Bob Clark

It was decided to continue using the basic Pressure Garment Assembly (PGA) from the shuttle program. However, the new low torque bearing design that Vykukal developed for the AX-5 was incorporated into an upgraded version of the Shuttle PGA for use on both the Shuttle and ISS. Vykukal is a brilliant designer and those bearings are terrific.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2010/iotw/ax_5_astronaut.html

However, about 10 or 15 years ago their was a prototype suit that Ames was developing, it wasn’t small but hardshell design means no need to acclimate to reduced pressure like they do now.

One to add to your list is the suit port concept where the Pressure Garment Assembly (PGA) would remain outside the pressurized volume except when maintenance was required.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20130013652.pdf

Grappling with this gritty dust issue on the Moon first, would be most wise. Can you imagine if a straight-to-the-Red-Planet, spaceflight roadmap would prevail, and our astronauts have to first face this problem on an ultra-long Mars expedition, instead? The Mars enthusiasts are being very naive, with their assumptions that a human landing & surface stay there, would be an easy cakewalk, from-the-outset!

Plus, the landing of an unmanned cargo lander————a variant of the regular crew lander, minus the ascent engine requirement————–in advance of the crew’s arrival, would also be a brilliant development, which has never been acheived before. (Another flight plan, would be to have this cargo-only version arrive in Low Lunar Orbit, while astronauts are in another orbiter vehicle, during a lunar trip, and have the unmanned cargo vehicle landed under the supervision of them, for improved chances of success. The base or equipment module could then be used by that crew or the next one to be sent out.)

All of these items are much-needed capabilities, which’ll be needed in advance of ANY interplanetary manned trip. We’ve been squandering & wasting so much valuable time & effort in mere Low Earth Orbit, when all the while the REAL challenging destination has been looming in the night sky, a three-days trip away!

The launch vehicle would have been an HLV based on the Saturn V, so each of the cylindrical modules would have been a little larger than the Skylab.

There would have been Pseudo Gravity. Notice that it is symmetric around its axis. In fact one of the plot lines of the movie involved having to temporarily stop the habitats rotation.

The station was part of an overall architecture (in the Rockwell studies) that would have eventually included a lunar base with mining capabilities. The whole system was to eventually grow to support large applications satellites and interplanetary vehicles.

The movie was a pilot for a proposed series (it did not sell) called “The Olympians” that would have followed the development of those capabilities.