In order to get anywhere in the solar system, we’re going to need to study, test and perfect orbital refueling operations. And in order to do that, we’ll need orbital fuel depots. This is not a recent revelation; as far back as the 1960’s NASA and the contractors proposed orbital fuel depots to support the expected Manned Mars missions for the mid/late 1970s. Sixty years late we might actually get there. but it’s still a ways off.
Below is a 1971 NASA-MSFC artists concept for such a depot. Exact dimensions are unclear; the tanks might be Saturn V derived, which would put them at 33 feet in diameter. As the Shuttle in the background is an early design that was to be a fully reusable type with not expendable propellant tanks, the depot tanks were probably not the 27-feet diameter of the eventual ETs. However, it appears most likely that the tanks are actually carried in the Shuttle cargo bay, so they’d be something like 15 feet in diameter. The tanks are almost certainly full of liquid hydrogen.
The artwork was originally posted online by NASA in 2009, but NASA has a habit of wiping out online archives and repositories. Fortunately the internet Archive saved this one.
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