Starlab Space Station

Starlab is a planned LEO (low Earth orbit) space station designed by Nanoracks for commercial space activities uses, whose launch is planned for 2028.

History

Background

In March 2021, the NASA presented the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program which aims to support the creation of private Earth-orbiting space stations in which the agency would only be one of the customers (tenant or other form of contract), with companies retaining ownership of their stations. This is a new outsourcing of the agency's space program, following on from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services/Commercial Resupply Services (cargo transport) and Commercial Crew Development/Commercial Crew Program (crew transport) programs.[1] These stations will have to take over from the International Space Station after its deorbiting, planned for the early 2030s. For its part, NASA is focusing on its lunar exploration projects (Artemis program with Lunar Gateway station and Moon landings).

Development

The Starlab project was proposed in October 2021 by Nanoracks, its majority shareholder Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin to respond to the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program of the American space agency.[2]

The team of companies developing Starlab is one of three teams selected in December 2021 to continue their work with grants from the agency, i.e. $160 million, the two other competing teams, Blue Origin (associated with Sierra Space (carve-out from Sierra Nevada Corporation), Boeing and Redwire) and Northrop Grumman (associated with Dynetics) being granted respectively $130 million and $125.6 million (subject to the agreement of the United States Congress).[3][4][5][6] These Space Act Agreements are the first phase of two with which NASA aims to maintain an uninterrupted U.S. presence in low-Earth orbit by transitioning from the International Space Station to other platforms.

Initially, the proposed station consists of a docking node module surrounded by a large inflatable module (technology developed in the 1990s by NASA, during the Transhab project, and continued by Bigelow Aerospace) to be built by Lockheed Martin and by a service module, providing energy (solar panels) and propulsion.[2]

At the beginning of January 2023, it was announced that Airbus Defence and Space was joining the project, which would facilitate the expansion of the station's customer base to Europeans, notably members of the European Space Agency.[7][8] “Working with Airbus we will expand Starlab’s ecosystem to serve the European Space Agency (ESA) and its member state space agencies to continue their microgravity research in LEO,” Dylan Taylor, chairman and chief executive of Voyager Space, said in the announcement. The company must provide its “technical design support and expertise” and it is later revealed that the inflatable module, developed by Lockheed Martin, is abandoned and replaced by a rigid metallic module on which the skills of the European group will be called upon.[9][10] Indeed, the technology of inflatable modules is considered insufficiently mature and safe, compared to that of rigid metallic modules, for use on a main manned module.[11]

The partnership between the companies is deepened by the creation, announced on August 2, 2023, of a joint venture between Airbus Defense and Space and Voyager Space, which will be responsible for the construction and operation of the station.[12][9][13][14][15] Lockheed Martin is no longer mentioned, its role having been taken over by Airbus.

The project successfully passes the Systems Requirements Review (SRR) in June 2023, an examination conducted with NASA assessing technical maturity and “functional, technical, performance, and security requirements”.[13][16]

The interior design of the station, in particular the astronauts' living spaces, is attributed to the hospitality company Hilton Worldwide.[17]

On October 4, 2023, Northrop Grumman announced that it was joining the Starlab project and abandoning its own station project. The company plans in particular to develop an autonomous docking system for its Cygnus spacecraft, which will resupply the station.[18]

Design

The space station must consist of two modules: a service module providing propulsion and energy with solar panels and a module serving as habitat and laboratory and having docking ports, with a diameter of 8 m (compared to approximately 4 m for the ISS modules), all of which must total “half the volume” of the ISS[14] (i.e. 450 m3, the pressurized volume of the ISS being worth 900 m3, the previous design included 340 m3, and also features a 60 kW power and propulsion element, a large robotic arm for servicing cargo and external payloads[19]) and therefore a length worth at least 8 m as well (volume of the cylinder).

It must be launched in one single launch in 2028,[14] which leaves only SpaceX Starship as a capable launcher, both for reasons of size (payload fairing of more than 8 m in diameter) and mass.

The station must be able to support 100% of the payload capacity of the ISS with the capacity to conduct more than 400 experiments per year.[8]

The station must be able to support four astronauts.[20]

Purpose

The station will only serve as a weightlessness research laboratory, particularly for the pharmaceutical industry, and will be open to American and European astronauts, but will not be open to space tourism.[14]

See also

References
  1. Michael Sheetz (27 March 2021). "NASA wants companies to develop and build new space stations, with up to $400 million up for grabs". CNBC. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  2. Jeff Foust (21 October 2021). "Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin partner on commercial space station project". SpaceNews. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  3. "NASA Selects Companies to Develop Commercial Destinations in Space". NASA. 2021-12-02. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  4. Jeff Foust (3 December 2021). "NASA awards funding to three commercial space station concepts". SpaceNews. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  5. Eric Berger (3 December 2021). "NASA sets sail into a promising but perilous future of private space stations". Ars Technica. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  6. Howell, Elizabeth (2021-12-02). "NASA awards $415 million for private space stations amid ISS transition questions". Space.com. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
  7. Foust, Jeff (2023-01-04). "Airbus joins Starlab commercial space station project". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  8. "First steps towards the space station of the future". airbus.com. 2023-01-12. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  9. Florian Maussion (2 August 2023). "Airbus embarque à bord de la future station spatiale Starlab". Les Échos (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  10. Tim Hepher; Joey Roulette (2 August 2023). "Airbus et Voyager vont créer une coentreprise pour la construction d'une station spatiale". Boursorama (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  11. Stephen Clark (4 August 2023). "Trans-Atlantic joint venture aims to build new "international" space station". Ars Technica. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  12. Hepher, Tim; Roulette, Joey (2023-08-02). "Voyager Space and Airbus deepen tie-up on new space station". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  13. Rémy Decourt (3 August 2023). "Airbus va construire une station spatiale pour la Nasa". Futura-Sciences (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  14. "Airbus monte à bord du projet Starlab de future station spatiale". challenges.fr (in French). 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  15. "Voyager Space et Airbus annoncent la création d'une coentreprise pour la construction et l'exploitation de Starlab" (PDF). airbus.com (in French). 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  16. "Starlab Systems Requirements Review: Complete". voyagerspace.com. 27 July 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  17. Voyager Space (20 September 2022). "Hilton and Voyager Space to Design Crew Lodging and Hospitality Suites Aboard Starlab". PR Newswire. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  18. Jeff Foust (4 October 2023). "Northrop Grumman to join Voyager Space commercial space station project". SpaceNews. Retrieved 5 September 2023..
  19. "Starlab". Nanoracks. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021.
  20. Pierre-François Mouriaux (3 August 2023). "Une coentreprise américano-européenne pour la station privée Starlab". Air et Cosmos (in French). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
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