Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) recently unveiled new details about its ambitious Voyager Station, which is expected to be the first commercial space station to operate on artificial gravity.
OAC, a manufacturing company centered on space colonization, discussed Voyager Station at the end of a month during a video press channel. The 29 January “First meeting” a virtual event was an update for interested investors, marketing partners and enthusiastic holidaymakers hoping to one day book a room aboard the revolving Voyager Station.
The roots of the project span a number of years.
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John Blincow founded The Gateway Foundation in 2012. The organization’s plans include launching a robust and thriving space construction industry, first with the Voyager Station and The Gateway commercial space station – ‘important first steps to colonize space and other worlds’. the foundation’s website reads. OAC was founded in 2018 by the Gateway Foundation team as a way to make these dreams come true.
The hour-long presentation and Q&A session on January 29 presented by OAC medical adviser Shawna Pandya and streamed live on the company’s YouTube channel. During the event, the space construction company announced its schedule for the next chapter of the exploration of human spaces.
NASA’s team of skilled veterans, pilots, engineers and architects plans to assemble a ‘space hotel’ in a low orbit around the earth that rotates fast enough to generate artificial gravity for vacationers, scientists, astronaut educators and anyone else who want to experience earthly life. .
As a multi-phase effort that requires funds to realize the dream, OAC is now officially open to private investors buy a stake in the company at $ 0.25 per share, until April 1, 2021.
Voyager Station was formed according to concepts that represent the legendary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, one of the major orchestrators of NASA’s Apollo program. The 200-foot (200-meter) wheel-shaped habitat will rotate at an angular velocity high enough to create lunar levels of artificial gravity for inhabitants.
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Designed by Gateway Foundation executive team member and chief architect Tim Alatorre, Voyager will become the largest man-made structure in space, fully equipped to accommodate up to 400 people. The meeting would begin around 2025, Gateway Foundation representatives said.
This sleek technological ring features amenities ranging from themed restaurants, lounges, movie theaters and concert halls to pubs, libraries, gyms and a health spa.
Voyager will house 24 integrated occupancy modules, each 65 feet long and 40 feet wide (20 by 12 meters). By amper-maan gravity, the resort has functional toilets, showers and jogging and jumping in fun and new ways.
But before the station can start running, the builders need to put in place the necessary track infrastructure and create smaller structures to test the concept.
Blincow explained during the January 29 event that the current plan is to build the rotating space station in phases, starting with a small-scale prototype station, in addition to a free-flying microgravity facility, both of which use Voyager components.
“This will be the next industrial revolution,” Blincow said.
Eventually, a Structure Truss Assembly Robot (STAR) will manufacture the framework of the Voyager and Gateway stations in an orbit. Before that happens, a smaller prototype on Earth, known as DSTAR, will test the technology here on earth.
OAC’s truss mounting robot is the first to build a space station in a low Earth orbit and will serve as ‘the structural backbone of future space projects,’ OAC manufacturer Tim Clements said at the event.
The machine is currently being commissioned and shipped. It will then be completed and tested in California.
‘The prototype will deliver a truss section of about 300 feet [90 m] in less than 90 minutes, “Clements revealed during the live event.” DSTAR weighs almost 8 tons in mass, consisting of steel, electrical and mechanical components. “
OAC is also creating a robotic observer drone for remote viewing via a virtual reality headset as its first internal development project.
“It’s going to be our eyes on the site,” Alatorre said. “The observer drone functions in a support function. It can sit on existing vessels. It can also be completely reusable and can fly and have a free flight mode on extended missions.”
Long before the Voyager station can accommodate guests, the OAC must test both the construction of a station in a low orbit around the earth and the viability of a stable artificial gravity in space. The company plans to construct a prototype gravity ring that will measure 61 meters in diameter and will be designed to rotate to create artificial gravity near Mars’ plane, which is about 40% of Earth.
“The gravity ring is going to be a major technology demonstration project that we plan to build, assemble and operate in a low lane within a few years,” said OAC co-founder Jeff Greenblatt. “The company also plans to use an orbital version of the DSTAR, called the PSTAR, which stands for Prototype Structural Truss Assembly Robot.”
This gravity will act as a ‘short-term demonstration’, which will take two to three years to build and begin. Once installed in a track, its assembly will only take three days. This structure will serve as the test base of the company for many of the technologies used to build Voyager Station.
“We have not yet seen an explosion of commercial activity in space,” Alatorre said. ‘The cost is about $ 8,000 per kilogram [$17,600 per lb.] for a long time. But with the Falcon 9, you can do it for less than $ 2,000. And as Starship comes online, it will only cost a few hundred dollars. ‘(These were references to SpaceX launchers – the company’s workhorse). Falcon 9 rocket and she Starship Mars vehicle, which is under development.)
“Microgravity is just cruel to our bodies,” Alatorre added. “We need artificial gravity – a mechanism to give us a dose of gravity to give us the ability to live long-term in space.”
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The OAC representatives say the planned gravity could also become a research platform for international space agencies and private airlines interested in the effects of partial artificial gravity on non-living and living systems.
“This will provide researchers with an unprecedented opportunity to gain access to the interim gravity regime,” Greenblatt said. “This will then pave the way for OAC to build larger, more complex structures in space, which is obviously necessary if we are to reach the point of building Voyager Station and other larger structures out there.”
With a view to the future, government and private enterprises will be allowed to use the Voyager modules for lunar training missions and beyond, providing a starting point for entrepreneurs to develop and market tourist activities in space.
‘We do not want the Voyager experience to be like an attack submarine in battle, so we are [building] for convenience, “said Tom Spilker, OAC’s chief technology officer and vice president for space systems engineering and design.” It’s a little smaller than the length of the American Capitol building. “
“Despite the seemingly endless list of luxury amenities, there will also be air barriers for visitors,” Spilker added. “Anyone who can afford a space hotel can therefore go to a private space, where the only thing between you and the universe is a faceplate.”
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