Obviously it lacks a luxury workshop segment like its brother's counterpart, but has more dedicated science labs that work in a more quiet environment, where the average crew to station volume ration is lower. Just like Skylab II, the ISS is operated in much the same way. So far it has been orbiting Earth for 2 years, 116 days. The station has been continuously occupied ever since its launch, like its older brother. The ISS is the third space station to be inhabited by crews, following the ill-fated Odyssey, and the highly successful Skylab Workshop Station. The ISS is similar to its older brother Skylab, and they both share the same orbit inclination and longitude of ascending node but a different altitude. The station is divided into two main sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The ISS program is a joint project between six participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), AEB (Brazil), and CSA (Canada). It circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day. The ISS maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometers (250 mi) by means of re-boost maneuvers using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. ISS components have been launched by the Russian Soyuz rockets and American Delta IV heavy and Saturn V rockets. The ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth.The ISS consists of pressurized habitation modules, structural trusses, solar arrays, radiators, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. Development and assembly of the station continues, with several new elements scheduled for launch in 1984 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger. The station is expected to operate until 2040, succeeding Skylab II if possible. It has been inhabited continuously since that date. Its first component was launched into orbit on March 1, 1982, with the first long-term residents arriving later that day. It is the younger brother space station to the Skylab Workshop Station. The International Space Station ( ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. There is a T45 rocket motor between the two fuel tanks in the center section that is accessed by jettisoning the lower docking port after moving the refueling tank to the top of the command module.Ī work in progress, but it already functions as an orbital refueling station.2km per month The ISS viewed from the departing HTV cargo vehicle In other words, the refueling tank rides into space on the bottom of the command module and then is moved to the top once in orbit. Once in orbit, I undocked the big tank from the command module, flipped around and docked back up with it so that my maneuvering controls would be pointing in the right direction. The center fuel tank is not used in ascent, it is docked to the station for refueling craft in space. I used very similar launch vehicles to get everything up into orbit.Įverything is jettisoned getting into orbit except the bottom-center tank and engine which is used to park the body of the station. The way I did it, I sent up a habitation module first with the cubic docking ports on both ends, then I took each fuel tank up separately. A 4 tank 'station' in orbit raised on a ship that didn't need much else. I don't really have a screenshot of my smaller, single tank modification that I used to setup my first station but here is a different one I did later. You can build a fueling ship to bring up fuel incrementally, you'll need this to top off the stations supply anyway.Ĭonsider using the Skylab concept - carrying the tanks from your booster stage up. This is important, you don't need to lift up full tanks. If you want something more complicated, I'd launch a hub piece of some sort first, and then dock tanks to that. That way you can spend launch mass on structural things rather than unburned fuel when you launch it, and you can refill it using several smaller, easier to launch tanks.Īll you actually need for fuelling is a tank -optionally a RCS tank too - and a docking port ( and a probe core is probably a good idea ). It has docking ports - if it didn't you couldn't take any fuel out - so you can fill it up any time you like. You need the fuel and the tanks in orbit together when you want to refuel something, but you *don't* need the fuel there when you're constructing the thing. You need fuel in orbit, so you need tanks to store it in.
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