PERUN—Space shuttle external tank used as a space station

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a study project which has been conducted by a Student Working Group for Astronautics of the Planetarium of Praha. It deals with the possibility of converting an expended Space Shuttle External Tank into a space station, a permanently manned orbital facility. The space station was designed economically by using much off-shelf hardware developed for earlier space projects. It is compatible with the Space Transportation System which will operate in the 1980s. It is proposed that mission dependent experimental equipment be carried aboard Spacelab modules which should be exchanged during periodic revisits by the Space Shuttle. The key functions of the proposed space station are discussed, such as power supply, thermal control, trajectory corrections, logistics, etc. In our project we have arrived at a Space Station carrying a permanent crew of 8 people, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 390 km, resupplied by STS every 80 days.