Why Commercial Space Stations Are The Future NASA Wants

In the last month or so we've seen a couple of major private space station plans revealed to the world - Orbital Reef lead by Blue Origin and Starlab Lead by Nanoracks. These are likely just the tip of the iceberg as NASA is currently reviewing proposals for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations project.
The video showing the ISS reentering is by HazeGrayArt - watch the full version here:
• The International Spac...
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[@gerrybvr]

A reef is also where a lot of ships met their end.

[@andreipendle1778]

"Beware, here there be dragons"

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

Moar orbital less reef

[@RCAvhstape]

A lot of ships end as artificial reefs.

[@heh2393]

@@RCAvhstape True

[@mathewferstl7042]

*idiotic comment*

[@georgf9279]

Scott: Quits at Apple Apple: "What will you do next?" Scott: Janitor. Apple: ???!!!? Scott: SPACE-JANITOR.

[@KernelLeak]

*Roger Wilco has entered the chat.*

[@Nurg1982]

aaah the good ol' space quest narrative finally comes to reality

[@Nurg1982]

A stitch in time near gamma 9 🙃

[@dibbidydoo4318]

it's called Custodial Aeronautics Engineer.

[@moosemaimer]

All he needs now is some xenos or necromorphs and he'll never want for employment again.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

"...a port of call, a home away-" - *_HEY, HE'S DOING THE BABYLON 5 THING!_*

[@MartianInAHumansBody]

Hooray for Babylon 5 references. I wonder which part of the station will be "down below" for us lurkers?

[@haeffound]

@@MartianInAHumansBody Russian section? Wich cheap space wodka and Drazhi.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

@@MartianInAHumansBody One of those windowless inflatable bits. :-P

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

I'll be looking out for Zathras.

[@Jevaughn]

[@steveadams7550]

"Starliner could be flying by then", you have a great sense of humor Scott.

[@warrenwhite9085]

NASA has failed miserably with massively over cost & underdelivering boondoggles Shuttle, ISS, constellation, SLS/Orion, Starliner, Now failing with Artemis.. NASA has screwed up, corrupted every contractor it has worked with. Nothing bloated, pork driven, failed Federal Agency NASA would love better than keep it’s $20 billion budget, dead wood centers/HQ overhead & have private enterprise do all the work. NASA is hopeless, should be downsized or eliminated… instead taxpayers should fund x-prizes for US private enterprises delivering goals like space stations, lunar colonies, trips to Mars, visits to Asteroids, etc.

[@veritateseducational217]

@@warrenwhite9085 The shuttle and the ISS are wonderful programs that succeeded in many regards, Artemis has not failed and has made more progress than Constellation ever did. NASA is required to stimulate the private sector when it comes to spaceflight. Government organizations will always be slower than the private sector, that’s how they operate, but overall, NASA has been a wonderful success, and should not be eliminated or even downsized, it’s Bircher should be increased instead.

[@warrenwhite9085]

@@veritateseducational217 The ISS is another huge NASA boondoggle, where human cannonball ‘astronauts’ spend boring months pretending that what they are doing matters.. Space experiments require absolute cleanliness & stillness incompatible with humans. ISS has cost $200 billion wasted, when the actual science could be conducted for 1/10 to 1/100th the cost in unmanned satellites. Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts risked their lives to explore & push the envelop.. Shuttle & ISS astronauts risked their lives joyriding & to keep NASA pork flowing.. All the human space flight duration records were set before ISS was built.NASA rightly wanted to dump this costly & useless white elephant in the pacific decades ago.

[@warrenwhite9085]

@@veritateseducational217 NASA promised a gullible Congress & America a $4 million per flight ‘cheap, safe & reliable’ Shuttle.. then NASA delivered a $1.6 billion per launch boondoggle that killed 2 crews & had chronic & multi-year service outages. NASA’s STS was the most unaffordable, dangerous & unreliable space vehicle in history. NASA failed miserably to deliver what it promised.

[@warrenwhite9085]

@@veritateseducational217 Over the 50 years since Apollo NASA has blown over $500 billion on one manned space failed pork boondoggle after another… yet no American has gotten beyond low earth orbit in 50 years & Nasa itself is incompetent/incapable of crewing or even resupplying our own space station. … Starting with nothing SpaceX developed & flew rocket engines, boosters & ships far beyond anything NASA is capable of for only $300 million.. Now Starship will fly for perhaps $2 million per flight while NASA irresponsibly wastes taxpayer $s on it’s $2 billion per flight asks/Orion White Elephant. NASA is just another Federal Government frigging disaster.

[@InvestmentJoy]

Cheaper space infrastructure has always been something Nasa has wanted, we are finally at a point that it can actually happen. I'm extremely excited about what's goin on, but man has it been a rough road to get to just that point.

[@LasVegar]

So cheap we will soon have space trailer parks and space laundromats and to forget about the spaceship washers with their tiny O2 vending machines

[@tyoung9012]

This space hotel is funded by Amazon employees and by taxpayers of every city that gives Amazon tax break incentives to open up a distribution center.

[@vonschlesien]

Also being able to shove capital expenses onto private investors. Big upfront costs do not play well with the government budgeting process.

