Space Show Notes

Hi Jon,

Thanks for answering my question re: commercial fuel depots on the Space Show this evening.

I see how the human deep space exploration missions will derive huge benefits from a propellant depot, but it seems like there’s ways a small, low depot can benefit other customers – by launching with an empty EDS for planetary missions, for example, or for supporting the MDA satellite refueling tug (which has the benefit of having an existing customer base with expensive-but-useless hardware already floating around in space).

I wasn’t sure how a Bigelow station would benefit from a depot, though. They will be getting regular crew vehicles, which I’d assume would also carry propellant. But maybe they’d rather carry luggage and TV dinners 🙂

The Bigelow station would need a transfer vehicle to get propellant from the depot, right? Or are you suggesting that the station would also BE the depot? There’d be people there to operate/maintain it, in between other station tasks.

Anyway, I was a bit confused. Feel free to enlighten me.

Thanks again,

Doug

p.s. this blog doesn’t seem to link to http://www.altius-space.com. You might want to put it in your blogroll 🙂