to all plans and proposals for sending astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts, and
other astronauts by other national space agencies and commercial astronauts.To low earth orbit, to the moon, and onto Mars. And in recent years, with the
explosive growth in the commercial space sector, and of course NASA's plans
to return astronauts to the moon, but this time to stay for long periods, and
[00:24:00] Propose missions to Mars. This concept has come up once again, and
there are many who extol the virtues of having environments in Earth orbit and
beyond that can facilitate human migrations to space and also provide for
lucrative research, as well as space tourism.
Essentially, these ideas are part of the drive to commercialize low Earth orbit.
But are also fueled by the notion that human beings will begin to migrate off
earth in this century. And that the best way to ensure that this is sustainable and
of course, cost effective is to have the necessary infrastructure out there that can
not only provide for transportation and not requiring that everything be
launched from the surface, which is not only expensive, but earth gravity does
make it very, very energy intensive.
Takes a lot of fuel, a lot of power in order to put a payload into orbit. [00:25:00]
And this was something I should note that was very realistic about 2001 A
Space Odyssey. We see in that movie, space planes taking off from Earth,
docking with the orbital space station, and then spacecraft transporting people to
the moon, and then back again, because lunar gravity being roughly 16 percent
that of Earth's.
Makes it much cheaper and much less energy intensive to launch from the lunar
surface. And, as I said, a lot of this renewed interest in the possibility of space
stations and rotation that provides artificial gravity has been inspired by
NASA's plans for the future of space exploration. This includes the Moon to
Mars mission architecture as part of this plan, NASA intends to deploy what has
come to be known as the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon, it would
orbit from pole to pole known as a halo orbit, [00:26:00] and it would facilitate
regular trips to the moon by being the place where ships can dock and crews can
take down a reusable lander module.
And this module would also serve as a key part of the Artemis base camp. And
so it would facilitate stays on the surface for weeks at a time, and it would be
paired with a bunch of rover elements, one pressurized, one not pressurized, that
would operate on the surface for a few days to a few weeks. And as part of the
larger architecture, NASA was also exploring the idea of building a similar
space station in orbit of Mars.
And this was known as the Mars Base Camp. And here, too, the idea was that
the station would facilitate regular trips to Mars by being basically a gatewaythat the deep space transport, the spacecraft, again, reusable, [00:27:00] that
would fly between the Moon and Mars, that it could dock with. And take on
supplies and also provide a fallback location in case astronauts needed to get off
the surface because of a major dust storm or a solar event.
It would provide adequate radiation shielding. And of course, it would have the
same technology used as the ISS to, to recycle the air and water that is used
aboard the station. And yes, it would also be resupplied by the deep space
transport. And would also have a reusable lander, the Mars lander, which would
take crews down to the surface and serve as their base camp there, too, and
allow them to blast off again and rejoin the Mars base camp and head on home.
And due to the changing budget environment and Different priorities by
different administrations, as always, it's unclear if the Mars base camp and the
deep space transport are going to be happening ever [00:28:00] since 2018 and
2019, respectively, there's been no movement on those plans, no other studies or
any real work, all of it has been focused on Artemis and making it to the moon
within a reasonable timeframe.
In addition, in 2010, NASA commissioned a study into the use of rotating
wheels in space to provide artificial gravity, and in 2010, this resulted in the
Nautilus X concept, which stands for Non Atmospheric Universal Transport
Intended for Lengthy United States Exploration. And the plan was to mate a
rotating wheel segment to the ISS, where crews would sleep in simulated
gravity, partial gravity, and to see how this could mitigate the effects of
microgravity on astronaut physiology.
And the same idea could [00:29:00] be mounted onto a spacecraft, and if large
enough, it would be able to simulate full Earth gravity, thus accommodating
long term, or long duration spaceflights. Unfortunately, this project was also
cancelled due to budget constraints, so there's no indication of when such
experiments might be happening, or if NASA intends to mount them at all in the
near future.
In the meantime, China has made significant strides in the development of
Space Station technology with their Ang Gong Space Stations, Tang Gong
being the Chinese word for Heavenly Palace. And this program began in 2011
with the deployment of the Tang Gong one Space Station, which operated from
2011 to 2018 when it was Deorbit.
And this was followed up by Tiangong 2, which was launched in 2016 and
deorbited in [00:30:00] 2019. And these two stations were small by comparisonto the current one, and were both testbeds for technologies that would be used in
the creation of a permanent Tiangong space station, which is the current one.
And construction of this station began in 2021 with the deployment of the
Tianhe core module.
Which was followed in 2022 with the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian
modules. And consistent with the nomenclature and the names of these
modules, Tianhe stands for Harmony of the Heavens. WENTIAN stands for
Quest for the Heavens, and MENTIAN stands for Dreaming of the Heavens.
And these three modules are arranged in a letter T type configuration, with
docking collars that allow for the addition of other modules and for docking
spacecraft.
And not long ago, China announced plans to double [00:31:00] the space
station, so the addition of at least three more modules in the coming years, and
that they intend for it to be a successor to the ISS when it is deorbited by 2030.
Russia has similar plans to make its own space station as a successor to the ISS.