[@Wrangler-fp4ei]

Problem is Politics will interfere with this. Ideology will keep ISS flying or dying. I rather see the station handed over to someone else if NASA not getting money to keep it flying. Their suppose to be getting the Luna Gateway. ISS great as stepping stone to build other orbital infrastructure in space. Its the costs that's killing that.

[@MrFlatage]

@@Wrangler-fp4ei Sure now ISS can fly? lmao.

[@thinkorbital1229]

Scott, thanks so much for looking into our ThinkOrbital Orb2 space station concept. We have more details about it in a video shared on our YT and website. We'd love to have a call with you and hear your thoughts about our technology. Just FYI, it is not inflatable, but a rigid aluminum pressure vessel that is EB welded.

[@sushilk.3287]

🙌🙌

[@8bitdxb341]

Cool design. Good luck to you guys 🙂

[@thinkorbital1229]

@@8bitdxb341 Thanks! As any startup, especially in space industry, we can indeed use a bit of luck!

[@sebastianasprella1314]

@@8bitdxb341 thank you ! Happy to answer any questions you may have ! our solution is different to the other three options as follows: > Single-launch > Metal panels flat packed (not an inflatable) > Electron Beam Welding > On-Orbit assembly > 4000m3 internal volume Starship configuration, or 2000m3 New Glenn configuration.

[@tomgidden]

@@sebastianasprella1314 Interesting… any thought to using polyethylene or similar hydrogen-rich material for radiation and impact shielding along with those metal panels?

[@CandynoseTwinskins]

To build an Orbital Reef, you have to get to orbit first...

[@94nolo]

Can't get it up!

[@Pegaroo_]

@@94nolo Do you get Viagra for rockets?

[@roshansri1636]

Suborbital reef?

[@somerandompersonidk2272]

Jeez, that sure is an original joke.

[@thiesenf]

@@94nolo The Be(n)zos guy can't get it up even though he has a BFD... Dif Gucking Bildo... ehm... DGB... oh wait... or is it Gif Ducking Bildo??? A giant fallos thingiemagic...

[@-danR]

Love that autonomous robotic arm 2:31 "Now ima put on a hat..."

[@rallikas]

Haha, good one

[@keco185]

I really liked what Bigelow was doing. It's a shame they shut down

[@MrPbhuh]

They were sadly to early. There was not really a launch vehicle for the station. Another issue was NASA not interested at that time.

[@tomwatts703]

What happened? I thought BEAM was going well enough to prove the concept

[@dotnet97]

@@tomwatts703 They sucked at everything except the inflatable module, so they never managed to get any of their free-flying station concepts off the ground. Leading to them basically running out of money.

[@xWood4000]

@@MrPbhuh Yeah, NASA really liked the BEAM results but NASA didn't have any capacity to do anything serious with it

[@saundby]

@@dotnet97 Except for the two that they, you know, actually got off the ground.

[@lewismassie]

I'm actually kinda sad about Bigelow. I've been following them for so many years and they were the only one with hardware in orbit for so long

[@TheBaldr]

I still remember listening live to the radio broadcast in which Robert Bigelow announced he was going to spend his fortune by starting a new company to put a hotel in space.

[@rpavlik1]

Yeah it seems a shame that the one company with actual module experience isn't participating

[@laszlozoltan5021]

@@rpavlik1 ironic huh? the only folks who've come down to earth

[@andrewk9267]

What actually happened to them?

[@000scubasteve]

Doesn't blue origin need a working orbital class rocket first? Maybe Jeff could purchase some rides on a falcon heavy.

[@ulfpe]

They are just fishing for funding

[@facon4233]

Falcon heavy isn't human rated.

[@gajbooks]

@@facon4233 You can launch components without people on board. They'd just have to purchase some Dragon flights too...

[@verticalfracture]

with Jeffs's business philosophy I wouldn't discount the amount of work being done outside of view. His companies tend to scale to insanity before public deployment. Remember he has been pumping a billion dollars a year into the company for over a decade.

[@thePronto]

If he could just stop melting engines, he could have 2 launch vehicles.

[@trailblazingfive]

You can make a lot of PowerPoint presentations that lead to nowhere with 100 millions

[@moosemaimer]

The US military came close to declaring PowerPoint a serious threat to operational readiness because so many personnel were spending most of their time either making, delivering, or sitting through slide decks.

[@sebastianasprella1314]

Totally agree ! bending metal is the way to go !

[@vladimirdyuzhev]

@@moosemaimer Came close, but wasn't able to finish the PP deck illustrating the threat in time?

[@Fabrizio_Ruffo]

The elected government of the United States is a threat to operational readiness Free trade with Communist China is a threat to operational readiness Social justice is a threat to operational readiness Mothers of America is a threat to operational readiness. Honestly, the US high command is really easy to threaten. The slightest miscalculation and they snap like a straw that missed the juicebox. I don't know why we bother. If our weapon systems aren't enough, I doubt a military this far out of practice will have any use for any of this hypothetical stuff. You know the saying, "we enter every war prepared for the previous war" Playing world police has only lowered our readiness further, augmenting our entire military and even parts of our civil government towards a threat that will likley never be a major threat for the rest of our nations rapidly shortening future.

[@grproteus]

Babylon 5 reference made my day! You're the best, Scott!

[@everydayspacenerd8192]

Have wanted more videos about space stations and space shuttle and now it’s here! Thank you @Scott Manley!

[@sebastianasprella1314]

Agree !

