tanks for space power applications. SSI presented a general overview study on the use of external tanks to the National Commission on Space in December 1985 [27]. When viewed as a nonterrestrial resource, the external tanks have several desirable characteristics. These include (i) known composition—there is no need to use spectroscopic analysis to find out what these ‘man-made asteroids’ are comprised of; (ii) low delta- V—the external tanks are accelerated to approximately 98% of orbital velocity when they are released; (iii) ease of processing—the tank itself is primarily aluminum. Preliminary studies have indicated ways to process the tanks in orbit, which basically involve cutting and melting operations as opposed to chemical processing; (iv)—an additional advantage of using external tanks is that, unlike with ‘natural’ asteroids,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==