0191-9067/82/040317-19$03.00/0 Copyright ® 1983 SUNSAT Energy Council CONFIGURATION DESIGN OF A CLOSED-LOOP, PSEUDOGRAVITATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH FACILITY IN LOW EARTH ORBIT JANET B. JONES-OLIVEIRA Department of Astronautics and Aeronautics Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA Abstract — The object of this study was to design a space habitat from an architectural perspective employing today's space technologies. The primary launch vehicle, the Space Shuttle, the space transportation system (STS) carrying the modular components of the research facility to low Earth orbit (LEO), was an essential and integral technological achievement making the project possible. Therefore, the characteristics of the orbiter, specifically the allowable payload requirements for volume and weight, were major design parameters. In other words, the maximum critical dimensions of all components of the research facility were limited by the allowable volume available for payloads in the cargo bay (approximately a cylinder of 5 x 18 m); similarly, the maximum allowable payload requirement of 29,500 kg (65,048 lb) was satisfied. Given these constraints, in conjunction with other engineering problems to be discussed herein, it was the human factor that was then regarded the driving factor throughout the design process. The goal was to demonstrate the near future realizability for human health, safety, and comfort, both physical and psy chological, in permanent, manned LEO facilities. The proposed mission of the Satellite Pseudogravitational Operational Research Environment (SPORE) is to accomplish a comparative research investigation examining the trade-offs among [1] various centrifugally induced pseudogravitational forces; |2] the associated rate of rotation, taken in the first mission to be 2 rpm; 131 the health and productivity of the scientists, as well as the biological organisms on which they will be conducting experiments; and [4] the cost of creating the environment. There will be ten components (each inhabited by four people) at 1/10 increments from a 0.1g pseudogravitational environment to that of 1.0g (acting as the standard), and four components at 0g (having a crew of ten people). One of the four components will partake in the comparative study and the remaining three will provide additional squarefootage required to accommodate supporting facilities, and research and manufacturing already known to be optimized in a gravity-free environment, e.g., the growing of crystals and metallurgical processing. In each respective component, data collection will be simultaneously carried out on identical marine, botanical, and medical experiments aimed towards the goal of defining and maintaining a closed-loop environment. The results will then be analyzed to determine in which component the task was space-optimized, realizing the increased costs associated with the higher pseudogravitational pull environments. The decision to design a pseudogravitational environmental research facility was selected based on the belief that greater productivity will be realized in life-forms maintained in conditions in space which are consistent with their already optimized, natural environments on Earth; however, it is quite conceivable that space optimization of the four aforementioned criteria may occur at the lower end of the spectrum. It is hoped that the results of this research will then form a well-founded basis on which codes will be written with the assurance that future long-duration missions in space will in fact be safe. This paper represents a synopsis of "A Space Station: The U.S.S. Alpha," which was presented in May, 1980 for the Masters Degree in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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