[@javaguru7141]

Lifting up the ISS to become a museum is something I've never thought of but am now very much fascinated with.

[@I_dont_want_an_at]

It must be preserved if we can help it. But sometimes we are so helpless

[@deanc9453]

+

[@A31415]

Not going to happen. It would suck too many millions per month out of any entity trying to maintain it.

[@javaguru7141]

@@A31415 Don't maintain it. Put it in a stable orbit and leave it as a derelict to attract the attention of a future generation. If the risk of total destruction by asteroid is too high, leave some thrusters powered and tweak the orbit by a tiny bit when one of the existing space tracker organizations detects a collision path. No need for a large team of people.

[@A31415]

@@javaguru7141 still, hundreds of millions of US dollars would be required to raise the orbit. With a Starship could be cheaper but highly unlikely someone would actually be willing to deal with this.

[@dzarko55]

I really hope they standardize things asap. Don't let private companies get a phone charger situation, with a million different docking ports and spare parts. Especially in space, having standard spare parts would make life easier.

[@AldorEricsson]

- No problem, just order a compatible docking port from Amazon. - Jeff Bezos. P.S. Shipping costs may apply.

[@avecas]

We already use standardized docking adapters. Admittedly the standards are updated every now and then and require new modules to be sent up. If I remember correctly, China even uses their own docking system which is compatible with the international standard, although it remains to be seen if they'll ever get the chance to use that capability.

[@thatdude3977]

To be fair all chargers for a phone use usb. So you’re wrong dzarko55

[@MrFlatage]

@@thatdude3977 So you are very unfair to people. Lack the IQ and education to end sentences. And when the EU rules that all smartphones need to be the same stands? Apple objected. Because they have their 'lightning port'?

[@dannybell926]

@@MrFlatage because Apple is an American company who could really care less about little old EU

[@jonasthemovie]

All the renderings have the feeling of a person who has never worked in micro gravity.

[@SRFriso94]

There is one option for a rocket to carry that Starliner has been designed to be compatible with, though I would imagine Boeing isn't in a rush to remind anyone of that: the Falcon 9.

[@scottmanley]

NASA wants dissimilar redundancy, having both crew transportation vehicles on the same booster design loses that.

[@lordgarion514]

@@scottmanley Did NASA originally want redundancy, and couldn't because of lack of funding? Or did they only want it after Congress wanted it?

[@danieljensen2626]

What would even be the point though?

[@mjlagrone]

@@scottmanley Would Starship and Faclon 9 collectively be considered "dissimilar redundancy" or do they really just mean two different vendors?

[@arctic_haze]

@@scottmanley Would it be possible to put Starliner on top of the Soyuz rocket? 😀

[@pspicer777]

A real shame about Bigelow ... the first time I saw BEAM I really thought they had something unique. It was very well thought out and their structural design made a lot more sense than the tin can approach. I hope they can come back.

[@orionzero770]

In 10 years we will be looking back at renderings of this blue origin space station the same as we are looking at their crew vehicle today

[@BarryBarrington_]

.. and laughing about the time ( 9:08 min. ) when female astronauts were flying in their underwear

[@zeitgeistx5239]

Lol even though there is no real business case for this. Very few people who can pay a $20 million ticket will want to commit to something that you will need several months of physically tough training with NASA and need to rearrange their life and business plans for. That’s a very small pool for people and not enough to revolutionize the space industry. Even SpaceX is heavily dependent upon military contracts. Space launch has been and always will be dependent on us coming up with ways to kill each other. Projects that have no military applications have always struggled for funding. America has little legitimate interest of space exploration outside of military applications.

[@carso1500]

@@zeitgeistx5239 Well now that is just a lie, space has a shit ton of potential for many things from resource extraction and processing to tourism (once the price is low enough that you don't have to sell your first born child to get there)

[@NavidIsANoob]

@Christie Malry SpaceX doesn't need more fanboys. Stop this cringy shit.

[@paulfigueiredo3168]

Sad about Bigelow. One of the few things that had me excited about space again. Inflatable is the future (or near future at least)

[@deanc9453]

+

[@Scanner9631]

Maybe SpaceX will pick them up at fire sale prices.

[@davidrikelv9529]

"Hullo, its Scott Manley here" I really like the way you introduces your videos

[@disorientedtravel]

I say it to myself every time I see he has a new video up! My girlfriend hears me and says "Oh is it that Scottish space guy?"

[@dutchdrifter8740]

Make star ship sectional. Decouple the nose and rear and you have a 30x9 meter base. Couple 3 together for a 100x9 meter station. Add some modules for power etc and your done. They would probably even be able to retrieve the nos and rear.

[@datamatters8]

Or extending this idea, build a stretched version of starship (extra ring segments) with no flaps, no heat shielding and no header tanks since it won't be landing. Use the weight saved from this and a minimal payload for the stretch and the air lock and the interior structures. Put a hatch on the upper tank dome and a generator to make power by burning the left over propellant then open the hatch for additional space. May not work if you don't have the extra heating, cooling and shielding needed.

[@ninjafruitchilled]

Hmm but isn't the point of Starship that it will be this kind of cookie-cutter thing that will just roll out of the factories at boca-chica by the hundreds? Might not be so viable to do all these custom modifications of them?

