Lockheed Martin

Astronauts could stay at this space ‘motel’ on the way to Mars

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A new prototype habitat could host four space fliers for up to 60 days.

Image: Space Lunar Habitat

Lockheed Martin’s habitat is designed to form one module of NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway, a mini space station that would orbit the moon.Courtesy Lockheed Martin

NASA’s first crewed mission to Mars may still be years away, but already we’re getting a glimpse of the sort of habitat that astronauts could use as a staging point for a multimonth voyage to the red planet, an asteroid or another deep-space destination.

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin unveiled an early prototype of its deep-space habitat last week at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The cylindrical module — a reworked cargo container from the space shuttle era — is about 22 feet long and 16.5 feet wide. That’s much bigger than the Russian Soyuz capsules that take astronauts to and from the International Space Station but tiny compared to the space station itself, which is made up of 16 pressurized modules that collectively cover an area bigger than a football field.

Given the habitat’s size, life in space will most likely be a bit cramped for the four astronauts who could live there for up to 60 days before shipping out to deep space.

“It’s a lot like being in an RV, where you’re constantly reconfiguring the space,” said Bill Pratt, who manages the deep-space habitat program at Lockheed Martin. “The couch and the table become your bed, and you’re constantly moving and shuffling things around.”

In addition to sleeping quarters, the habitat will have a toilet, exercise equipment, storage space, an area for science experiments and a galley.

The habitat is designed to form one module of NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway, a miniature space station that would orbit the moon and serve as a way station for lunar missions or journeys deeper into the cosmos.

Image: Space Lunar Habitat
NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway is imagined as a moon-orbiting space station that would act as a stepping stone for missions to Mars.
Courtesy Lockheed Martin

Lockheed’s prototype is the refurbished Donatello cargo container that was originally designed to fit inside the space shuttle’s cargo bay and ferry supplies to and from the ISS. Donatello never flew in space, but its two sister modules made several trips aboard the shuttle. One, dubbed Leonardo, is now a permanent “space closet” attached to the space station.

Lockheed is one of six companies awarded a combined $65-million contract from NASA to design a deep-space habitat as part of the agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program, which aims to foster commercial developments for space exploration.

New Hypersonic Spy Plane Being Developed by Lockheed Martin.

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A new hypersonic spy plane, capable of flying up to six times faster than the speed of sound, is being developed by aerospace giantLockheed Martin Corp., according to company officials.

The new aircraft, known as the SR-72, is the unmanned successor to Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird, a twin-engine, two-seater, supersonic aircraft that was developed in the 1960s. The company’s new spy plane will be able to fly twice as fast as the Blackbird and three times faster than current fighter jets, accelerating to Mach 6, which is six times the speed of sound, or more than 3,500 mph (5,600 km/h).

The hypersonic SR-72 also will be able to fly to any location within an hour, which could be revolutionary for the military, said Brad Leland, Lockheed Martin’s program manager for hypersonics. [In Photos: The 10 Fastest Military Airplanes]

“Hypersonic is the new stealth,” Leland told Reuters. “Your adversaries cannot hide or move their critical assets. They will be found. That becomes a game-changer.”

Furthermore, Lockheed is designing the spy plane using existing technology, which could help the company develop a prototype in five or six years for under $1 billion, he added.

Lockheed is aiming to fly a missile to demonstrate the new technology as early as 2018, and Leland said operational SR-72s could be in service by 2030, according to Aviation Week, which was first to report on the new project.

“What we are doing is defining a missile that would have a small incremental cost to go at hypersonic speed,” Leland told Reuters.

The SR-72 is being developed by Skunk Works, Lockheed’s California-based advanced research program that previously worked on the SR-71 Blackbird and the famed U-2 spy plane.

The hypersonic SR-72 will feature a two-phase propulsion system, which uses a basic jet turbine to accelerate the plane to Mach 3. Lockheed is collaborating with rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne to incorporate this turbine with an air-breathing, supersonic ramjet engine to propel the vehicle from standstill to Mach 6.

The new spy plane will build upon Lockheed’s previous experimental hypersonic programs, such as theHypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, or HTV-2, which was developed as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) Falcon Project.

In 2011, the unmanned, arrow-shaped HTV-2 glider reached Mach 20 and controlled itself for approximately three minutes, before crashing into the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, surface temperatures on the vehicle reached 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,930 degrees Celsius), which is hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel.

The SR-72’s predecessor, the SR-71 Blackbird, could accelerate to Mach 3.3 (more than 2,200 mph, or 3,540 km/h) at an altitude of 80,000 feet (24,400 m). The Blackbird made its first flight in December 1964, and was flown by the U.S. Air Force until 1998. The two-seater aircraft was capable of outracing potential threats during reconnaissance missions, including being able to accelerate and out-fly surface-to-air missiles if it was detected.