Space Shuttle and Starship as Space Stations?
I've been thinking about space... and the Space Shuttle... and the ISS... and Starship.
The ISS took more than 40 launches to build over 13 years (even thought it was used before fully finished).
Imagine if the space industry had been more creative back then.
If only 3 Space Shuttles had been converted to fully habitable ships, then with only 3 launches there could have been a space station the size of the ISS in use much earlier.
Hopefully we won't have the same blinders on when it comes to Starship. As one Starship will be about the same cabin space as the ISS, and can be fully useful after only one launch, it does seem like the logical choice for rapidly produced and deployed space stations.
Up to 1000 new space stations per year if one Starship factory was dedicated for this!
Could this be done? Would you fund such a factory if you could?
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