However, given the current state of Roscosmos, it's doubtful this will be
happening within the Foreseeable future. And of course, commercial space,
well, it has its own plans for successor stations to the ISS that will facilitate the
migration of people to space and the growing, booming space tourism industry
that's expected in the coming years.
Examples include Bigelow Aerospace. As mentioned, they had tested an
experimental inflatable module on the ISS, and they plan to follow that up with
all manner of inflatable modules placed in orbit that could be joined together to
accommodate expansion [00:32:00] and larger crews. Unfortunately, Bigelow
was one of the many casualties of the COVID pandemic, and they had to close
their doors in 2020.
However, The work they did has been picked up by others, as it shows
considerable promise. Meanwhile, Blue Origin and the Sierra Nevada
Corporation have partnered on a project known as Orbital Reef. And this would
be a station in low Earth orbit, which Blue Origin has described as a mixed use
business park.
And this was announced in 2021, and there was concept art provided that
indicated that the station would be a microgravity environment, that it would be
able to accommodate 10 people once fully constructed. And as of March 2022,
the station was projected to be operational by 2027. However, this seems like an
optimistic timeline, given that the new Glenn rocket, [00:33:00] which is goingto be integral to the assembly of the space station, it has just recently been
tested.
However, with that successful test, it is likely that Euclid will be sending
payloads to orbit in the near future, and that this may very well consist of the
initial modules. And this will include the Large Integrated Flexible
Environment, Life Module, and Node Modules provided by Sierra Space. And
they also plan for their Dream Chaser, Space Plane.
A reasonable concept. It's been in development for years and has been verified
that this will conduct regular crew and cargo runs to the station. Boeing,
meanwhile, has partnered to provide science modules and operational support,
maintenance, and to send crews and payloads there using their Starliner
spacecraft.
While other companies and Arizona State University will also be participating
in public outreach and the kinds of scientific research will be conducted there.
[00:34:00] In addition, Bezos has been rather vocal about his plans to establish
rotating habitats in space. And both the concept art and his descriptions are very
much reminiscent of O'Neill cylinders.
And in 2019, When speaking before an audience of Blue Origin employees,
Bezos articulated the vision for a civilization of a trillion humans in the solar
system, which he said would allow for 1, and that this would all be possible
through the creation of O'Neill colonies. So, he directly attributes Bezos was
apparently very much inspired by.
As he said at the time, These are very ideal climates. There should slave
environments. This is Maui on his best day all year long. No rain, no storms, no
earthquakes. What does the architecture even look like when it no longer has its
primary purpose of shelter? We'll find out. [00:35:00] But these are beautiful.
People are going to want to live here. And they can be close to Earth so that you
can return. This is important because people are going to want to return to
Earth. They're not going to want to leave Earth forever. They'll also be really
easy to go between. The amount of energy required to go between these O'Neill
colonies, from one to another, to visit friends, to visit family, to visit one that is
a recreational area.
Very, very low energy needs to transport and quickly. It's a day trip. And not
long ago, we also had the Gateway Foundation, who began releasing a series of
concepts for a gateway station in orbit of Earth, as well as several precursorstations that would test out the technologies and verify them. And this includes
the Vira station, previously known as the Voyager station.
Vera being an acronym for Voluminous Environment Rotating Architecture,
and which like the larger Gateway space station that they eventually hope to
create, which has a two Taurus design [00:36:00] arranged concentrically with a
docking module in the middle. Very similar in concept to what was shown in
2001, space on the Sea.
Except that these two concentric Tori, they allow for the simulation of different
levels of gravity. So, whereas the inner torus would simulate lunar gravity, the
outer torus would simulate Mars like gravity. And this would essentially be the
type of initiation or conditioning that people were traveling to and from the
Moon and Mars would allow them to acclimatize to that level of gravity before
they get there.
So this is very much, as the name would suggest, a gateway station that
facilitates trips beyond Earth and not a permanent space station that would
allow human beings to live in space indefinitely. And so, much like many
advanced concepts that have been explored over the past century or more,
concepts that would allow for regular human trips to [00:37:00] space and long
duration stays there, and even an off world migration.
To other planets, other bodies in the solar system, or to stations in orbit of them.
These ideas began in earnest by the early 20th century, and are attributable to
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and a handful of other astronautical theorists. including
Richard Goddard, the namesake of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Hermann Olberth, and Robert Esnault Pelterie, who collectively are considered
the forefathers of astronautics and modern rocketry, and that's a double
entendre, there are four of them, but they are also those who came before, who
went on to inspire the major architects of the space race, including Wernher von
Braun and Sergei Korolev.
And what's fascinating, and also very exciting, is that we are now at a point in
our history where these ideas don't seem like a far off prospect, but something
that could be happening, [00:38:00] at least in earnest, in a matter of years and
decades, rather than centuries or longer. So, like I said, exciting. And a very
interesting subject, and I hope one that my listeners have enjoyed hearing about.
Be sure to tune in next time, when my guest will be Dr. Will Grundy, an
astronomer and planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, where we will bediscussing Pluto and the ongoing planetary debate. In the meantime, thank you
for listening. I am Matt Williams, and this has been Stories from Space.