Morning Star Class Interplanetary Transporter

thingiverse

This was my design for a futuristic near-term multi-role spacecraft capable of fulfilling multiple mission objectives. The original requirements were to create a spacecraft that could accomplish all the original goals of the ISS (laboratory, observatory etc.) while simultaneously mitigating bone density deterioration by generating artificial gravity for the crew. The ship also had to be deep space enabled and more affordable and lighter than the ISS. The ship utilizes inflatable modules from Bigelow aerospace called BA330s. These modules use over 35 layers of various fabrics, such as Kevlar, which have improved ballistic protection from micrometeorites and radiation compared to traditional aluminum protection in the ISS. This is partially due to the fact that aluminum protection causes secondary radiation to be formed. An analogy to this would be to imagine someone throwing a bowling ball at you. To protect yourself from the bowling ball, you might decide to erect a wall of needles. Yes, you will stop the ball (or at least get rid of most of the bowling ball's momentum) but now you have the needles to deal with. So imagine that the gamma radiation hits the aluminum atoms; the gamma ray may be stopped, but now the crew is being blasted by secondary radiation. This is not the case to the same extent in the BA330. For further radiation mitigation, the BA330s will use a layer of water sealed into Kevlar packs. Water has been proven as an effective radiation shield, particularly against small particle radiation and secondary radiation. The water will also be available for consumption. A number of tanks will be designated to holding the crew's treated excrement; excrement is a valuable resource for water reclamation and also plant fertilizer. It also has numerous other benefits. For example, the BA330 weighs between 20 and 25 tonnes, it has a pressurized volume of 330m3 (compare this to the ISS's Destiny module which weighs 15 tonnes and has an internal volume of around 106m3). These BA330s could be launched to space on a Falcon 9 and two could easily be launched on the proposed Falcon Heavy. Structural components of the ship, such as trusses, are made of lightweight yet very strong materials like carbon fiber or titanium (to be replaced with lighter and stronger materials like graphene or carbon nanotubes when technological advancements are made). Inside the trusses, there is an inflatable cylindrical corridor that crew members can traverse to access areas with artificial gravity from the central spin hub and central BA330. Power is supplied to the ship by a SoLTeC (Solar Laser Transducer Craft) which flies alongside the ship and beams power over. I could upload the model for the SoLTeC at a later date. The VASIMR engine is used on powered burns ranging from mere kilowatts all the way up to a megawatt thanks to the nearby SoLTeC satellite beaming over power. At first, the VASIMR is just used for station keeping and slow travel in cislunar space as the VASIMR technology is still in its infancy for the first few missions. Chemical rockets will be used to propel the ship around while it is on interplanetary missions or traveling to Lagrange or asteroidal destinations. Thanks to the ship's modular configuration, the engines, habitation (hab) modules, or other components can be removed if they are damaged or need to be upgraded. The engine would be the main component that would require constant upgrades as newer, more efficient, and faster engines come into being. On board the Morning Star however, the entire ship rotates (at 11 r.p.m.) so that the furthest outward point is traveling at a velocity of about 17.2m/s. This generates an acceleration of 9.8m/s2 (acceleration due to gravity on Earth). This force would be experienced while the ships' crew were in the furthest out BA330s. In these modules, the crew would sleep, eat, and live while subjected to this Earth-like acceleration. This acceleration removes many problems associated with space travel that are experienced on the ISS. These include bone density deterioration, which on some occasions proves so severe that astronauts are unable to walk when they return to Earth from space. The model is quite large so I might upload some of the individual components in the future if there's enough interest.