Created: 2023-08-02
Updated: 2024-07-08
Company - Starlab (Voyager Space, Airbus)
Product/Service - Starlab
- Classification
- Space Stations & Habitats
- Category
- Commercial Space Station
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2028
- Partners
- Nanoracks, Hilton, Voyager Space, Airbus
- This mission is part of our Outpost Program, which is focused on transforming used launch vehicle upper stages into uncrewed, controllable platforms. Nanoracks designed a self-contained hosted payload platform to demonstrate on-orbit, debris-free, robotic metal cutting.
- Our partner in this demonstration, Maxar Technologies, developed a new robotic arm with a friction milling end-effector.
- Friction milling uses a cutting tool operating at high rotations per minute to melt the metal in such a way that a cut is made, and no debris is generated. Maxar’s robotic cutter is equipped with thermal sensors and cameras, and once in space,
- Nanoracks and Maxar will have up to one hour to complete the cutting of three metal pieces, made of corrosion resistant steel (the same material that is used on the outer shell of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur) without creating any debris in the process.
- The demonstration itself will occur about 9 minutes into flight and will be finished approximately 10 minutes later. The rest of the time the team will downlink the photos and video to the ground stations until the vehicle and hosted payloads de-orbit over the Pacific.
- In addition to designing hospitality suites and sleeping arrangements, Hilton will also work with Voyager to examine opportunities for marketing of the space station and astronaut experiences onboard.
- Voyager expects to begin manufacturing the first Starlab module in the third quarter of 2023.
Announcing Two Starlab Demo Missions, 2023-12-07
- As part of our Space Act Agreement with NASA, our team is kicking off demonstration missions for an alternative urine processor (AUP) and a free-space optical (FSO) link. These demonstrations are critical in validating capabilities needed for Starlab.
- Given the extremely limited availability of space-rated urine processors (only NASA and the Russian Space Agency have operated them to date), the Starlab team has initiated maturation and ground testing of a full-scale alternative urine processor to drive down cost and technical implementation risk and to leverage increased options in the marketplace for this essential technology.
- In addition to the water purification system, Voyager Space is developing an optical communications space terminal to be mounted on the Bishop Airlock, the first commercial module attached to the International Space Station (ISS).
- This type of high-bandwidth optical communications, supported by Edge computing and AI, is a critical technology needed to support multiple Starlab activities. Data is one of the most valuable research products of Starlab itself, and advanced research is data intensive, requiring demanding communications, high resolution video downlink, and more. Additionally, it’s important that researchers can access and control their payloads from the ground, another driver for high-bandwidth optical communications.
NASA’s Commercial Partners Continue Progress on New Space Stations, 2023-12-12.
- NASA also awarded Starlab, a station being developed by Voyager Space’s Exploration Segment, a Space Act Agreement in 2021. Voyager Space recently announced a partnership with Airbus and Northrop Grumman. Voyager’s Exploration Segment, which includes Nanoracks, recently completed three milestones: a system definition review and the initiation of two pairs of milestones for an optical link demonstration and alternative urine processor demonstration.
- Free-space optical, also called laser communications, allows for higher data rates and more energy-efficient communications than radio frequency communication systems. A major goal of the optical communication demonstration is to conduct testing from the International Space Station to the ground to establish the capabilities needed for Starlab. This initial milestone, within the optical link demonstration milestone pair scope, validated the Starlab testing plan. The optical link is planning to be tested next on the International Space Station.
- As on the International Space Station, Starlab will recover purified water from urine to reduce water needed to resupply the station. Starlab will test an alternative urine processor under realistic operating conditions to validate functional performance and reduce implementation risk. Similar to the optical link demonstration, the processor demonstration is divided into a pair of milestones, with this initial completed milestone validating the testing plan.
- Starlab’s third recently completed milestone was a system definition review. Teams examined how NASA’s potential commercial space station requirements aligned to the functional areas of the Starlab system to define the space station architecture. The completion of this milestone initiated preparations for the next step in the comprehensive review process, the preliminary design review.
Starlab commercial space station to launch on Starship, SpaceNews, 2024-01-31
- Starlab Space, a joint venture of Voyager Space and Airbus Space and Defence, announced Jan. 31 it reached an agreement with SpaceX to launch the Starlab station on Starship.
- The companies did not disclose terms of the agreement or a projected launch date, although a spokesperson for Starlab Space said the company was confident that Starlab would be launched before the decommissioning of the International Space Station, currently scheduled for 2030.
Mitsubishi takes stake in Starlab Space, SpaceNews, 2024-04-05.
- Mitsubishi has become a strategic partner of Starlab Space and would take an equity stake in the joint venture.
- A Starlab spokesperson declined to provide specific details about the agreement, including its financial value or the size of the equity stake.
MDA Space joins Starlab Space commercial space station venture, 2024-05-29.
- MDA Space will take an equity stake in Starlab Space, the size of which the companies did not disclose.
- In return, MDA Space will provide space robotics technologies under its new MDA Skymaker line announced in April that includes robotic arms and interfaces that will operate on the outside of the Starlab space station.
Status Comment / Notes
Voyager Space and Airbus Finalize Starlab Space LLC Joint Venture, 2023-01-09.
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