Forget about the ISS using the robotic arm to attach the trunk or its array in a daisy chain. Just have the Dragon (which has its own RCS) depart the station with the trunk attached, fly over to the column of previously flown trunks and docket the trunk with the chain on its own. The dragon then separates and re-enters the atmosphere on its own leaving a stack of trunks and solar arrays in space to serve as a power station for future projects.Who cares if crap and other waste products from the ISS is burned up in a re-entry or kept on a nearby station in space? It doesn't cost anything to keep it there. Also, who cares if the solar array assembly also happens to carry feces in its trunks? Just attach a Hall Effect thruster to one end for station keeping and keep stacking them like a caterpillar. The next time the Dragonlab flies or if somebody wants to do another station or telescope, the caterpillar can then serve as a ready to use 20-solar array power farm.
Quote from: dwightlooi on 07/13/2012 09:06 pmForget about the ISS using the robotic arm to attach the trunk or its array in a daisy chain. Just have the Dragon (which has its own RCS) depart the station with the trunk attached, fly over to the column of previously flown trunks and docket the trunk with the chain on its own. The dragon then separates and re-enters the atmosphere on its own leaving a stack of trunks and solar arrays in space to serve as a power station for future projects.Who cares if crap and other waste products from the ISS is burned up in a re-entry or kept on a nearby station in space? It doesn't cost anything to keep it there. Also, who cares if the solar array assembly also happens to carry feces in its trunks? Just attach a Hall Effect thruster to one end for station keeping and keep stacking them like a caterpillar. The next time the Dragonlab flies or if somebody wants to do another station or telescope, the caterpillar can then serve as a ready to use 20-solar array power farm. You will not have waste moving from pressure to no pressure for the purpose of disposal in any vehicle, even the trunk. So no worries about having gross kinds of stuff building up in this power farm stack of yours, only cast off unpressurized station components.