 Artist's conception of theOrion spacecraft docking with a module of the proposedSkylab II. | |
| Station statistics | |
|---|---|
| Crew | 4 |
| Launch | after 2021 |
| Carrier rocket | Space Launch System |
| Mission status | Proposed |
| Mass | 37,300 kilograms (82,200 lb)[1] |
| Length | 11.15 meters (36.6 ft) |
| Diameter | 8.5 meters (28 ft) |
| Pressurisedvolume | 495 cubic meters (17,500 cu ft) |
| Orbital inclination | 5.145° to theecliptic |
| Orbital period | |
| Configuration | |
 Skylab II Habitat made from the SLS upper-stage hydrogen tank. | |
Skylab II was aspace station concept proposed in 2013 by the Advanced Concepts Office ofNASAMarshall Space Flight Center, to be located at theEarth-MoonL2Lagrangian point.[3] Proposed by NASA contractor Brand Griffin,Skylab II would have been constructed as a "wet workshop" using a spentupper-stage hydrogen fuel tank from theSpace Launch System (SLS), much as theSkylab was originally planned to be built "wet" from the spentbipropellant tanks of theSaturnS-IVB upper stage.[3] If constructed,Skylab II would have been the first crewed outpost located beyond the orbit of the Moon.[4]
Skylab II would have orbited the Earth-Moon L2 point, which revolves around the Earth at an approximate mean distance of 443,000 kilometers (239,000 nmi) from the surface, and stays approximately 62,800 kilometers (33,900 nmi) beyond thefar surface of the Moon.[5] Given its location far away from the nearest food, water, and air, the first iteration of the space station would have had to have been able to support a four-person crew for 60 days on one shipment of supplies, to be eventually improved to 180 days.[1] AsSkylab II would be built from an SLS hydrogen fuel tank, the costs of assembly were estimated at a relatively low $2 billion, a tremendous savings over a previously projected cost of $4.175 billion for a similar space station.[1]
The space station would have large modules with diameters of 8.5 meters (28 ft)—much larger than the 4.5-meter (15 ft) diameter ofInternational Space Station modules or the 6.7-meter (22 ft) diameter of the originalSkylab.[4] This large diameter would lead to a module volume of about 495 cubic meters (17,500 cu ft), allowing for a large amount of space for both storage and habitation.[4] This large interior volume, in turn, would makeSkylab II suitable for its deep-space location, where resupply missions would be rare and astronauts would have to store the food they received from each mission for months at a time.[3] The supplies themselves could be carried in a variety of vehicles, such as the existingProgress andDragon, or perhaps a new, SLS-derived logistics module, which could resupply the whole station in one mission.[1]
Once at Earth-Moon L2,Skylab II could be a "stepping stone" for further human exploration in the Solar System,[1] for example by being a docking site for a crewed lunar lander before the trip to the Moon.[1] The second use would be to add a servicing capability for the astrophysics missions located near Earth-SunL2, extending thecryogenic mission lifetime of such missions by continually refilling theirliquid helium and enabling some astrophysics missions which may otherwise have not been possible or would have been launched in a less-capable state.[1]
Forextravehicular activities (EVAs) near the space station, a small, one-personFlexCraft may be used in lieu of a spacesuit to improve dexterity and safety for astronauts, as well as the efficiency of EVAs.[1][6] FlexCraft would eliminate the requirement of an astronaut to prebreathe the pure oxygen atmosphere in a spacesuit, reducing overhead time for EVAs significantly and enabling longer EVAs to be carried out.[6] Additionally, FlexCraft would improve astronaut speed during EVAs, as moving around space installations would be faster and less physically demanding in automated vehicles.[6]
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Notes: † Never inhabited due to launch or on-orbit failure, ‡ Part of theAlmaz military program, ° Never inhabited, lacks docking mechanism. | |||||||||