Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC From: REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: space commercialization Message-ID: <12530@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 19-Oct-83 02:13:00 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12530 Posted: Wed Oct 19 02:13:00 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 17-Oct-83 22:46:13 EDT Lines: 16 From: Robert Elton Maas One thing that seems obvious to me is that the best way to get something to space is to divide it into the part that's expensive per unit mass (irreplacable stuff like people too) and the part that's cheap to replace, send the expensive/irreplacable part via an expensive but reliable means such as STS or Saturn/Atlas/Aegena, and send the bulk part via cheap unreliable rockets like Connestoga or via mass-drivers etc. Then the two payloads must be assembled in space, which requires either a manned (oops, personned) space station or a remote-control tug. I wonder if a solar-powered tug could be used to move empty STS fuel tanks and random payloads to a high orbit where it could fasten them together in a bundle for later assembly and use? The tug could be a mass-driver, ion rocket, or sailship. Would these technologies have sufficient accelleration to overcome air friction during the first state of recovering a payload from very-low-Earth-orbit?