Leave the Shuttles in space?

Would it be a good idea to modify the last Space Shuttles as habitats or science modules and just leave the at the Space Station? Astronaut could return on Soyuz or eventually Orion.

The shuttles would make a great life boat for escaping disaster though only as a boat and not a return vehicle. Since they brought many of the science modules up they must have plenty of payload room that could be modified for long term orbit.

Seems like it would be better to do this with them than watch them rust or rot in a museum.

reply to post by Xeven


Interesting idea! Seems to make alot of sense to get more use out of them since they cost us a fortune over the last almost 30 years! Now if we could only get NASA to give it some thought...

I really like this idea, they could be an awesome get away vehicle if things ever got scary up there. Or even just extra space, definitely could be modified to remove all the junk, leave enough fuel to land back on earth if they were ever needed to make a get away.

You should suggest this to NASA

reply to post by Xeven


Why not send them to Mars?

reply to post by mikerussellus


Because the transformers had already warned us not too , nah probably due to the cost and the time they would take to get their, would you want to sit on a stuffy shuttle for 5 years each way

reply to post by On the level



I was thinking along the lines of habitat modules. New engines.

But I totally forgot about Optimus Prime.
-my bad-

reply to post by Xeven



S & F

A for effort!
That is truly a novel idea. That reminds me of the rumor that Coca Cola wanted to lease the MIR station and hang a large Coca Cola sign on it.


[edit on 20-7-2009 by SLAYER69]

I think it's a great idea. Should the space station be in danger they could climb aboard the shuttle and float a distance away, when the danger passes they could reattach to it or if it doesn't pass, head back to Earth.

Too bad NASA doesn't get it's ideas from ATS.

Its a great idea. It also brings to mind using ISS as a jump point to get people to Mars. Get a new shuttle up there and dock it. Then, on the next mission, take some new boosters to be used as added thrust for the shuttle to blast its way to Mars.
I am not a rocket scientist, but I think that a stop at the ISS would at least make the journey to Mars somewhat easier on the ship and crew, as well as being able to gets its final payload while it floats weightless in space. Then, blast away from the station with a tremendous force.

I think it would be a great way to get those HABs up and running easier and put humans (back?) on Mars.

*puts away sci-fi mag*

Originally posted by mikerussellus
reply to post by Xeven

 

Why not send them to Mars?

The shuttles have a lot of extra mass (wings, tails, etc.) that would not be needed for a trip to Mars. All that extra mass not being used for any purpose would just end up being a big waste of fuel.

The Shuttle is not designed for deep space -- heck, it barely gets to space at all, spending all of it's time in very low Earth orbit. It would probably be more economical to design a Mars spacecraft from scratch that is specifically designed to go to Mars.

In fact NASA has already given a Mars craft some preliminary thought. Preliminary plans are for it to be perhaps launched in pieces by several Ares V rocket launches and assembled in Earth's orbit. The size of the craft NASA has in mind for the cruise to mars is quite a bit roomier than the shuttle -- even with a pressurized habitat put in the shuttle's cargo bay.


[edit on 7/20/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

An emergency return vehicle would be a good idea but the cost would be prohibitive.
I think the shuttles should have advertisements on the side like buses or race cars. We could pay for a lot of space exploration with a Saturn 3 rocket that had a Viagra advert on the side.

Originally posted by Xeven
Would it be a good idea to modify the last Space Shuttles as habitats or science modules and just leave the at the Space Station? Astronaut could return on Soyuz or eventually Orion.

The shuttles would make a great life boat for escaping disaster though only as a boat and not a return vehicle. Since they brought many of the science modules up they must have plenty of payload room that could be modified for long term orbit.

Modifying the payload bay to be some kind of habitat module would basically require building the equivalent of a huge new pressurized station module, not cheap at all. The shuttle would also be useless as a lifeboad without completely gutting and redoing the electrical power system and probably life support as well. Right now it generates electricity by using fuel cells; those have a very limited lifespan even if the station is providing supplimental power (through the Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System; this only extends maximum mission length by 4 days). They would have to completely convert the shuttle to use batteries that charge off of the station (which would probably put a large burden on the station's power supply) and give it it's own solar panels until it docks to the station for the last time. It would take months and many millions of dollars to do this to even just one shuttle, and I'm not sure if Rockwell's Palmdale facility is even equipped to do such an extensive overhaul anymore (I don't think Rockwell even exists at this point).

Seems like it would be better to do this with them than watch them rust or rot in a museum.

It's a nice idea, but I have to admit I've been looking forward to seeing the real orbiters up close again.

[edit on 20-7-2009 by ngchunter]

The ticket to mars only needs a kick start by our President. The technology could be ready in a year or two if our Government would actually do something useful.

This will take us to Mars and also to the edge of our solar system.

VX-200

Parabolic Arc



Imagine if we got behind this like we did Apollo. Imagine a scaled up version or a craft built in space with several of these on it. We could easily have human visitation to our outer solar system. It would only take a 25% of one years US military budget to make this happen. Sad how we are squandering around like bugs.

[edit on 20-7-2009 by Xeven]

Originally posted by Xeven
Would it be a good idea to modify the last Space Shuttles as habitats or science modules and just leave the at the Space Station? Astronaut could return on Soyuz or eventually Orion.

The shuttles would make a great life boat for escaping disaster though only as a boat and not a return vehicle. Since they brought many of the science modules up they must have plenty of payload room that could be modified for long term orbit.

Seems like it would be better to do this with them than watch them rust or rot in a museum.

I think you would have to bring them back first, make the needed adjustments and then re-launch them into space so that they can connect for ever with space stations or be a sort of escape module incase astronauts need to come home quickly..

I like the idea though......It beats using them for scrap metal.


I don't think they currently could support that as they may have differnt limitations that the space stations do not have...

Originally posted by mrwupy
I think it's a great idea. Should the space station be in danger they could climb aboard the shuttle and float a distance away, when the danger passes they could reattach to it or if it doesn't pass, head back to Earth.

Too bad NASA doesn't get it's ideas from ATS.

Nah, they don't need us for ideas. Not this one at least. They already have "lifeboats". A Soyuz TMA is always in place.
www.nasa.gov...