India plans to establish its own "very small" space station in the next decade as the country gears up for a first manned mission beyond earth.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K. Sivan said Thursday that the ambitious project would follow a successful launch of a manned space flight scheduled by 2022.
"Our space station is going to be very small... useful to carry out experiments," Sivan told reporters in New Delhi.
"We are not having a big plan of sending humans on tourism and other things," he added.
OK, but if a guy named Khan Noonien Singh takes over the project, then what?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday June 13 2019, @11:55PM (3 children)
I imagine it will be smaller than Skylab:
ISS volume = 931.57 m3 (32,898 cu ft)
Skylab = 351.6 m3 (12,417 cu ft)
As usual, India's ISRO will show how to do it cheap. It also helps that their requirements are low (small size, 2-3 astronauts, maximum 7-day visits instead of months). Perhaps they will do a higher orbit to prevent it from needing periodic boosts, but increasing radiation risk.
It would be nice if they put an inflatable module or three up there.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 14 2019, @02:39AM (2 children)
Just put a guy in an airtight suit up there, and call it a "space station". You can't get any smaller than that! Three guys = 3 space stations!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Friday June 14 2019, @03:18AM (1 child)
The BFR/Starship will have a pressurized volume greater than the entire ISS. Just send the spaceship up, and you have a space station. Another Starship can be used to refuel it, and that fuel can counteract atmospheric drag.
It will almost certainly have a docking port so that it could be attached at the ISS. But instead of doing that, you could have a "tube hallway" that attaches to multiple Starships. 32 Starships in a 2x2x8 formation... why not?
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(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday June 14 2019, @09:21PM
Attach them together, refuel, light that candle and go explore !