[@datamatters8]

@@ninjafruitchilled Very true. As it is they have the moon lander, the mars lander, the tanker, the satellite launcher, the human launcher, asteroid miner, etc. Between limited design and manufacturing resources it may not make sense relative to other priorities even if money was not an issue. I wonder though if a space station around mars, and the moon and earth consisting of multiple modules might make it worth the effort. If it was cheap enough then space hotels might be viable. Could be a growing industry over the next 20 or 30 years.

[@dannybell926]

@@ninjafruitchilled does your name have anything to do with ocean grown genetics by chance? If so, props to ya!

[@flyingfiddler90q]

"No, that's Babylon 5" 😂😂😂

[@S1nwar]

i want to see the ISS grow indefinitely like in Valerian

[@joshuawheeler5309]

Scott Manley. I always look forward to watching your videos. They are well researched, and leave me feeling optimistic about the future. Thanks

[@stanislavkogan]

Loved the B5 reference!

[@I-0-0-I]

Yay! Crew Dreamchaser! I really like to picture that as part of our future.

[@bbirda1287]

I was kind of shocked Sierra Nevada was included as they actually have functional hardware. It's like one of the AP kids hanging out at the losers table in high school.

[@I-0-0-I]

@@vablo7198 *Starship has left the chat.*

[@ericlotze7724]

This Prequel for “The Expanse” is really neat !

[@fl00fydragon]

Let's hope that we get a different world than the expanse though.

[@darkleome5409]

@@fl00fydragon i mean we might be heading towards having the whole system split between megacorporations, with only Earth gov having any significant power

[@fl00fydragon]

@@darkleome5409 And that would be bleak beyond compare. We would have basically gone back to a nea form of feudalism. Technological progress must be paired with political, economic and social progress.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

lets hope not, things got really bad on earth before they got better then got apocolyptically bad in the end

[@jonnyj.]

@Thomas Hancock Nope. There are a LOT of people who believe our current political systems and probably economic systems would still be active in a setting like the expanse. Megacorps are something that WILL absolutely fucking happen, no matter how you try to argue it. This is why those books are the best sci fi books ever made ;)

[@funnyitworkedlasttime6611]

I personally would like to see the ISS continue on with new commercial modules ala Axiom, kind of like a space ship of Theseus. First thing to be replaced would be Zvezda

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

yep...Zvezda's got to go if the ISS is going to remain operational in the long term.

[@qdaniele97]

@@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke Most of the station is got to go if they want to keep it operational

[@funnyitworkedlasttime6611]

@@qdaniele97 sooner or later, yes, because nothing lasts forever - but it doesn’t need to happen all at once. Russia is on the right track with replacing modules and de-orbiting the expired pieces. The international community could continue to own the framework and common areas while commercial companies could supply modules and crews that could operate both privately and for hire. It’s essentially what NASA was originally pushing for before this new free flier push. How realistic is it to expect even one free-flying station to be economically self-sustainable in the next 10 years without massive NASA underwriting? I can’t see it, but I’ve been wrong before.

[@sirmoonslosthismind]

@@funnyitworkedlasttime6611 it really does need to happen all at once. the station's design does not allow central modules like zvezda to just be swapped out. you'll split the station into multiple pieces when you remove zvezda. good luck not losing any of them.

[@frankfurtdynamics2783]

Again an obligatorial Babylon 5 joke I love it!!! Again amazing Scott!!!

[@jasonlast7091]

Welcome to the space hotel cupola…. _Such a lovely place_

[@hillzachary01]

Really subtle reference to a not so subtle song.

[@thePronto]

"You can reserve a room any time you like, but you can never check in."

[@jamesmihalcik1310]

Jason Last, Perfect! :)

[@flyingfiddler90q]

Re: maintaining the stations, time for a "Space Force Corps of Engineers" (Or should it just be Space Engineers)? ...

[@dannybell926]

Essayons

[@LaughingOrange]

I would totally believe it if someone claimed SpaceX applied to anything space related and just said "Starship" (and a bunch of technical reasons why they believe it's a good solution).

[@jesusmora9379]

and then wins and Jeff Bezos gets even angrier

[@bru512]

It would be technically solid, and easily lower cost. SpaceX has done most of the R&D.

[@dsdy1205]

When all you have is a Starship, every space problem looks like it needs 100t of extra dry mass

[@HalNordmann]

@@dsdy1205 And the dry mass of Starship is ridiculous. The HLLV from NASA's SPS study had a similar payload to Starship, yet only 4000t weight when fully fueled (lese than simply the fuel mass of Starship!) - even with some mass reserve! Apparently, aluminium construction/winged flyback is a pretty efficient design!

[@dsdy1205]

@@HalNordmann It depends - efficient in what metric? Aluminum is great for pure SWR at room temps, but Starship isn't just going to sit in room temp all day, it'll have -200 deg on one side and 2000 deg on the other, and aluminum just can't provide the same SWR at those extremes

[@OldManCassius]

Cool video, I had no idea any of this was going on. ALSO, thank you so much for lowering the audio on the outro on the last number of videos!

[@diegomarteen]

loved the Babylon 5 reference, greatest scifi series ever

[@Agnemons]

If I recall correctly "Reef's" have an awful lot of shipwrecks on them. Just saying

[@korakys]

The Axiom concept is still looking the best of these, hope it succeeds.

[@mintyfreshmetagross5437]

I like the look of the Axiom station, and it seems to be modular which would be great for future expandability.

