10 thoughts on “Vast”

1. The cutaway drawings probably don’t do it justice. But in 0g you can leverage the Z dimension far more usefully that what I see drawn here. I notice they’re taking that into consideration with the foot holds. But in space the workbenches can also be on the walls and ceilings. Also open space looks nice but is a pain in the rotation if you aren’t traversing it will some velocity in 0g. Needs some cross lines or tether points. The larger the open space the greater the need. Or open carry a can of compressed air in a holster.

   1. Yeah, that’s a lot of wasted space. I’ve seen RVs that utilized more interior volume.

   2. Might be for mental health as that thing looks teeny tiny.

2. “Also open space looks nice but is a pain in the rotation if you aren’t traversing it will some velocity in 0g. Needs some cross lines or tether points. The larger the open space the greater the need. Or open carry a can of compressed air in a holster.”

   There was an Arthur C. Clarke story about that problem. Our hero threw away his underpants.

3. OK, NASA should buy 5 and the Space Force should buy 20.

   1. 1) Might be for mental health as that thing looks teeny tiny….

      2) OK, NASA should buy 5 and the Space Force should buy 20.

      Ah I see you are catching on. We’ll make a Marketing VP out of you yet… 🙂

4. These could easily be manufactured in volume. The shortage would be capsules, I think. On the other hand, a hub with 4 Havens, a Dragon XL, and a Halo module with three open docking ports. Maybe an airlock. That’d pretty much be a mini-ISS.

   1. I guessed right:

      Vast-1 will host 4 crews at unknown intervals, the be discarded.

      The Vast-2 module us twice as large with a docking port at both ends. In 2028-2029, 4 Vast-2 modules will be launched by FH and link up in orbit. In 2030, they will be joined by a hub, launched by Starship. Then 4 more Vast-2 modules will come up and attach to the Vast-2 station by 2032. So that’s 8 modules and a hub.

5. Humans, being neither insects nor geckos are unaccustomed to either walking/traversing the ceiling or walking/traversing under someone or something on the ceiling with no visible support. They can tolerate stimuli that are, nevertheless, wearing over the long term. Aspect ratios of spaces are also important, ask anyone with claustrophobia.

   Over the weekend, the economics of both enclosed space and mass in orbit has changed by orders of magnitude. The bare minimum is no longer the maximum.

   1. In one of my unfinished stories, a film crew has just come aboard an interplanetary liner, when they hear rutch, rutch, rutch, look up and there is an upside-down cat coming toward them across the padded ceiling, holding on with its claws…

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