My ESA Station

[EliNaut]

Well, i've been keeping this to myself for quite a bit, havnt really thought about posting it. Anyhoo - here it is, the station i've been laboring at for about a week and a half -

Text was edited in, as well as the b/w, of course.

Its structure:

Cassiopee Lab
||
RMS 1 - Neesys - RMS 2
||
EsaStar

And below Neesys is a CTV(Peagase)-LEO6.

It is placed in a near-equatorial orbit, as I've made modifications and made alternate acent profiles in order to achieve this as realisticly as possible. So far, there has been three missions to the station:

CTV-01: Deploy all instruments, EVA to check for any external damage from acent.

CTV-02: Deliver first long-duration crew.

CTV-03: Crew rotation - installation of RMS arms onto Neesys node.

Non-CTV Eva's are made through the EsaStar hatch.
Upcoming missions are still in the planning stage, but most likely will consist of making additions to the station. I am currently considering expanding the station with two additional Neesys nodes on the two side ports of the core Neesys, and the cons/pros are still being worked out. I am also interested in using the station as a platform for a lunar or mars mission. I'd need some kind of extra, stand-alone departure stage if I wanted to make a mars voyage witht the CTV though.

Feedback and suggestions is welcome as always!

~EliNaut

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Nice station, very elegant. I like the choice of modules.

What launcher(s) did you use?

I reckon you should aim to get some more solar panels on it in the future, perhaps on the ends of the two new Neesys you suggested...?

 

[unknown_orbiter]

Nice station, very elegant. I like the choice of modules.

What launcher(s) did you use?

I reckon you should aim to get some more solar panels on it in the future, perhaps on the ends of the two new Neesys you suggested...?

Exactly what he said
Personally I wouldn't add much at ALL to that station...
The small size is very elegant as WHAP so correctly stated. Good luck with this! I may be DLing it soon :speakcool:

 

[EliNaut]

Thanks guys!
Yeah I guess thats why i'm having trouble deciding what to add next =)

The specific launchers I used were:
Neesys & EsaStar - Ariane 6 concepts
CTV Peagase - Ariane 5
Cassiopee lab - ENERGIA
URMS - "Carried" in the CTV for assembly

All the addons, with the exception of ENERGIA and URMS(orbit hangar), can be found on Mustard's page.

And whap - Good idea. Havn't thought about that.

I want to take a look at the ISS mission's history, find some activity that I could do on the station, because I kinda itchy to use the new arms on it =). I think I might add a PMA to the bottom of Neesys, where i usually dock the CTV, since the docking port seems to big for it.

 

[wehaveaproblem]

To give yourself some 'stuff to do', you could always try taking an ISS construction approach. ie. Module A docks to Module B, until Module C is installed, then A is repositioned on C... or whatever. It's something I always try to avoid when I build stations, I like the challenge of trying to design payloads and assembly timelines that mean this doesn't have to happen... But depends on wehat approach you want to take.

good luck.

 

[EliNaut]

Yeah I figure I might do something like that. I drew up plans for the next few missions. I'll be adding those two extra nodes, (I figure I'll dock one to the top of neesys till I get the second one in), then I plan to send up two Solaris modules. Its made to launch with Shuttle fleet, so 'less I can get a shuttle down there to Brazil, then I'd have to find some other launcher to take it up. Depending on the scale (havnt downloaded it yet) I'll probably use an Energia if it will fit inside a Buran-T. Then, I figure I'll use a multiple-port node on the top of the core module, since this will cut down on portage =).

Then again.

I could fix that altogether, by re-orientating Esastar temporarily and use it to increase the inclination to around the moons inclination. I'd rather do that before i add the neesys-es, that way it'll be less mass to push. This would also benefit me if I decided to do lunar missions.


-----Post Added-----


By the way, Unknown, if you do download this, I modified the acent headings to 90 degrees. Should be the third, middle vector in the "roll" statement in the autopilot. Again, to save time, you may want to change it to not 90 but around 40 to match up with the moon to expand its reach.

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Sounds cool, I have plans for a lunar plane station myself.
I can't remember how big Solaris is actually. I think it fits in the Resolve, not sure if that helps lol.
good luck

 

[unknown_orbiter]

The Mir is orbiting on the lunar plane. Perhaps this station could be orbiting on the Martian plane? That would make an excellent start point for martian missions. Could even become a one-of-a-kind add-on if you did that. Continued good luck my friend .

 

[EliNaut]

The Mir is orbiting on the lunar plane. Perhaps this station could be orbiting on the Martian plane? That would make an excellent start point for martian missions. Could even become a one-of-a-kind add-on if you did that. Continued good luck my friend .

True, but in actuallity Mir wasn't in the lunar plane of course, and its not in the station scenarios =)

And would you happen to know the inclination of the martian plane?
From the data I have, shouldn't it be around 19.5 (inc) / 20.3 (raan)?

 

[tblaxland]

And would you happen to know the inclination of the martian plane?
From the data I have, shouldn't it be around 19.5 (inc) / 20.3 (raan)?

Inc = 1.85061°
LAN = 49.57854°
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html

 

[EliNaut]

Haha well I was off a bit =)
Thanks tblax!