Dealing with ISS trash

On Apr 17, 2012, at 7:37 AM, brooksn wrote:

> Well there are two options, either includes developing a mass
> launcher to dump the waste for extra lift.
>
Mass drivers accelerate very rapidly. That puts a lot of force on the
station. I suggest a little analysis of the structure before you
start putting loads on it. The pieces survived launch, so they have
to be fairly robust (except the solar arrays, which were launched
folded up). In it's full configuration the ISS experiences very small
loads and weight limits suggest that one design as light, and therefor
weak, as possible. The solar arrays are particularly vulnerable as
they are big and floppy.

You can approach this by calculating the load that the reboost engines
put on the structure. You know the ISS can handle that. Anything
bigger you need some analysis to see if it can work.

> First you could put up a modest scaffolding outside the station to
> hold the excess progress modules until you lift a 6 sided dock module
>
And what are you going to launch this module on? The US modules and
nodes were lifted by the space shuttle, which is no longer available.
Do you have an idea of how much this module will cost?

Welcome to systems engineering.