[@Qwarzz]

They also already have hardware to show that they are actually doing it.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Wasn't that the ship in Wall-E?

[@chrismartin223]

The Babylon5 reference made me smile. The good, old times :) Thank you.

[@xmoex6393]

I would love to see Scott sweeping dust off the solar arrays!

[@boingboingresearcherph.d.2871]

Now that I think about it, does vaccuum cleaners still work in space?🤔

[@Scanner9631]

You need to blow the space dust off with compressed gases.

[@xmoex6393]

I think Scott would just use his space broom...

[@parajacks4]

Blue origin must be only 50 years away from an orbital launch by now

[@lostpony4885]

@Tom Foster ground control to major tom

[@HalNordmann]

Actually, they like doing most of their work behind the scenes, and only show the finished product. They could show a fully flyable rocket next week and we wouldn't know about it.

[@parajacks4]

@@HalNordmann I want to see New Glen and ULA’s Vulcan fly to orbit too but the BE-4 engine must have major developmental engineering issues, so they could be years away from flying.

[@HalNordmann]

@@parajacks4 Both variants are possible. Lets wait and see, and not make rushed judgements towards any side.

[@dv8inpp]

Yes, they'll be able to use fusion engines then as fusion power will be available then

[@AdventurousJohn]

Scott says: "Space Janitor" - turns out to be a pretty good book series by Julia Huni...

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

First Scifi novel by german author Andreas Eschbach was a space crime procedural with the Janitor having to solve a murder in orbit. ;) the novel was called Solar Station IIRC.

[@keco185]

I won't be surprised if SpaceX applies and just says they'll launch a starship into orbit. Doesn't hurt to see if you can get more money without much additional work

[@pulloutgang278]

Seems unlikely. Usually SpaceX's decisions are well thought out or tested. It'd probably be more likely in the future that they would find ways to add on additions to other projects or some sort of structure that allows others to build onto/connect to/disconnect from

[@NavidIsANoob]

Starship will never be human-rated.

[@pulloutgang278]

@@NavidIsANoob and so what happens if it doesn't?

[@NavidIsANoob]

@@pulloutgang278 Then it won't be allowed to fly missions carrying astronauts. At least not for the space agencies. NASA isn't going to allow their astronauts to fly on a rocket that has no emergency escape system.

[@pulloutgang278]

@@NavidIsANoob if there's one thing I gotta give credit to Elon for, he scraps ideas quickly if they have no probability of working. So it stands to be seen. But I don't think it'll be that big of a problem. Either he or someone else will achieve it. Hopefully in the next decade or two.

[@bluespinningdotinspace]

Ive been watching for years now scott please never stop making videos.

[@spychopath]

I'll believe that Boeing and Blue can build a space station once they've both managed to get their current projects to orbit.

[@andreas4010]

Once they've fired their upper management

[@thePronto]

When I was a kid, I was constantly drawing space station and spacecraft designs. Never made that next step though...

[@DanielMcCool95]

Seeing Haze Grey Arts video of the ISS being de-orbited made me legitimately cry.

[@johnmiller4859]

Loved the B5 reference - figured it out as you were getting there. Thanks.

[@avhound2]

this video is why I come to watch Scott. great job sir. tip of the hat to you and your job well done as always. :)

[@natalyiatimoshenkova1273]

This project would excite me a lot more if either company was putting people in orbit...

[@I-0-0-I]

I attempt to be continually optimistic, even when the world makes that difficult. So I am holstering my meh-gun in the hopes that positive public sentiment will help this plan become reality.

[@Alderite]

@@I-0-0-I Private companies don't care about human sentiment. It's all about the innovation of technology and people who support or against it are going to enjoy the ride

[@M167A1]

@@Alderite settlement has always been driven by personal gain. If there's something worth eating or extracting, people will go there and camp on it.

[@bradley3549]

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have just arrived at our destination, Orbital Reef. We're going to pull into our gate in a few minutes once our berthing crew arrives. Thank you for flying SpaceX" LOL

[@hyperboloidofonesheet1036]

@@bradley3549 Sounds of thumping followed by shudders throughout the space station occur as the berthing crew randomly toss luggage around in microgravity.

[@samrule87]

I'm curious. What inclinations would these stations be in? My understanding was that Space Station Freedom was going to be in a 23 degree orbit and early concepts featured it as an "Earth Gateway" for lunar and other transports. Presumably the Axiom station would be stuck in the 54 degree orbit the ISS is in, but could Orbital Reef be used as a waypoint?

[@avecas]

Changing inclinations in low orbit is very very expensive, so I don't think you'd be able to travel between stations on different inclinations. Which is interesting - if they do want to have easy transit between stations (man that is a cool idea), all these commercial stations will likely end up being in the same sort of "ring" around the Earth.

[@joansparky4439]

Why would axiom be 'stuck' at 54 degree? It's 'just' a matter of creating enough delta V to put it into a diff inclination. If that is worthwhile (mostly an economic question) is what matters.

[@zbrewski]

Love the B5 reference! 😉

[@JCbeMe]

1:39 I think you had it right the first time "NASA is spending billions of years per dollar." Ahh, glorious bureaucracy.

