SPACE STATION “SPACEDOCK”
Notes:
After the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger accident, a number of space policy reports (“Pioneering the Space Frontier”, “Leadership and America's Future in Space”) advocated an aggressive manned lunar/Mars program to restore America's lead in space. NASA now embarked on a number of studies to see how the downscaled Space Station Freedom could assist this goal. This 1988 illustration depicts a large spacedock facility for assembly and checkout of manned Mars spacecraft.
Most NASA studies preferred to develop a separate spacecraft assembly & checkout facility in order to minimize the impact on sensitive experiments onboard Space Station Freedom. This “spacedock” would be connected to the Space Station by a long tether. The space tug (top) will receive a free boost from the centrifugal forces when it releases the tether
This free-flying “spacedock” would be constructed from Space Station subsystems such as solar thermodynamic power generators, radiators, truss segments etc.. The white tanks contain rocket propellant for the space tug.
The second illustration shows a space tug being assembled from elements launched from Earth by a large robotic arm. The large walls on the side of the spacedock's box-like structure provide thermal protection.
