Vast Space startup plans to create a station in which artificial gravity will be created through rotation. It should be not only a research platform, but also a production base and a platform for future missions.
Space Station from Vast Space
Vast Space, a startup from Southern California founded by Jed McCaleb, is going to build a station with artificial gravity in low Earth orbit. The businessman earned USD 2.5 billion on cryptocurrency, but always dreamed of doing private space exploration. Once he jokingly told friends that he was going to build mines on asteroids, and now he is going to bring his plan to life.
McCaleb believes that the Earth has limited resources and humanity needs to gradually move into space. In addition, we all need a leader, without which civilization on Earth will stagnate. These are the tasks Vast Space will perform in the long term.
But for now they are going to focus on creating an orbital station where people can stay for a long time. Since weightlessness has a strong impact on human health, the team decided to build a large structure on which artificial gravity will be supported by rotation.
Prospects of the new station
At the first stage, McCaleb is going to focus on creating a powerful team of engineers who will design the station. He has already been joined by Kyle Dedmon, former SpaceX vice president of ground infrastructure construction; Tom Hayford, a systems engineer who worked at Relativity Space and SpaceX; Molly McCormick, a former SpaceX human factors engineer and head of the Honeybee Robotics program; and Colin Smith, a former SpaceX propulsion engineer. In addition, former SpaceX vice president Hans Koenigsmann advises the company.
The search for investors for Vast Space activities is also continuing. McCaleb is still fully financing the startup from his own funds, but is going to attract serious investors in the near future, including NASA.
According to Vast Space, the new station should replace the ISS as a platform for space research. But they don’t want to stop and offer to make it also a port for future interplanetary missions.
There are also plans to place production facilities on it. This will allow not only to repair space equipment and spacecraft in orbit, but also to engage in technical developments that will be tested directly in space conditions.
According to spacenews.com
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