A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which serves as an orbiting satellite. They can serve as research stations or habitats, but can serve as staging areas or space bridges between planets and their moons.
List of current and proposed space stations[]
| Name | Launch date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| International Space Station | 1998 | Collaboration of five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada). The ISS is the largest space station ever built. Its primary purpose is to perform microgravity and space environment experiments.
Axiom station will detach from the ISS in the early 2030s and form a private, free flying space station for commercial tourism and science activities. |
| Lunar Gateway | 2027 | A science platform and staging area for the lunar landings of NASA's Artemis program and follow-on human mission to Mars. |
| Mir | 1986 | Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russian Federation. |
| Salyut | 1971 | The Salyut programme was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. |
| Skylab | 1973 | Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA. |
| Starlab | 2028 | Designed by Starlab Space as a commercial platform supporting a business designed to enable science, research, and manufacturing for customers around the world. |
| Orbital Reef | 2027 | Designed by Blue Origin for commercial space activities and space tourism. The long-term vision of the Orbital Reef is an O'Neill Cylinder designed to host a trillion humans. |
| Tiangong | 2011 | The Tiangong program is China's space program to create a modular space station, comparable to Mir. |
Interplanetary space stations[]
These are orbital megastructures that will serve as waypoints for spacecraft on interplanetary trade routes.
Earth[]
Possibly one or many space stations will serve both the Earth and the Moon. These will be outposts for ships travelling between planets, moons and asteroids. Cargo and passengers will be shipped between the station and both Earth and Moon with the help of smaller landing vehicles designed to pass through an atmosphere. They will be equipped with advanced water and air recycling systems.
Positioned approximately 22,300 kilometers from Earth's center, they will reside between the Van Allen radiation belts, minimizing exposure to harmful radiation while avoiding space debris prevalent in lower orbits.
They will be fully-fledged spaceports serving these functions:
- To accommodate a large number of passengers like on Earth's airports, including tourists and researchers, these stations will feature malls, clubs, hotels, casinos, and amusement parks.
- They will house research facilities focusing on enclosed environments and sustainable living in space.
- For goods and freight, robotics will be used to move containers on and off cargo ships.
- Medical and repair facilities.
- Fuel storage bays.
- Maintenance ships will bring food, oxygen and fuel from the Earth or the Moon when needed. These ships will take back human waste.
Venus[]
During the terraforming processes, Venus will require large amounts of materials to be shipped from asteroids and maybe Mercury. Equipment will need to be brought from Earth. Interplanetary trade routes to Venus will need to send lots of cargo via massive ships docked at an orbital space station. From there, small ships will carry all cargo and all passengers to the planet. Work on the ground will be done mostly with robots that can resist the harsh environment.
Mars[]
For terraforming and colonizing Mars, we will need to bring equipment from Earth and raw materials from the asteroid belt. It will be easier to ship large amounts of cargo with massive cargo ships docking at paraterraformed outposts on Phobos or Deimos serving as space stations. From there, smaller landing ships will travel to the planet surface.
Asteroid belt[]
Because of mining activities, a Ceres space station will serve these functions:
- Large interplanetary ships will dock there and connect the station with both inner and outer planets, making it the hub and trade center of interplanetary trade routes. It will require large cargo bays.
- Tourism will be unlikely but hotel rooms will be required for traders.
- Fresh water can be transported from the high ice-content asteroids to Ceres. The base should produce its own food and oxygen. Energy can be solar and nuclear generators can be used as backup sources of power.
- Medical and repair facilities.
- Fuel storage bays.
Gas giants[]
Mining operations will require habitats which will also serve as space stations. Stations could also be built on some moons for economic reasons or scientific research.