fut_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1985, unnumbered poss. Space Industries Inc. photo)
Circa 1985 artist’s concept of the Industrial Space Facility (ISF), a privately owned space station, as proposed by Space Industries Inc.
“After his retirement from NASA in 1982, Dr. Max Faget co-founded Space Industries, Inc. with a major objective to develop a "man tended" Earth orbiting complex for scientific research. Plans were to have the complex carried inside the Space Shuttle's payload bay and released into orbit. Automated micro-gravity, pharmaceutical, and other experiments would operate for several months with retrieval of the results by the Space Shuttle. Political issues relating to NASA's own desire for a large space station and the Space Shuttle Challenger accident eventually derailed this project.”
Above credit:
www.bonhams.com/auctions/17778/lot/1137/
Credit: Bonhams website
Also, per Wikipedia:
“Space Industries was founded in Houston, Texas by Maxime Faget, who had recently retired as chief of engineering and operations at NASA, as well as entrepreneurs James Calaway, Guillermo Trotti, and Larry Bell. Their plan was to build a space station that would feed off the life support system of the space shuttle when it visited, but would not maintain continuous life support between shuttle visits. Faget proposed this plan because maintaining continuous life support would be cost prohibitive.
Joe Allen, a physicist and astronaut, was a partner, as was Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Investors included Roy M. Huffington, an oilman and later United States ambassador to Austria; James Elkins, not to be confused with James A. Elkins who was the co-founder of the Vinson & Elkins law firm; and Walter Mischer, a developer.
Calaway lobbied the United States government to be an anchor tenant in the proposed space station. In 1988, the Reagan Administration requested $700 million from the annual budget in order to participate in the project, but the request was not approved by Congress, and the space station was never built.
The company eventually merged with Calspan Corporation, which in turn merged with General Dynamics Corporation.”
At:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Industries_Incorporated
Additional information available at:
forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33781.0
Credit: NASA SPACEFLIGHT website/forum
www.astronautix.com/i/industrialspacefacility.html
Credit: Astronautix website/Marcus Lindroos
uhclarchives.omeka.net/exhibits/show/faget/industrial/blu...
Credit: University of Houston (Clear Lake) archives website
Who knew? Did you? I didn’t.
It even has the semi-obligatory moon in the distance, although it looks sort of smooth & metallic. Maybe one of the near-perfectly spherical ball bearings being manufactured escaped. Note also the boom extending out from the facility to provide passive gravity gradient atitude stabilization.
Most importantly, the depiction was featured on the obverse of a “SpaceShots, SERIES TWO” trading card, specifically no. 0216.
Check out the following, as I expect the images to have a finite online ‘shelf life’:
images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HTiajgqKL._AC_...
Credit: Amazon.com website
Further, per NASA Spinoff 1985:
“While some companies are focusing attention on materials processing experiments expected to lead to orbital product manufacture, another group of companies is pursuing a different but related line of commercial space development: fabrication of processing systems and equipment for lease to experimenters.
One such system is the Industrial Space Facility (ISF), being developed by Space Industries, Inc., a company formed only three years ago to pursue commercial space ventures. Shown in cutaway view at left, the ISF in its basic form is a large, solar powered module (35 feet long and 14½ feet in diameter) intended primarily for experimental or operational materials processing in such areas as advanced pharmaceuticals; growing large, ultrapure semiconductor crystals; containerless processing of vastly improved fiber optics; or creation of metal alloys and composites not producible on Earth. The ISF can also serve as a scientific laboratory or as a technology development facility for testing new space equipment and procedures. As many as six modules, each with its own laboratory factory equipment plus power storage, temperature control, communications, data management and other provisions, can be docked together to create what the developers call a "space industrial park."
The ISF is designed as an unmanned automated station, but a unique aspect of the design is provision for 2,500 square feet of pressurized volume in each facility module. Thus, Shuttle-delivered servicing crews will be able to work in a shirtsleeve environment for the two or three days it might take for repairs or adjustments, equipment changeouts, product harvesting and cleaning/restocking production apparatus.
In a Shuttle/ISF resupply and servicing operation, the Shuttle Orbiter is docked to the ISF by means of a berthing adapter. Astronauts enter the pressurized part of the facility module through a docking tunnel. Connected to the facility module is a separable supply module containing oxygen for pressurization and other consumables; resupply modules, six to 11 feet long, will be Shuttle-delivered every three to four months and depleted modules returned to Earth. The periodically man-tended ISF will operate in the same orbit as that of the planned Space Station and it will also be able to dock with the Space Station for servicing.
By agreement, NASA and Space Industries will exchange non-proprietary data and work together on technical matters and operational support requirements. Space Industries has completed preliminary engineering, applied for patents, begun negotiations with equipment suppliers and awarded a contract to Lockheed Missiles & Space Company for the large solar array. Target date for operational service of the fist ISF is 1989”
At/from:
spinoff.nasa.gov/back_issues_archives/1985.pdf
Last, but not least - in all seriousness - the artist's signature of "Li Hua" is visible. Certainly not ‘THE’ Li Hua, so sort of a win? I assume it to be a pseudonym...possibly in homage? If so, by whom? That is, unless the name Li Hua is akin to something like ‘Joe Smith’.
fut_v_c_o_TPMBK (ca. 1985, unnumbered poss. Space Industries Inc. photo)
Circa 1985 artist’s concept of the Industrial Space Facility (ISF), a privately owned space station, as proposed by Space Industries Inc.
