Apr 242013
 

This 1969-era NASA painting depicts a space station that does not seem to make much sense. For starters: it would seem to be a single-launch station, but how would it fold up for launch? If the two arms were to fold “down,” the large pressure vessels would try to pass through each other. And it has what appear to be Apollo capsules at the ends of the arms. If this is so, it would not only mean that separating one capsule would throw the space station far off balance, it also means that an incoming capsule would be incapable of docking unless the station stopped rotating.

Incoming is what appears to be a Big Gemini logistics craft, presumably to dock at the central hub. The WHOOSH lines, though, seem to indicate that closing velocity is pretty high.

 Posted by at 4:55 am