Nazaré Space Capsule

Nazaré is named after the giant waves of the Nazaré canyon in Portugal. They are the product of energy focused by an underwater ridge, and surfers from all over the world travel to ride them. The Nazaré spacecraft comes from Portuguese industry and is aimed at the world.

A surfer on a giant wave at Nazaré — The Nazaré wave.

The down-mass challenge

Access to returnable space cargo has been reserved for a single vehicle, the Dragon capsule, as of 2022. This makes any mission that requires down-mass more expensive and rare.

Render of the capsule approaching the International Space Station

The solution

Nazaré is a single design that can fly a variety of equipment and mission types.

… even with all the diversity among these [launch] companies, one thing seems to be being overlooked. What about downmass?
Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO, Voyager Space

Fully reusable space platform

Besides returning from space, Nazaré reflies all of its systems, which saves cost and increases response speed. It is the dedicated platform for:

Earth observation
Microgravity experiments
In-space manufacturing
Recovering space assets and products

A concept of operations reminiscent of the Space Shuttle

With Nazaré, access to space becomes a reusable logistical system, with vehicles that can be deployed from any launch provider and recovered on land.

The Space Shuttle in orbit with its payload bay open

Diagram of the Nazaré concept of operations

In-space manufacturing

Protein crystals grown in microgravity — Crystallisation of many kinds, from proteins to optics.

ZBLAN optical fibre — ZBLAN fibre, produced in orbit and sold on Earth.

Main advantages of Nazaré

Recovering mass from space is nothing new: every crewed mission has done it. Landing precisely, using cheap materials and being easy to refurbish have always been the hard problems. Nazaré addresses them in one architecture.

Diagram of the actively cooled metal heatshield — 1. Actively cooled heatshields made from easier-to-obtain materials such as metal, in a shape complex enough that it can only be 3D printed.

Diagram of the guided descent through the atmosphere — 2. A descent system that actively plots its landing through the atmosphere, shrinking the landing ellipse from dozens of kilometres to a few hundred metres.

Diagram of the capsule landing on solid ground — 3. Landing on solid ground, which makes recovery easier and cheaper, and allows precise deployment on land.

Technical drawings

Technical drawing of the capsule beside a human figure, 1 m wide and 0.75 m tall

Dimensions

Total mass: 420 kg (100%)
Empty mass: 100 kg (24%)
Payload mass: 320 kg (76%)

Drawing of a normal ride-share stack of capsules inside a launcher fairing

Normal ride-share mission

Max vehicles: 24
Payload mass: 7,680 kg
Total mass: 10,080 kg

Drawing of an expanded ride-share stack of capsules filling the fairing

Expanded ride-share mission

Max vehicles: 48
Payload mass: 15,360 kg
Total mass: 20,160 kg

3D-printable model

The model I made for structural tests, 20 cm wide, which is 1/5 scale, is on Onshape. You are welcome to take it and improve on it, and I am glad to answer questions about it.

Screenshot of the Onshape model of the capsule

Version 2, codename Maverick

Designed to increase the ratio of payload mass to total mass and reduce the cost of inter-mission logistics, Maverick presents a new challenge: fly large payloads and keep them in orbit for longer periods while reducing the overall mass budget.