Go back to that Max Fagin (former SpaceX intern) retropropulsion thesis defense video.Whole vehicle lands, but only an upper portion returns to Earth. If the propulsion is in the upper portion (Dragon 2 heritage) the left behind cargo section can be used for most anything; habitation, cargo, or perhaps a dual purpose.How about some stripped down cargo sections hauling expandable & repurposeable tanks full of distilled water (thinking Thin Red Line's expandable tank tech.) AKA, 'how to ship hydrogen and oxygen without cryocollers', and the cargo bay volume could be repurposed for colony use later.
Too often the logistics considerations take a back seat, but for Mars they should be front and center. Cargo MCTs should be loaded and unloaded like container ships at a port. The only problem I see is that first Cargo MCT being unloaded to get the unloading equipment out to unload the other cargo MCTs.
The CBM like (lite?) hatches are a good idea. A pressurized vehicle come up to the CBM, latches, you open from the pressurized vehicle. This vehicle could be stored in and unpressurized container, have an expandable body, and away you go.The containers could be attached to nodes. One node could have an airlock so all the containers in the group can share that airlock.Of course, you now have a trailer park in an area with lots of swirling winds!
- Container cargo launch to be contents agnostic [same shape, connections (power, thermal, comm), weight, moments and CG]
in this scheme does the entire long side of a container need to be airtight when mated to an adjacent one and the interior walls removed? That's a fairly tall order I think. Requires some very stable foundations I would expect. Not undoable. But I could see them using something flexible and a several centimeter gap, so that the joins don't have to be perfectly aligned. Put bridge plates on the floor at the joint and put plates on the walls and ceiling to protect the flexible material.Think how an articulated tram/streetcar/bus has accordion pleating joints between sections.
Also, I think that these "CBM-like hatches" that are being discussed for the containers should be modified in our thinking to something more like "submarine-type hatches". They will be supporting people walking between chambers, not floating. They will likely have shin-breaking 50cm tall bottom sills, but should be more like two to two and a half meters tall, to allow even your tallest crewperson to walk through them without also risking head trauma... I like the idea of the containers being inflatable and, once emptied of surface equipment (and unstowed of in-hab equipment) become your hab spaces. Economies of all kinds inherent in that concept...
Quote from: Lar on 06/06/2016 05:51 pmin this scheme does the entire long side of a container need to be airtight when mated to an adjacent one and the interior walls removed? That's a fairly tall order I think. Requires some very stable foundations I would expect. Not undoable. But I could see them using something flexible and a several centimeter gap, so that the joins don't have to be perfectly aligned. Put bridge plates on the floor at the joint and put plates on the walls and ceiling to protect the flexible material.Think how an articulated tram/streetcar/bus has accordion pleating joints between sections.The envisioned is a slightly flexible CBM like connection between containers at 60 degree intervals around the circumference to account for temperature effects of shrinkage and expansion. This could simply be a flat plate area that can flex in and out like a drum head. Normally the pressure would exert a significant force pushing the CBM connections together. Use of an accordion would not really be necessary if the modules are place correctly and pushed together and anchored. Additionally a centrally located CBM top and bottom could also be done with sufficient structural elements around the sides to be able to stack the containers. Instant condo The sides are not expected to be removed. A ~1500m^3 container of ~14m diameter would be 10m tall. That is a very large empty space compared to the ISS experience. Three stories of 153m^2(1660 sqft) of floor space each level. Each level is equivalent of a 3 bedroom house. These things are not small.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 06/06/2016 06:27 pmQuote from: Lar on 06/06/2016 05:51 pmin this scheme does the entire long side of a container need to be airtight when mated to an adjacent one and the interior walls removed? That's a fairly tall order I think. Requires some very stable foundations I would expect. Not undoable. But I could see them using something flexible and a several centimeter gap, so that the joins don't have to be perfectly aligned. Put bridge plates on the floor at the joint and put plates on the walls and ceiling to protect the flexible material.Think how an articulated tram/streetcar/bus has accordion pleating joints between sections.The envisioned is a slightly flexible CBM like connection between containers at 60 degree intervals around the circumference to account for temperature effects of shrinkage and expansion. This could simply be a flat plate area that can flex in and out like a drum head. Normally the pressure would exert a significant force pushing the CBM connections together. Use of an accordion would not really be necessary if the modules are place correctly and pushed together and anchored. Additionally a centrally located CBM top and bottom could also be done with sufficient structural elements around the sides to be able to stack the containers. Instant condo The sides are not expected to be removed. A ~1500m^3 container of ~14m diameter would be 10m tall. That is a very large empty space compared to the ISS experience. Three stories of 153m^2(1660 sqft) of floor space each level. Each level is equivalent of a 3 bedroom house. These things are not small.Someone in this thread said something about taking entire walls off from adjacent containers to make larger work spaces. So that's what I was referring to there.I would dispute that you can get away without accordions, unless you are sure that there will never be any quakes, any settling, any shifts, etc.
ok.I would still dispute that for regular container to container joints that you would just use a press-fit or even bolts, because as you got bigger and bigger, the end containers will be under increasing strain if things shift.Even here on earth, large buildings get expansion joints or earthquake fault line joints.