A day in Space, Lets get a tank now

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "panamabob" wrote:
> Again about the shuttles fuel tank... actually Congress has heard
your
> private request and has made it mandatory to allow any private
entity to use
> the spent hardware, free! But again, remember what was in it? ...
To clean
> it out enough to use, and other considerations just isn't worth it.
Whats
> the cost per hour of a cleaning lady in Space?
>
> Imagine trying to save a paper water-cooler triangle cup.... If you
just
> leave water in it too long it gets water logged and mushy. The
shuttle tank
> was designed to be as lite as possible. You know why its rust
colored?
> Didn't want the added weight of heavy good paint.

The rust color is the Spray-On Foam Insulation, which keeps the
propellants cool before and during launch. Cleaning it out isn't a
problem: the ogive will have a residual of 10000kg of oxygen (don't
bother cleaning that out), and the cylinder will have about 1000 kg
of Hydrogen (these residuals may not be in the tanks themselves, but
spread throught the tanks, the 4-inch filling lines and the 17-inch
feed lines).

NASA is required to give the ETs away for free if the following four
criteria are met:

1) orbit must be circularized and maintained (it will only stay up
for 10-12 days max in an elliptical orbit unless it is boosted)
2) the spray-on foam insulation must be stripped or covered, as it
will create a dangerous debris trail otherwise (due to outgassing)
3) the residual propellants must be managed, either by venting or by
keeping the interior temperature cool
4) power, cooling, communications, and control must be placed on the
ET; it must be a complete, fully-controllable satellite.

> At one time I figured,
> gosh, it's already up there, piggy backed along , why not bolt them
together
> into a torus ring, cheap space station :-) It wont work... they
would have
> to redo the structure and make it stronger and
more "everything"...which is
> contrary to the original disposable design.

check out this link:

http://www.spaceislandgroup.com

:) ed