[@tybofborg]

Well it makes perfect sense. Why build something you can rely on, when you can also rent it? This way we could replace the traditional operation of the ISS with something operating more like the American rental real estate industry, which, as we all know, is the envy of the world. Imagine the simplicity of arranging repairs with your landlord, but in space.

[@benholroyd5221]

Who said Americans can't do sarcasm? (I'm assuming you're American, you're probably going to undermine my compliment by not being American now)

[@ghost307]

Evictions would be fun to watch.

[@deanc9453]

+

[@gardnep]

Any subprime loans available for iss?

[@aless5207]

I think NASA wants to own nothing and be happy!

[@CraneArmy]

I know it was a joke, but really, space tour guide, or space park ranger might actually be a closer analogue to that job than janitor.

[@tomgidden]

More like a “super” or “caretaker”. Effectively the landlord’s building manager.

[@capricechild92]

I was just thinking about Bigalow. Thanks for bringing it up.

[@KOttoTV]

Thank you for explaining all these concepts.

[@00dfm00]

8:47 Funny how we still conceptualize future space stations with having a 'ground' when really all of the 'walls' could be just as valuable to use for your exercise bikes/storage/hydroponics. I'm just seeing a ton of wasted space in these conceptualizations.

[@Hirosjimma]

they tried that. problem is that you're still dealing with humans and they need an environment they feel comfortable in if they are going to be up there for extended periods of time.

[@harbl99]

If there's one thing that's abundant in space, it's... Yeah.

[@DrWhom]

that's where do put stuff in actual space stations, so what are you on about?

[@bernieschiff5919]

I agree, some of the spaceship interior designs shown so far are not thought out that well. The concept of up and down will help to orient people who will not be trained astronauts, and used to zero G. Visual clutter needs to be reduced, to create cleaner, more organized interior spaces. See the Space X Dragon capsule interiors.

[@calebwirt2703]

It's an artist's rendering, most likely only containing what they already know is going to be on there placed in rough approximations of their final design- a more accurate depiction of where things will be and what equipment will be there is gonna be an engineer's wheelhouse I can pretty safely assume that we've already been maximizing space efficiency (without sacrificing mental wellness), judging by footage from the ISS that shows only a tiny bit of extra room beyond what is strictly necessary to fit a person in corridors and small spaces. Common areas like the exercise facilities, presumably berths, perhaps labs, etc. will have to have considerably more open space to allow multiple users at once or for inhabitants to move past one another. In addition, living in a truly tiny space for months will negatively impact anyone, so a little wiggle room for comfort is likely factored in as well.

[@rogerfreeman6787]

I think Blue Origin and Boeing should merge. They could call the company Bloeing.

[@mackjsm7105]

How about just "Blow" lol

[@zaulpander]

this is amazing xD

[@sust8n]

+ Bigelow = Bloeing Low

[@thePronto]

They are already half way merged on the Vulcan project: neither side is going anywhere until Vulcan flies. But they certainly would have credibility issues if they called it "United Launch Alliance". Maybe "United Free Lunch Alliance"?

[@andreaslusti4018]

@@thePronto There's no such thing as a free lunch...

[@rogerh9395]

Scott Manley space janitor extraordinaire. I’m there with ya!

[@CLipka2373]

"Space Janitors" - I love that. Reminds me of Mass Effect 2, too.

[@travcollier]

The B5 joke is spot on. You know Bezos is a fan of O'Neil cylinders. Oh, and way back when NASA was planning the space station which eventually became the IIS, they had a naming vote thing. IIRC, "Babylon" won

[@Flitspopper]

Why not use starship as a temporary space station you can occasionally bring down and re-equip? Change out the testing equipment you want to have up there on each launch.

[@imarchello]

Starship will be lacking typical space station shielding. No whipple shields, no 20 layers of kevlar and stuff etc. Keeping Starship in LEO for months is just asking for a unlucky hit by some debris.

[@thenozon]

The ringlight is creating hell of a spooky highlight in most of the shots - thx for the great episode tho!

[@RaylaRayV]

Nice new ringlight Scott!! looking very fancy!

[@rgarbacz]

Correction - if I heard correctly the Think Orbital proposal you mentioned is an inflatable sphere - actually it is an assembled in space hard sphere, the project is called Orb2, and their design is really interesting as it would be welded in space from stacked hexagons and pentagons (similar to a football ball.)

[@limiv5272]

That sounds complicated

[@TheFirebird123456]

Yes but u can create huge enclosed volume very easily if all u brought up were the walls. Plus in space welding can happen instantaneously through vacuum welding.

[@rgarbacz]

@@limiv5272 My point was that the description of Orb2 was not correct, regarding the complexity - well eventually we'll have to start building in space and this proposal is quite sound and doable and welding in space has been done - however Orb2 does not look like a finished project - a shell does not make a space station

[@gavinthomas214]

I was so excited for Bigelow Aerospace when they added a module to the ISS. It is very sad that they have gone quiet. Perhaps Elon should look at their IP and see if there is any value there.

[@nathand.9969]

Scott, you should apply for the position of first space bar tender that way you get all the greatest space stories.

[@belgarion0013]

Ha ha like your beginning! =) Great video as usual! Have a great weekend!

[@jimcooper1251]

10:52 - that’s clearly a sign of designer playing too much StarCraft :D Clearly a prototype of SCV 👍🏻

[@andreaslusti4018]

You cannot play too much StarCraft...

