Jun 172010
No further hard data than just the image. Note the vaguely Dyna Soar-like spaceplane near the top, with the shoulder mounted wing that is sure to make re-entry entertaining. Note also the *thing* in the lower right… the central body looks like some sort of fusion-ship, but it has large “wings” of curved panels that are probably meant to represent a solar-thermal energy system. If it’s a ship, as opposed to a power station, you’d think there’d be some way to gimbal the “wings” so that they could stay face-on to the sun while the thrust vector of the propulsion system (perhaps ion engines) points wherever it needs to.
One Response to “Early 60’s Boeing Space Station Art”
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the thing does indeed appear to be some sort of solar power station using reflectors to heat some sort of working fluid (probably stored in the red tanks encircling its base) but since it appears to be under construction, is it to be mounted on the main space station when finished?
The thing to the right of it appears to be another living module for the station, which has been launched with the reflector panels wrapped around its exterior.
This looks a lot like some sort of “wetlab” approach, with the module being the empty fuel tank of a rocket that will be converted into a living module.
The time frame this comes out of was when Centaur was being designed, and Centaur used jettisonable insulation panels over its LH2 tank.
Is this a idea to get some use out of similar panels on a far larger stage by carrying them all the way into orbit, and then making the solar power plant with them as reflectors?