Orbital Hub: Providing a LEO-infrastructure for multi-disciplinary science and commercial use cases

Abstract

Skylab, Saljut, MIR, the International Space Station, Tiangong have been space stations in low Earth orbit (LEO), allowing access to a microgravity environment for scientific or technology demonstration experiments. Future plans for using resources in LEO are planning commercial applications (e.g. Axiom Space Station, Bigelow Commercial Space Station) or scientific ones (e.g. the Chinese Space Station). To analyse all possible needs of potential users, the authors have surveyed needs from a commercial and a scientific perspective. Derived from that a design has been elaborated allowing for a versatile, flexible and cost-effective platform. This Orbital Hub can serve as a core unit for a larger complex or act on its own. It consists of a base platform, permanently crewed, and a crew-tended Free Flyer facilitating experiments in an unperturbed environment. This chapter presents the design of the Orbital Hub and its capability to be used in combination with other space station concepts or even parts of the ISS. It lines out how it can complement e.g. Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway and points out advantages over larger platforms, e.g. ISS. Implications concerning application, LEO resources, costs and key technologies are discussed. Overall it is shown how a small platform ca be utilized to access those resources efficiently.