The Design of Space Stations. Engineering, Economics and Infrastructure for Permanent Human Presence in Orbit

INTRODUCTION

This book brings together the ideas that the students of the Space Research Club from the “Pontus Euxinus” Theoretical High School in Lumina, Constanta county, Romania, developed together with the high school teacher Robert-Andrei Stoica and aspiring engineer Alin Ilie Stoica. This book provides design considerations of a first-order approach in the engineering, economics, and infrastructure of a space station that can permanently be occupied by humans.

Humans landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969. The first crewed mission, the International Space Station (ISS), was in the 2000s, and ever since the ISS has provided deep insights on human health, in-space manufacturing using 3D printers, and pharmaceutical manufacturing for the last 26 years. At the time the ISS was launched the cost of launching was $357000/kg. Given privatization and technological development in the last 10 years of in-space launching, the cost of shipping materials into low earth orbiting, (location of the ISS) has dropped to $2000-3000/kg range. Although space settlements that allow permanent living of humans in space require large components and heavy structures, given the historical price drop of launching and technological development of manufacturing using 3D printing, many of the components can become lighter and still meet the load requirements. While in the 70s, Gerard O’Neill was a visionary of space colonization into orbiting space stations, at that time, it might have looked nearly impossible because of the extremely high expenses, and the technological readiness level was much lower. However, nowadays, this matter has changed. We believe humans are near the point of reaching for the stars, reaching to live in space, more specifically in the low earth orbiting. While it is still relatively expensive for a private company to build a station, with costs in the tens of billions of dollars to build a large space station, the space industry is opening up everywhere from tourism, research, AI data centers, in-space manufacturing for pharmaceutics in microgravity and more. Even sports could be played in microgravity to allow football teams to compete in space enhancing tourism and the sports industry. Sports in microgravity and people watching from home microgravity football could be a product that is similar to how Steve Jobs envisioned a computer for everybody, a touchscreen smartphone, or tablets. These are products that humans don’t know exist but actually want them. All of these evolving opportunities appearing in space set a new stage for human space settlement as they become streams of steady revenue. While hard to notice, the space industry market has grown significantly in the last few years, especially in the commercial sector. We anticipate that the space market will soon start to grow exponentially as more startups join this industry. And a space station that hosts permanent residents could help contribute to this growth.

Establishing permanent bases on Mars, Moon, and low earth orbiting would allow for the development of trade routes which can be supplied from Earth with large warehouses on the space stations. Refueling of rocket ships can also be achieved on space stations as more fuel can be stored safely there. Starting with a space settlement in low earth orbiting, allowing humans to permanently live in space, is the beginning of a new era for the space industry, and it is anticipated to be just even larger than the satellite industry once the Earth-Mars and Earth-Moon routes are established. A company that designs and builds space stations has the potential of reaching values in the trillions of dollars over the next 30 years, just by capturing a fraction of the total market alone.

To build such large space settlement, many components and materials are used. These are manufactured on earth and increase the demand for materials. As with many industries, once a market is started, more companies will be formed in the same industry and the competition will be higher, allowing for even more innovation and technological development. All of these present the potential of a dramatic increase in the job market for many disciplines, creating thousands if not hundreds of thousands of jobs not just in engineering and research, but many more disciplines, including mining, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, technical assembly, robotics, sports, tourism and more. And it would even allow for enhanced training of astronauts in space. As they can be trained on the space station while living with their families in the same place.

Observing the technological readiness level to improve dramatically in the last 10 years, cost reductions in payload launching into low earth orbit, and significant market growth in space, the time for permanent human’s space settlement has come. While a space station was thought of purposely built for research, now with the current technology, a space settlement should be thought about it this way: “humans can live in a remote place, but they need the infrastructure. And once humans establish a place, a city, it becomes a trading opportunity for many businesses and opens the market”. They just need the infrastructure to live there. And the purpose of this book is to demonstrate that a large space station with permanent inhabitation capabilities can be achieved with the current state-of-the-art technology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 9

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 12

CHAPTER 1: BUSINESS PLAN 15
1.1 Human Power Investment 15
1.2 Financial Investment 16
1.3 Costs to build the space station 17
1.3.1 Initial Costs 17
1.3.2 Annual Fixed and Variable Costs 19
1.3.3 Annual Variable Costs 20
1.4 Revenue Model 20

