Abstract
“A space fuel station” is a promising new element of the future space transportation system. With this facility, some novel transportation schemes will be possible, which assume reusable space based orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs), and the separate launch of payloads, OTVs and fuel. Enhancement of vehicle capability, improvement of transportation flexibility and reduction of launch load can be expected in these new schemes. These will reduce the transportation costs for large future transportation demands. This paper analyzes a novel transportation system based on such fuel stations, named OTV Network, as a integrated transportation infrastructure for Earth orbital, lunar and interplanetary missions. Cost analysis indicates that OTV Network is more cost-effective than the conventional system in a large demand environment , especially where many interplanetary or retrieval missions exist. Factors which have large effects on the total system cost are identified. The features of the system and some technical issues involved in realizing them are also discussed.
