propellent. The water can then be used aboard the station as desired or stored for future use. One future use would be to separate the water back into hydrogen and oxygen, liquefy it, and use it for the cryogenic uses mentioned earlier. This could be done during times of low energy use onboard the station. C. Salvage Container One of the significant problems growing in LEO is debris. Every launch dumps something into orbit that could later become a threat to future operations. The ET can be partially disassembled (oxygen tank and intertank removed) and used as an orbital garbage can (25). The large volume of the hydrogen tank can be used to advantage in keeping a particular orbit clean. An additional use would be orbital storage of recovered inoperative satellites or captured debris. The satellites could be disassembled for spare parts, melted to provide raw materials for manufacturing, or ground up into powder to provide reaction mass for propulsion systems. The tank diameter is large enough to store a large number of recovered items. Artificial gravity can be induced by use of two tanks connected with a tether. The tanks can either be rotating about another or 'hanging* in a gravity gradient stabilized mode depending on the gravity level desired. D. Storage of orbital assets before use A tank that is part of a space station can be used to store spares in orbit. These satellites can be serviced, checked out as needed, and stored indefinitely for future use. When the spare is required, it can be serviced, checked out, and outfitted for launch with an extremely short notice. This will solve the problems inherent in a short notice change to shuttle launch manifest. The spare can be launched at leisure, stored until needed, and quickly flown. Program savings here are tied to manifest changes, bumping payloads, training requirements, and money lost due to not having the services provided by the broken satellite until it is replaced. An additional advantage of on-orbit storage or assets where a crew can get to them is the ability to do preventative maintenance in space before launch. For example, an operational satellite shows problems after a year or so of operation. The problem is solved on the ground so that the repair can be made in space to the spare. This is a large advantage to space operations.
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