(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Reusable NewSpace: Spaceflight Schedule, Part II [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-08-28 "Flight plans never survive the flight." – Old Klingon Proverb Kindly Note: This is a Daily Kos Series on a technical paper that I recently completed. To see a list of the other entries in this series, please click the link below. Thanks! TABLE OF CONTENTS =<<>>= MOON SHIP OPERATIONS Eight tourists and two crew will fly the Moon Ship around the Moon and back. The passengers get to experience an Earthrise during this journey. The following timeline starts after the Space Shuttle has been docked to the space station and the passengers have had lunch: START END DURATION Close Hatch 16:00 Undocking Routine 16:00 16:30 00:30 Move Away 16:30 17:00 00:30 TLI 17:00 Outbound Coast 17:00 20:33 75:33 Pericynthion 20:33 Inbound Coast 20:33 00:07 75:37 EOI 00:07 Rendezvous 00:07 08:29 08:22 Docking Routine 08:29 09:21 00:52 Open Hatch 09:21 Everyone will have meals at the same time of day as all other crews during their voyage. =<<>>= MOON SHUTTLE OPERATIONS Before the Moon Ship embarks on its circumlunar mission, the Moon Shuttle will be on its way into lunar orbit. The whole trip there and back will take seven days. The passengers will get to enjoy a total of 10 Earthrises since it will orbit the Moon 10 times. For passengers going out, crew or tourists, they will have lunch, climb into their spacecraft, and blast off for the Moon. The following timeline is for the passenger version of the shuttle: START END DURATION Close Hatch 13:30 Undocking Routine 13:30 14:00 00:30 Dock with CV 14:00 14:30 00:30 Move Away 14:30 15:00 00:30 TLI 15:00 Outbound Coast 15:00 18:34 75:34 LOI 18:34 10 Lunar Orbits 18:34 14:34 20:00 TEI 14:34 Inbound Coast 14:34 11:25 68:51 EOI 11:25 Rendezvous 11:25 13:08 01:43 Docking Routine 13:08 14:00 00:52 Open Hatch 14:00 Everyone will have meals at the same time of day as all other crews during their voyage. =<<>>= LUNAR SHUTTLE OPERATIONS Once the Moon Shuttle enters orbit, the Lunar Shuttle will come up to greet it. The passengers will exchange vehicles, and the new lunar–nauts will head down to the surface. After boarding the Crew Module (CM), a Surface Vehicle (SV) will lift it off its perch on the lunar base. The SV will place it in an empty slot and transport it to a waiting Lunar Shuttle. Once the shuttle lands, the SV takes the CM off the shuttle and transports it back to the lunar base, where it places on top its perch again. For passengers going up, crew or tourists, they will have dinner, climb into their lander, and blast off to meetup with the Moon Shuttle. The following timeline is for the passenger version of the shuttle: START END DURATION Close Hatch 20:00 Transport CM to LV 20:00 21:00 1:00 Liftoff 21:00 Rendezvous and Dock 21:00 23:00 2:00 Transfer Passengers 23:00 03:00 4:00 Undock and Move Away 03:00 04:45 1:45 Start Powered Descent 04:45 Landing Maneuvers 04:45 05:15 0:30 Touchdown 05:15 Transport CM to LSS 05:15 06:15 1:00 Open Hatch 06:15 There will be no meals served during this flight. =<<>>= ENCAMPMENTS It is axiomatic to state that all astronauts need a place to stay in space before heading out or going back home. However, the nature of space means that we must provide everything that a person needs to eat and sleep as well as protection from an environment that want to kill them. Our program involves humans, and humans need to be fed, clothed, and sheltered. For the orbital locale, the task of bring up sustenance is fairly simple. Going to the Moon, however, is a bit more complicated (read: involves many more Space Shuttle flights). This means that even though the lunar base is smaller, it still needs more than three times the number of Space Shuttles to sustain it than is needed for the space station. =<<>>= ORBITAL OPERATIONS Passenger and resupply flights will make up the majority of the total amount of Reentry Vehicles (RVs) needed for orbital ops. The other shuttles will bring up rocket propellant. The Table below provides a breakdown of the 30 RV flights needed for orbital operations. ITEM UNITS RVs Passenger 12 12 Resupply 8 4 Rocket Ship OV Refill 8 8 Moon Ship OV Refill 6 6 Total 30 The propellant will be used to fill the Orbital Vehicles (OVs) used for the Moon Ship and Rocket Ship tourism packages. =<<>>= LUNAR OPERATIONS Flights to the Moon are compounded by the need for a Cislunar Vehicle (CV) to make the trip there and back. Each CV demands six Space Shuttle Reentry Vehicles (RVs) to complete its sortie: one to bring up the lunar payload, and five to refill the CV propellant tanks. We also need to replenish the reagents used to generate Liquid Oxygen (LO2) on the Moon, requiring even more RVs and more propellant for the CVs. The Table below provides a breakdown of the 94 RV flights needed for lunar operations. ITEM UNITS CV PROPELLANT CV PAYLOAD RVs Passenger 6 30 6 36 Resupply 4 20 4 22 Reagents Refill 6 30 6 36 Total 16 80 16 94 Kindly note that the majority of Space Shuttle flights devoted to lunar ops (85.1%) is rocket propellant. =<<>>= SCIENCE OPERATIONS The last 20 Space Shuttle flights for the Quarter will be used for scientific endeavors. Fourteen shuttles will be needed for orbital science, with the majority of the flights used for rocket propellant (Table below). ITEM UNITS RVs Science Equipment 6 6 Science OV Refill 2 2 Expeditionary OV Refill 6 6 Total 14 The propellant will be used to boost science equipment and personnel to a higher orbit. :: Only one set of science equipment will head to the lunar surface every Quarter. The rest of the shuttle flights will be used to refill the propellant tanks of a Cislunar Vehicle (CV). ITEM UNITS RVs Science Equipment 1 1 CV Refill 5 5 Total 6 Lunar Vehicles operating from the Moon will bring the science equipment down to the lunar surface. =<<>>= STANDARD OPERATIONS Flying eight out of every fifteen days, and using three shuttle every flight day, the pace of our launches will be unprecedented. This implies that there will be twenty–four flights every fifteen days, with six fifteen–day periods every Quarter. This gives us 144 spaceflights lifting off from Spaceport America every Quarter. The Table below breaks down the different types of payloads the Space Shuttle has to fly: PASSENGER CARGO PROPELLANT TOTAL RVs Orbital Ops 12 4 14 30 Lunar Ops 6 8 80 94 Orbital Science 0 6 8 14 Lunar Science 0 1 5 6 Total 18 19 107 144 Kindly note that the almost three–fourths of all Space Shuttle flights for the Quarter (74.3%) is rocket propellant. The rest of the flights are roughly evenly split between passengers and cargo. Since there are four Quarters every fiscal year, we intend to fly an annual total of 576 flights. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/28/2244987/-Reusable-NewSpace-Spaceflight-Schedule-Part-II?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/