InterPlanetary Ventures

January 3, 2009

Getting People Into Space, Permanently.
CisLunar Spaceships - Traveling in Near Earth Space

Space capsules, space planes, space elevators, these vehicles and systems may be used to get people from Earth to Earth orbiting space stations. Capsules were used during the Apollo program to take people to the moon. After the return of Apollo 8 from our first trip to the moon, the naval officer who opened the capsule and first leaned in recoiled from the smell. Capsules and such may be alright for short trips to orbital destinations, but longer trips require more space per person, access to facilities for personal hygiene, and adequate filtering of the ambient environment to make it livable. Also such a trip provides time for research and experimentation, the space to facilitate these activities should also be provided.

NASA is currently planning a return to the moon in capsules larger than Apollo. Orion is designed to carry more people, a crew of six to orbit, with a crew of four planned for moon missions. There is work to be done in cislunar space, and having larger volumes available will facilitate this work. The time has come for us to move from space capsules and graduate to spaceships. The first earth orbiting space stations are good examples of what is needed. At left are images of the Salyut orbiting lab with a soyuz craft docked at one end, the American Skylab orbiting lab with the Apollo craft docked at one end, and a moon cruiser envisioned by Bigelow Aerospace using their inflatable modules. These are examples of the types of vessels that should be used to travel cislunar space, between Earth, Moon, the Earth Moon Lagrange stations, (Lunar L1 thru Lunar L5) and the Sun-Earth Lagrange regions L1, L2, L4 and L5. These are examples from a bygone era, and only one modern imagining, there are many possible configurations and designs, the field is wide open for the spacecraft designers of the 21st century.