CHAPTER 2: SPACE STATION DESIGN 25
2.1 General Description of a Station 25
2.2 Space Station Location. Decision Criteria 26
2.3 Artificial Gravity on the Station 28
2.4 Modular Design. Honeycomb Layout 31
2.5 Modular Expansion Design 34
2.6 Structure 35
2.6.1 Structural Design Objectives 35
2.6.2 Conceptual Structural Architecture 36
2.6.3 Principal Structural Loads 36
2.6.4 First-Order Pressure Vessel Model 37
2.6.5 Rotation-Induced Structural Loads 38
2.6.6 Local Floor and Occupancy Loads 39
2.6.7 Vibration from Internal Motion and Machinery 41
2.6.8 Docking and Berthing Loads 42
2.6.9 Strength Requirements and Allowable Stress 43
2.6.10 Buckling of Lightweight Compression Members 44
2.6.11 Lightweight Structural Design Considerations 44
2.6.12 First-Order Mass-Stiffness-Strength Evaluation 45
2.6.13 Limitations of the First-Order Model 46
2.6.14 Example of First-Order Design for the Main Structure 46
2.7 Shell and Radiation Shielding 48
2.7.1 Shell 48
2.7.2 Radiation Shielding 48
2.8 Electrical Power Plant 50
2.9 Thermal Management 51
2.10 From Sabatier Reaction to Methane and Heat Production 54
2.11 Electrical Heaters in the HVAC System 55
2.12 Communications Systems 56
2.13 Light Sources 57
2.14 Water Management 58
2.14.1 Potable Water 58
2.14.2 Wastewater Treatment 60
2.15 Air Quality Control and Storage 60
2.16 Transportation Infrastructure 63
2.17 Fire protection 65
2.18 Spaceport. Docking, refueling, repairs, and satellite/debris collection 66
2.19 Artificial Intelligence Datacenters 69
2.20 Microgravity Research Lab 69
2.21 Manufacturing Of Modules and Station Parts 70
2.22 Garbage Removal, Recycling, and Processing 72
2.23 Assembly of modules in Space 73
2.24 Space Station Specifications Summary 73
2.25 Space Station Development Phases 75

CHAPTER 3: GOVERNING A SPACE STATION 77
3.1 Expansion of the Colony. Vetting Process for Residents 77
3.2 Economy on a Space Settlement 79
3.3 Space Policies 80
3.4 Recreational Areas for the Residents 81
3.5 Security. Health. Education 82
3.6 Societal Impact 83
3.7 Space Sports and Olympics 84
3.8 Physical Health 85
3.9 Virus Control 86
3.10 Food Production and Consumption 86
3.11 Procedures on Encountered Death 90

CONCLUSIONS 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY 92

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY 95

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Diana BULEU is a 12th grade student at the “Pontus Euxinus” Theoretical High School, Lumina, majoring in social sciences, she is a participant in the competitions “Live in a Healthy Space” 2026 and “Gerard K. O`Neill Space Settlement” 2026, organized by the National Space Society, USA. She is also the co-author of the book Bacalaureat – Limba si literatura romana. Ghid complet de pregatire. Metodologie si modele de raspuns, Bucharest, University Publishing House, 2026 (co-author Robert-Andrei Stoica)

Laura CRUSNISCHI is a 12th grade student at the “Pontus Euxinus” Theoretical High School, Lumina, majoring in social sciences, she is a participant in the “Live in a Healthy Space” 2026 and “Gerard K. O`Neill Space Settlement” 2026, contests, organized by the National Space Society, USA.

Jessica POPA is a 12th grade student at the “Pontus Euxinus” Theoretical High School, Lumina, majoring in social sciences, she is a participant in the “Live in a Healthy Space” 2026 and “Gerard K. O`Neill Space Settlement” 2026, contests, organized by the National Space Society, USA.

Alin-Ilie STOICA is a passioned engineer for space exploration and manufacturing and primarily focusing his work on manufacturing optimization for space station designs including modular components and is an expert in the design of space stations having won the Third Prize for three years in a row at the NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2016-2018. He is an enthusiast of space exploration and envisions human space settlement and commercialization of low earth orbiting and beyond. To make human space settlement viable, his vision includes in-space manufacturing of various components, spaceports for Earth-Mars routes, and establishment of trade routes, which can only be achieved with space stations. He holds a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (2026) from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (2023) from Calvin University, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is an alumnus of these two schools. He also specializes in hypersonic flow ablative testing of various advanced materials and the integration in thermal protection systems. He has several peer-reviewed research papers on hypersonic testing including papers in the AIAA SciTech Forum. He is a member of the National Space Society since 2018 and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2023.

Robert-Andrei STOICA is a professor of Romanian language and literature at the “Pontus Euxinus” Theoretical High School, Lumina, Constanta and at the “Mihai Eminescu” National College, Constanta. He is a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of Philology of the Ovidius University in Constanta and taught seminar activities as a doctoral assistant at the University. He is a Master’s graduate in Romanian Studies and a graduate of the Faculty of Letters, specializing in Romanian Language and Literature – English Language and Literature, within the same University. He is also the author of school textbooks, scientific books and specialized articles in the field of philology. The most recent publication being Bacalaureat – Limba si literatura romana. Ghid complet de pregatire. Metodologie si modele de raspuns, Bucharest, University Publishing House, 2026 (co-author Diana Buleu). He is the coordinator of school projects for the competitions organized in the United States of America by the National Space Society.