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Nautilus-X ( Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States Exploration) is a rotating wheel space station concept developed by engineers Mark Holderman and Edward Henderson of the Technology Applications Assessment Team of NASA.
The concept was first proposed in January, 2011 for long-duration (1 to 24 months) exo-atmospheric space journeys for a six-person crew. In order to limit the effects of microgravity on human health, the spacecraft would be equipped with a centrifuge.
The design was intended to be relatively inexpensive by crewed spaceflight standards, as it was projected to cost US$3.7 billion. In addition, it was suggested that it might only need 64 months of work.
The project was cancelled in favour of other projects due to budget constraints.
It would also have served as an emergency station and hospital for current mission crews.
Other objectives included:
The design was modular, enabling it to accommodate any of a number of mission specific propulsion modules, manipulator arms, docking port for an Orion spacecraft or commercial crew capsule, and landing craft for destination worlds. In theory the engines and fuel could be swapped out depending on the mission. The proposal also had an industrial slide-out airlock unit and a command, control and observation deck.
On the other end of the docking port would have been the spacecraft's centrifuge equipped with an external dynamic ring-flywheel. Behind the centrifuge would be water and slush hydrogen tanks, which could mitigate the dangers of cosmic ray for the crew, to a degree. The aft of the craft would contain the communication and propulsion systems.
The standard version of Nautilus-X had three inflatable modules. The Extended Duration Explorer variant on the Nautilus-X design concept would have several more, plus docking bays for science payloads and away-mission vehicles.
If produced, this centrifuge would have been the first in-space demonstration of sufficient scale for artificial partial-g effects. The demonstrator would be sent using a single Delta IV or Atlas V launcher. The full cost of such a demonstrator would be between US$83 million and US$143 million.
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