“After his retirement from NASA in 1982, Dr. Max Faget co-founded Space Industries, Inc. with a major objective to develop a "man tended" Earth orbiting complex for scientific research. Plans were to have the complex carried inside the Space Shuttle's payload bay and released into orbit. Automated micro-gravity, pharmaceutical, and other experiments would operate for several months with retrieval of the results by the Space Shuttle. Political issues relating to NASA's own desire for a large space station and the Space Shuttle Challenger accident eventually derailed this project.”
Above credit:
www.bonhams.com/auctions/17778/lot/1137/
Credit: Bonhams website
Also, per Wikipedia:
“Space Industries was founded in Houston, Texas by Maxime Faget, who had recently retired as chief of engineering and operations at NASA, as well as entrepreneurs James Calaway, Guillermo Trotti, and Larry Bell. Their plan was to build a space station that would feed off the life support system of the space shuttle when it visited, but would not maintain continuous life support between shuttle visits. Faget proposed this plan because maintaining continuous life support would be cost prohibitive.
Joe Allen, a physicist and astronaut, was a partner, as was Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Investors included Roy M. Huffington, an oilman and later United States ambassador to Austria; James Elkins, not to be confused with James A. Elkins who was the co-founder of the Vinson & Elkins law firm; and Walter Mischer, a developer.
Calaway lobbied the United States government to be an anchor tenant in the proposed space station. In 1988, the Reagan Administration requested $700 million from the annual budget in order to participate in the project, but the request was not approved by Congress, and the space station was never built.
The company eventually merged with Calspan Corporation, which in turn merged with General Dynamics Corporation.”
At:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Industries_Incorporated
Additional information available at:
forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=33781.0
Credit: NASA SPACEFLIGHT website/forum
www.astronautix.com/i/industrialspacefacility.html
Credit: Astronautix website/Marcus Lindroos
uhclarchives.omeka.net/exhibits/show/faget/industrial/blu...
Credit: University of Houston (Clear Lake) archives website
Who knew? Did you? I didn’t.
It even has the semi-obligatory moon in the distance, although it looks sort of smooth & metallic. Maybe one of the near-perfectly spherical ball bearings being manufactured escaped. Note also the boom extending out from the facility to provide passive gravity gradient atitude stabilization.
Most importantly, the depiction was featured on the obverse of a “SpaceShots, SERIES TWO” trading card, specifically no. 0216.
Check out the following, as I expect the images to have a finite online ‘shelf life’:
images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HTiajgqKL._AC_...
Credit: Amazon.com website
Further, per NASA Spinoff 1985:
“While some companies are focusing attention on materials processing experiments expected to lead to orbital product manufacture, another group of companies is pursuing a different but related line of commercial space development: fabrication of processing systems and equipment for lease to experimenters.
One such system is the Industrial Space Facility (ISF), being developed by Space Industries, Inc., a company formed only three years ago to pursue commercial space ventures. Shown in cutaway view at left, the ISF in its basic form is a large, solar powered module (35 feet long and 14½ feet in diameter) intended primarily for experimental or operational materials processing in such areas as advanced pharmaceuticals; growing large, ultrapure semiconductor crystals; containerless processing of vastly improved fiber optics; or creation of metal alloys and composites not producible on Earth. The ISF can also serve as a scientific laboratory or as a technology development facility for testing new space equipment and procedures. As many as six modules, each with its own laboratory factory equipment plus power storage, temperature control, communications, data management and other provisions, can be docked together to create what the developers call a "space industrial park."
The ISF is designed as an unmanned automated station, but a unique aspect of the design is provision for 2,500 square feet of pressurized volume in each facility module. Thus, Shuttle-delivered servicing crews will be able to work in a shirtsleeve environment for the two or three days it might take for repairs or adjustments, equipment changeouts, product harvesting and cleaning/restocking production apparatus.
In a Shuttle/ISF resupply and servicing operation, the Shuttle Orbiter is docked to the ISF by means of a berthing adapter. Astronauts enter the pressurized part of the facility module through a docking tunnel. Connected to the facility module is a separable supply module containing oxygen for pressurization and other consumables; resupply modules, six to 11 feet long, will be Shuttle-delivered every three to four months and depleted modules returned to Earth. The periodically man-tended ISF will operate in the same orbit as that of the planned Space Station and it will also be able to dock with the Space Station for servicing.
By agreement, NASA and Space Industries will exchange non-proprietary data and work together on technical matters and operational support requirements. Space Industries has completed preliminary engineering, applied for patents, begun negotiations with equipment suppliers and awarded a contract to Lockheed Missiles & Space Company for the large solar array. Target date for operational service of the fist ISF is 1989”
At/from:
spinoff.nasa.gov/back_issues_archives/1985.pdf
Last, but not least - in all seriousness - the artist's signature of "Li Hua" is visible. Certainly not ‘THE’ Li Hua, so sort of a win? I assume it to be a pseudonym...possibly in homage? If so, by whom? That is, unless the name Li Hua is akin to something like ‘Joe Smith’.