Nautilus-X

The original goal of Nautilus-X was to be a stopover to long-term missions for the Moon or Mars. To ease route planning of the whole mission, the station would be placed at the Lagrange point L1 or L2 of the Moon or Mars, depending on which location is to be visited. It would also have served as an emergency station and hospital for current mission crews. Other objectives included: • Self-sustained for long-duration missions with crews as large as 6. • Support crewed landing missions. • Satisfy requirements of NASA Authorization Act of 2010. == Description ==

Design The proposal notionally included a main corridor, a rotating habitable centrifuge, inflatable modules for logistical stores and crew use, solar power arrays, and a reconfigurable thrust structure. The design was modular, enabling it to accommodate any of a number of mission specific propulsion modules, manipulator arms, docking port for an Orion or commercial crew capsule, and landing craft for destination worlds. In theory the engines and fuel could be swapped out depending on the mission. which has continued the development of inflatable modules initially designed and developed by NASA. Attributes • Environmental Control and Life Support and communication suite • Large storage volumes (for food, mechanical parts or medical supplies) • Visual command and observe capability for crew • Low crew irradiation • Semi-autonomous integration of multiple mission specific propulsion units == Status as of 2011 ==

The Nautilus-X design concept did not advance beyond the initial drawings and proposal. ISS centrifuge demonstration In order to assess and characterize influences and effects of the centrifuge relative to human reactions, mechanical dynamic responses and influences, the demonstration of a similar centrifuge first would be tested on the International Space Station (ISS). If produced, this centrifuge would have been the first in-space demonstration of sufficient scale for artificial partial-g effects. The demonstrator would be sent using a single Delta IV or Atlas V launcher. The full cost of such a demonstrator would be between US$83 million and US$143 million. ==See also==