Space Infrastructure Planning

Abstract

The human settlement of space will involve the design, fabrication, testing, deployment, operation, replenishment, maintenance, repair, and disposal of a wide spectrum of space operations and transportation systems. These will include reusable launch vehicles, orbiting space stations, space tugs, interplanetary transports, and planetary bases. This paper discusses the importance of carefully and systematically undertaking the systems engineering planning of the basic infrastructure for the first phase of this settlement. Further, this paper proposes a basic space infrastructure planning requirement, derived functional requirements, functional elements and functional interfaces that may serve as a starting point for further analysis and refinement.

The Astral Highway: A National Space Infrastructure

“…RLVs can then be sized, in terms of payload capacity, to affordably meet routine spacelift needs while the SDV heavy spacelift system is used to launch the large payloads necessary to build the orbiting elements of the infrastructure. 2 This approach also provides an affordable means of launching large commercial, civil, and national security payloads that would otherwise not be feasible to consider.…”

“…Compare the advancements in subsonic commercial aviation, where competition exists, with the lack of advancement in supersonic commercial aviation where there has been no competition 2. Magnum, a Shuttle-derived system, is under internal study by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.…”