NASA Study Summary: "Future Deployment Systems and Very Large Fairings"

[luke strawwalker]

Here's a neat little report by Northrup Grumman from 4 years ago... it details VERY large telescope proposals capable of being launched in a 10-12 meter Ares V payload fairing. Such telescopes could also be launched on SLS, although perhaps limited to a slightly smaller size. Seeing one of these monsters actually fly would REALLY be a kick!

Enjoy! OL JR
View attachment Nasa Study Summary- Future Deployment Systems and Very Large Fairings.txt

 

[luke strawwalker]

Here's a few more...

And here's a link to a movie showing how such a huge 21 meter telescope would unfold once it arrived at its destination (probably a Sun-Earth Libration point (SEL1 or 2... this gives MUCH better viewing than LEO, since you're not circling a huge honkin' planet that takes up half the sky and covers what you're trying to look at 45 minutes out of every 90 minutes...) Just click the link "Attachments: 21 meter Hex Stack Deployment.wmv" It takes a little bit to load, but it's worth it... REALLY neat!

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27949.msg858994#msg858994

Later! OL JR

 

[luke strawwalker]

Last one...

OL JR

 

[Zetoyoc]

That is some cool origami. Wow!

-Z

 

[luke strawwalker]

I especially like Northrup Grumman's "never had a mission failure from a deployment anomaly" at the end of the report...

The link to the video unfolding of it mentions the dizzying number of steps necessary to unfold the thing and get it to work successfully... that's something the safety/mission assurance guru's don't like-- every additional step required is another point of failure...

If the thing were designed to unfurl in LEO and then be propelled by SEL1 or 2 by solar electric propulsion (or even a small chemical stage for that matter) it could easily be repaired in LEO if something went wrong, if it was designed to be repaired... this is something that ISS could actually prove quite valuable for...

Hopefully one day they'll build a dedicated airlock/hab with a robot arm and stuff that can be parked in LEO and used for repair missions to SEL1/2 or EML1/2 or GSO when needed. Maybe a souped up version of MMSEV with suitports and a RMS arm. That would be cool... and make something like this a LOT more palatable from a mission assurance standpoint!

Later! OL JR