European landers and low Lunar orbit Space Station concepts

by | Sep 3, 2008 | exploration | 2 comments

The above image shows the current concept for a European low lunar orbit space station that would act as a refeuling depot, as a staging point and as a safe haven if disaster struck. At the node’s nadir port a cylindrical lander with suit ports is ready to descend to the lunar surface while at the forward longitudinal port there is what appears to be a Crew Space Transportation System capsule with its Automated Transfer Vehicle-derived service module

This European Space Agency image shows an interior concept for CSTS with six crew and the pilot stations on the lower level. The seat arrangement is different to the design recently released by Rocket and space Corporation Energia  

click on any of the images below to see a larger version in the same browser window

Above is the Energia concept for CSTS showing an interior with seats arranged opposite to each other. I would imagine the final CSTS seating arrangement will be determined once the packaging of all the capsule subsystems is finalised

The station’s service module and node would be launched separately from Earth using a 50,000kg (110,000lb) to  low Earth orbit (LEO) capable Ariane rocket and would make a lunar orbit rendezvous. Thales envisages the notional docking to take place in 2024.

To compliment its LLO space station design Thales has its 9,300kg Meduim Lander concept (ESA has three lander concepts, small, medium, large) – pictured below. It would be launched directly to the space station using a 23,000kg to LEO capable Ariane 5 ESC-B variant and its upper/Earth departure stage

The roadmap below has tethered flights by 2016 and Moon operations at some undetermined point in time

The RHU acronym on the above image stands for radioactive heating unit. It is one of the systems being considered, along with chemical reactors, to ensure the lander can survive the lunar night. Thales’ concept would operate for 15-days

However Thales is not the only company to have a cylindrical lander, this is the Astrium, Lockheed Martin concept. I hope to be talking soon to the Lockheed engineers involved in this work to get more detail

While Astrium’s idea is a lander that can be evolved for both Moon and Mars

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission makes history with successful Moon landing

India has become the first nation ever to land a spacecraft near the South Pole of the Moon, as well Read more

Luna 25 lander is sent on way to Moon by Soyuz rocket…but then it comes to grief (Updated)

A Soyuz 2-1b/Fregat M rocket sent Russia’s Luna 25 lander, also known as the Luna-Glob, into orbit from Vostochny cosmodrome Read more

Voyager 2 is lost…for a time

An erroneous command sent to the venerable Voyager 2 spacecraft, now at the outer reaches of the solar system, inadvertently Read more

Nuclear Thermal Rockets are on! NASA and DARPA award contracts for first DRACO demo spacecraft

While Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTR) concepts (e.g. the NERVA project) have been considered for space missions since the 1960s, their Read more

India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander/rover mission is launched on its way to the Moon

An LVM3-2 (GSLV 3-2) rocket successfully launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission from the Sriharikota (Satish Dhawan Space Centre), India, at 0905 Read more

ESA’s Euclid telescope mapping dark matter is launched by SpaceX Falcon 9

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 carrying the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid Telescope from Cape Canaveral, US, at 1512 Read more

UAE decides to go to the asteroid belt with its own probe

Following the success of its Mars probe “Hope”, the UAE Space Agency has announced a plan to launch a probe Read more

Seradata Space Conference 2023: A squeeze on launch availability has operators and insurers praying for SpaceX reliability

For Eutelsat, a leading geostationary and low Earth orbit communications satellite operator (with the acquisition of OneWeb), a lack of Read more

New Frontiers: space stations, the Lunar Pathfinder and orbit refuelling

Voyager Space’s new space station will be launched as one item, Skylab-style, rather than being expensively completed in orbit as Read more

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochina25virgin galacticfalcon 9ULAFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 5RoscosmosevaDGAspacewalkaviation weekaressoyuzIGTInternational Space StationBeidouawardsspaceBlue OriginSatellite broadcastingRocket LabStarlinkrussiamoonCargo Return VehicleboeingAirbus DSmarsblogresearchISROOneWeborionspaceshiptwojaxaimpacthyperboladelaymarsdemocratrocketEutelsatobamagoogle lunar prizelunarhypertextlaunchVegaSEStourismbarack obamaconstellationfiguresnorthspaceflightthales alenia spacenode 2fundedRaymond LygoIntelsatLockheed Martin2009Express MD-2Atlas Vromess2Elon Muskdassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiotestmissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbitinternetChina Manned Space EngineeringAriane 5SLSsts-1222010flightspace tourismNorthrop Grummancotsnewspapermissile defensegalileospaceportExpress AMU 1Long March 2D/2Electronbuildspace stationaltairLong March 4Cinternational astronautical congresssoyuz 2-1ashuttleProton MEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmosIntelsat 23scaled compositeshanleybudgetrulesnew yorkAriane 6shenzhouspace shuttleatvVietnamcongressMojaveboldenLong March 2COrbital ATKnew shepardInmarsatGuiana Space CenteriaccnesksclawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BILSUS Air Forceprotonlunar landerTalulah RileyApollodarpaFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Kuaizhou 1AVega CSkylonAstriumeupicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatSSLElectron KSNorth KoreaAprilSNCWednesdayinterviewSea Launchfalcon50thcustomerlinkLong Marchatlantissuccessor