Major facilities that could support significant microgravity research and applications activity are discussed. The ground-based facilities include drop towers, aircraft flying parabolic trajectories, and sounding rockets. Facilities that are intrinsically tied to the Space Shuttle range from Get-Away-Special canisters to Spacelab long modules. There are also orbital facilities which include recoverable capsules launched on expendable launch vehicles, free-flying spacecraft, and space stations. Some of these existing, planned, and proposed facilities are non-U.S. in origin, but potentially available to U.S. investigators. In addition, some are governmentally developed and operated whereas others are planned to be privately developed and/or operated. Tables are provided to show the facility, developer, duration, estimated gravity level, crew interaction, flight frequency, year available, power to payload, payload volume, and maximum payload mass. The potential of direct and indirect benefits of manufacturing in space are presented.
Report of the Committee on a Commercially Developed Space Facility
1989
107 pages
Report
No indication
English
Laboratory & Test Facility Design & Operation , Manned Spacecraft , Unmanned Spacecraft , Launch vehicles , Space laboratories , Space manufacturing , Space shuttle payloads , Space stations , Spaceborne experiments , Spacecraft configurations , Unmanned spacecraft , Get away specials (Sts) , Mission planning , Space commercialization , Space missions , Space transportation