[@harbl99]

@@andreaslusti4018 "예" t. Korea

[@thatyougoon1785]

Really sad to see Bigelow aerospace isn't in the game anymore. I really hope that their revolutionary technology will be put to some good use by some other company.

[@joshuaerkman1444]

I have inside info that their CEO was a real tyrant and it brought the whole company down.

[@gregorycoogle7621]

SpaceX should hire Scott Manley as their space ambassador representative… I definitely see a big future for Mr. Manley.

[@miller2675]

It would be such a shame if those great new solar panels on the ISS were let burn up when it is decommissioned. What other equipment would be a good idea to move over to other stations since it is already in orbit?

[@trimeta]

If those new solar panels serve as a tech demo that enables the Commercial LEO Destinations to have even more power with less surface area and deployment hardware, it'll have been a useful scientific advancement.

[@followthegrow108]

That would be way to hard. Think about how you'd do that and then tell me if it's worth it.

[@DavidMartinez-ip1dr]

More expensive to send a ship there to move it than to just build some new ones

[@jameskinard]

There are a lot of experiments bolted to the station which aren't big enough to get their own satellite bus but still super important. I wonder if having an eva to go collect them and put them on a truss on a new station would be worth it.

[@MatanVil]

I wander if Starship will do retrieval mission. The obvious use with this is with Hubble but it would be interesting if it will be use to dismantle with the older parts being in a museum and iROSA just being in a storage somewhere until there will a new habitat either a station or a ship. (Is it possible to just having a storage to store stuff in LEO?)

[@mikeg74]

LEO is a great place for a Starship to spend multiple years with crew as part of a test program to make sure its life support, solar power system, etc is ready for a trip to Mars. It has more internal volume than ISS and I’m sure it can be customized to support any equipment and research for LEO just like it will need to be for Mars trips. It can have one or more international docking ports for crew transport so it will not need to contain humans during launch and landing on Earth at first. It will already be human rated for space as part of HLS. This might be cheap way to accomplish multiple goals at once.

[@NGCAnderopolis]

Will there ever be a space case where Starship wont be proposed as the answer?

[@mikeg74]

@@NGCAnderopolis There are a lot of great space station designs. Hopefully some of them will be developed too.

[@michaelpayne9049]

Nice Cryo Stash IPA there Scott Manley. Oregon beers are always great to see! Drink safe!

[@subumohapatra]

Thanks Scott as usual your the best.

[@lorisperfetto6021]

The future of low earth orbit seems quite fantastic with all the Chinese, Russian and American space stations

[@paulhaynes8045]

Chinese AND Russian, perhaps - Russia can't afford to do it on its own.

[@lorisperfetto6021]

@@paulhaynes8045 it can, by reusing iss modules

[@rogerstone3068]

What I'm waiting to hear about is an orbital space dockyard, for cobbling together spacecraft built from modules flown up from Earth, adapting capsules and bits of old stations into a new habitat with engines of its own. That's when the entrepreneurs will have something to get their teeth into.

[@andylaweda]

THANK YOU for the Babylon 5 reference :-D

[@waynelevett3632]

Great show Scott 🤠🤠🤠

[@BeckerFlag]

Until one of these partnerships/companies actually starts launching modules it's just fancy talk and CG animations.

[@vladimirdyuzhev]

Well-paid talk tho!

[@raize6166]

Petition Scott as Space Janitor 2024

[@yohandsouza1283]

Munely be making videos on an eva

[@raize6166]

@@yohandsouza1283 banned

[@gregorycoogle7621]

Love how you sneakd in opening comments of Babylon five! 😆

[@f1matt]

Big thumbs up for the B5 reference

[@RogerM88]

Imagine if was SpaceX to come up with a modular Space station. Next videos on multiple YT channels would be trending: *"Genius! Game over!"*

[@davidrikelv9529]

"SpaceX's crazy plan to beat Jeff Bezos with ITS as a giant space station (NOT CLICKBAIT)"

[@constellation-sj8xn]

Those have dethroned clickbaity gaming KZbinrs as the most annoying thumbnails on KZbin

[@kevinvermeer9011]

The SpaceX plan for a 9x70m space station: 1. Fly up a SuperHeavy booster. 2. Purge the kerosene from the tank with some N2 and spare O2. 3. Fit it with docking ports and solar panels. Done!

[@RogerM88]

@@kevinvermeer9011 it's not that simple to create an human habitat in LEO, like that. You need more life support systems.

[@CraneArmy]

starliner seems like, its gotta be like pretty close to finally done right? but what if dreamchaser ended up flying people before starliner did?

[@matejpavelka4153]

I can totally imagine Spacex regularly transporting people to the Moon and beyond and BO be like yay we have our first LEO space station module :D

[@dsgermack]

Space Janitor... honestly sounds like a great job. sign me up!

[@RD-170]

ThinkOrbital's station is just a big disco ball playing Boogie Wonderland 24/7

[@harbl99]

Somewhere the shade of Gerard O'Neill is kicking himself.

[@chrismantonuk]

If even half of this stuff comes to pass, the next few years are going to be SO COOL. Also, I wonder if Blue Origin will just drop a massive surprise one day and roll New Glenn out…. no? Maybe not.

