r/spaceflight • u/ClarinetWielder42 • 6d ago

Possible Rocket Idea

What if you could launch normally, but when you separate the final stage, what if you left the liquid O2 tank, but with things added? You could then unpack things into the tank and connect it to the crew area and use it as lots of extra space. Would that work? If not, tell me why.

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u/DarkArcher__ 4d ago

The idea you're describing has been explored before. It's called a wet workshop, as opposed to a dry workshop like Skylab which was an empty stage outfitted on the ground.

On paper there's no reason it shouldn't work, but it hasn't really been tried before because there just hasn't been a need for it.

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u/Worth-Wonder-7386 3d ago

I think the reason why this is not as good as it looks is that the requirements for a fuel tank and crew area are very different. Ideally we design fuel tanks to be as light ad possible and to hold onto very cold liquids. The primary loads are transversal from the launch.

For a crew compartment you want to have a lot of stuff in there so you would need to then put almost everything except the outer skin somewhere else during launch. And the outer skin of a tank is not really designed for long term use, so some reinforcement would be needed for it to survive in space and handle all the extra loads when you attach different things to the inside.

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u/KnifeKnut 4d ago edited 3d ago

Wet Lab is the name for the concept

Edit *workshop

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u/Think-Director9933 4d ago

Like the Skylab's 3rd stage? Where they repurposed the S-IVB hydrogen tank of the Saturn V as a "dry workshop" in low Earth orbit.

https://historicspacecraft.com/skylab.html

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u/mossconfig 2d ago

There were also some station concepts thrown around using the shuttle. "STS External Tank Station" should bring it up.