[@odysseus5872]

It'll only be able to roll because the engines won't ready

[@I_dont_want_an_at]

Yeah right! You should have been born 400 years from now. That's when things are really getting interesting! You should be crying that you live in the olden days when not even a single baby has been born on another world. Primitive

[@MrClearview1]

Love the B5 reference! LOL.

[@VideoconferencingUSA]

Great job Scott.

[@yokowan]

would be neat to see starship used as some kind of wet workshop -- just put hatches through the bulkheads and vent all the propellant out in orbit, and you've suddenly got an absolutely massive amount of internal volume. so much room for activities!

[@HalNordmann]

The SLS core stage has a massively larger volume.

[@jonasthemovie]

@@HalNordmann SLS core stage goes to orbit?

[@HalNordmann]

@@jonasthemovie Not normally. However, it is capable of going into orbit, albeit at the cost of most of the payload capacity.

[@yokowan]

@@HalNordmann yeah, it would be great with SLS! the foam insulation might be nice for thermals and some amount of micrometeorite shielding, too

[@AdityaMehendale]

Soooo.. I was watching "Moonraker" the other day..

[@mathewferstl7042]

the most bonkers james bond movie

[@tittrev]

Fun speculation: Technically, 15 slightly curved, starship sized tube sections (with no nose cone)could be welded together to create a ~550M circumference doughnut-shaped space station (90m radius - ish). Add some reinforcements and put some spin on it and you could come close to lunar gravity. Modular assembly would help and I imagine a starship fairing around 10-11M wide can carry the curved tubes as payload. One could even conceive piling these steel doughnuts on top of each other and the constraints on size would come down to how many launches The boosters can manage in a given time period.

[@bernieschiff5919]

When Space X presents a new idea, it seems to be way ahead of conventional thinking. I would think that some designers at Space X are looking at something like this right now. The appeal for non-astronauts and tourists would be a version of gravity The cargo version of Starship could deliver pre-built sections to be assembled in orbit. A zero G docking port in the center for perhaps 2 starships would be connected by arms to the outside ring. A second ring could be added if additional capacity is needed. Something like the orbiting station from the movie "2001"

[@StockportJambo]

Upvoting for the B5 shout out - nice one. :)

[@DejonckheereWard]

Would be cool if one proposes a "modular" design for their space station. As in, designed to be expanded with a standard capsule/module but with different internals based on what they want. Allowing for like, mass produced space stations lol

[@danieljensen2626]

I feel like that really ought to be the way to go. Start with one segment and then keep expanding it out. The ISS did that a little bit, but it could be done on a bigger scale.

[@moosemaimer]

"Do you have any LunaGen3 to Ares adapters in stock?" "Sorry, all we have right now is the iModule to Aldrin convertor. Maybe next week."

[@DejonckheereWard]

@@moosemaimer lmfao

[@DejonckheereWard]

@@danieljensen2626 Yeah, it does feel like the way to go. I wonder what like, (with current stuff) the biggest thing is we can put up in orbit without issue.

[@gary5407]

Whoever came up with the graphic shown at 8:48 is lacking in imagination: Why have desks, when you can't lay anything down? Or a ladder? Or various loose items just sitting on flat surfaces? Everything floats in zero-G! The concept art is very much created by a one-G mind, just with "space" added in the background.

[@KnightRanger38]

A ladder would be useful to move between levels even in 0-G. Granted, the rungs would be used as handholds and while in the US the rungs are required by a federal regulation to be between 25 and 35 cm (10 to 14 inches) in 0-G the could be spaced out a lot more (1m or more between rungs).

[@Stant123]

Technically, it's low G (edit: more precisely, micro G), not zero G. Still, valid criticism, though I would point out that you can embed weak magnets on certain locations in the desktop and use 'paper weights' to lock things like papers and folders and book holders down, pens with metal bands that allow them to lock into place, paperclips, etc... I wouldn't say they're lacking in imagination as much as they're presenting a challenge that is easily overcome in an effort to present a more familiar working environment to sell the commercial aspect to less technically minded companies.

[@bru512]

Thanks Scott!

[@tomholroyd7519]

I love that double ended robot arm walking around the station

[@RogerM88]

Many point out, that larger Space station in LEO, have more economical potencial and viability, than a base on the Moon or Mars.

[@evil0sheep]

I think that depends how mature the space economy is. Early on sure but as the infrastructure for extracting resources from the Moon and Mars then there is much greater economic opportunity in supplying the Earth-Moon Lagrange points with things like refined metals and silicates from the Moon and carbon and nitrogen and argon from mars

[@juniorballs6025]

Arguably it's required for human long range exploration too

[@M167A1]

@@evil0sheep there's really no advantage to Mars. The delta-v requirement is simply too steep compared to the moon and asteroids..

[@ryanhamstra49]

I would guess that is due to cost of getting there and back and also what is there on the moon that we can’t do in earth at this point. The lure of LEO is micro gravity. Unless growing organs in 1/6 g is way easier than in 1 g or something like that, until we start pulling asteroids in or mining the moon there isn’t a huge lure to the moon other than to say we went. The only other thing I can think of is setting up an observatory on the far side of the moon? Would give a way better location than earth without the issues of a free floating observatory? Just spitballing

[@SuLokify]

Mercury would be really nice too, in the long term, assuming we have colonies throughout the system. Plenty of solar energy, metals, and frequent transfer windows. I do agree that a large LEO station is ideal for as long as all our spacecraft are constructed on Earth