Subject: Space-tech Digest #124 Contents: SSI research directions (5 msgs) The Lunar Society (1 msg) ------------------------------------------------------------ From: lentz@reber.astro.nwu.edu (Robert A. Lentz) Subject: seeking comments on research for SSI evaluation To: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 10:34:24 CDT Reply-To: r-lentz@nwu.edu Greetings, SSI is currently undergoing an evaluation of the current status of research towards the "critical path" of "using space resources of materials and energy productively for human benefit, generating wealth from space resources to imporve the human condition both for those who live on the Earth and for those who will live in space, and building Earth-like habitats in space, to expand the ecological range of humanity initially to the space of the Earth-Moon system, later throughout the Solar System..." SSI has compiled a list of research projects that SSI has participated in or encouraged and is seeking opinions on the research's importance to the "critical path". I am reviewing my issues of "SSI Update", saved space-tech messages (and the excerpts) and sci.space articles. I thought I would also elicit commentary/discussion from this knowledgeable group to form the best judgements I can. SSI is also seeking references to any relevant work done anywhere, and suggestions for projects which are relevant but not listed. Thank you for your help, -Robert Lentz -- r-lentz@nwu.edu "We're a rock-and-roll band and we'll bring down the house the way Bill is going to bring down the country." -Roger Clinton, on his band's plans to play at the Inauguration if his half brother, Bill, wins. MAJOR CRITICAL PATH RESEARCH CATEGORIES A. Prospecting for Resources B. Earth-Based Transportation C. Space-Based Transportation D. Resource Recovery E. Space-Based Manufacturing F. Human Factors (Includes Habitats, Agriculture, & Safety) --------------------------- A. Prospecting: Characterized by high risks, but low absolute costs. This step is essential in the early stages of the critical path. A small increase in investment in prospecting could have a tremendous effect on the choices made downstream. On the other hand, the work could be completely wasted if new resources are not identified as a result. Note that much of the work done by SSI was cutting-edge at the time, but then the lead was taken by others with greater resources. 1) External Tank Studies; Gimarc, J. Alex 2) Lunar Polar Probe; French, James, JPL 3) Lunar Prospector Study; Omni Systems, Inc. Eg Segundo CA 4) Lunar Sodium Search; Graham, Francis G., Kent State University 5) Space Debris; Lehman, De. Larry, Canough, Dr. Gay, Extramaterials, Inc. 6) Spacewatch Camera; Nozette, Steve 7) Earth-Sun Trojan Asteroids; Dunbar, Dr. R. Scott 8) Spacewatch Search for Near-Earth Asteroids; Gehrels, Tom, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona 9) International Asteroid Mission; ISU --------------------------- B. Earth-Based Transportation: This is the primary focus of industry and NASA. SSI has mostly left this research to these groups which have much greater resources. 1) Beamed Power for Space Propulsion; Sercel, Joel 2) High Altitude MD Feasibility & Advanced MD Studies; Wercinski, Paul --------------------------- C. Space-Based Transportation: This has been a high point of SSI research because of the Mass Driver, but it has definitely lagged in recent years. 1) Beamed Power for Space Propulsion; Sercel Joel 2) Orbital Transfer Vehicles; Buja, Chris 3) Lunar Lander Project; NASA, Florida Institute of Technology 4) Mass Driver I; O'Neill, G. K. 5) Mass Driver II; O'Neill, G. K. 6) Mass Driver III; O'Neill, G. K. and Snively, Les 7) Mass Driver Simulation I; Senn, Mark, Purdue 8) Mass Driver Simulation II; Snively, Les 9) Sterling Cycle Engines; Renfroe, Dave/Person, Thomas --------------------------- D. Resource Recovery: This has been a mainstay of SSI research for at least the past six years. It has never been the primary focus, but this area has produced a large amount of innovative research. 1) Space Resources Computer Model; Cutler, Andrew 2) An Aluminum Salvage Station for the External Tank; Air Force Institute of Technology, Haislip, Jr., James N., Linscot, Roger 3) Feasibility of Solar Energy for Lunar Resource Processing; Magoffin, Michael A., McDonnell Douglas Space Systems 4) Lunar Materials Refinement; Waldron, Robert 5) Magma Electrolysis Project; Keller, Dr. University of Arizona 6) Iron as a By-Product of Ilmenite Reduction; Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Sacco, Jr., Albert 7) Lunar Excavation Experiment; University of Maryland and NCSU 8) Exploratory Study on the Formation of Silicon Coating; Keller, Rudy, Emec Consultants 9) Magnetic Benefication of Lunar Soil 10) Glass/Glass Composites 11) Lunar Simulant Project --------------------------- E. Space-Based Manufacturing: This is a natural progression from resource recovery, but it usually requires greater resources and focuses on end-products rather than basic research and processing techniques. 1) Solar Power Satellites from Lunar Materials; Kelso, Hugh, Space Research Associates 2) Automated Fabrication in Space; Burns, Dr. Marshall, Ennex Technology Mkth Inc. Los Angeles 3) Fused Soil Products of Space Construction; Khalili, Nader-Feltaftan Foundation, Kennedy Joseph 4) Solar Powered Glass Pilot Plant; McDonnell Douglas, Alcoa/Goldsworthy Engineering 5) HF (Hydrofluoric) Pilot Plant 6) Oxidation/Reductin of Ilmenite and the Design of an Oxygen Facility for the Moon; Briggs, Randall 7) Low (Profile) Road to Space Manufacturing; AIAA - Aeronautics and Astronautics Magazine 8) New Routes to Manufacturing in Space; AIAA - Aeronautics and Astronautics Magazine 9) Thermal Photovoltaic Power Storage 10) Self-Replicating Machines for Space; Maryniak, Gregg 11) Lunar Energy Enterprise Study 12) FInancing Space Development Report --------------------------- F. Human Factors: This is one of the unique characteristics of SSI research. It is based on a hopeful human future. It is also an area which is usually neglected in the study of projects, markets, or resources by NASA or private companies. Listed below are a lot of ideas that SSI applauded or fostered but in most cases did not carry out directly. The second half is direct research often supported by grassroots volunteers. 1) Habitats; NASA, Gerard K. O'Neill 2) Bernal Sphere Model Contest 3) Closed Cycle Life Support; Boeing Research 4) Charter for a Space Colony 5) Implications of Generation Doubling on Expanding Populations Throughout the Universe 6) Spacehad 7) Biosphere II Research 8) Space Colony Design Contest 9) ISU Lunar Base Study SSI Research to date: 10) External Tank Variable Gravity Facility; Gimarc, Alex/Martin Marietta 11) External Tank CAD Project (Use in Space Habitats); Engfer, Bill, Martin Marietta 12) Lunar Teleoperations Demonstration; Lewis, Rob 13) Human Rotation Tolerance; Diamandis, Peter, MIT/Manned Vehicle Lab Overall SSI research has been sparse in this area. SSI has served more as a cheerleader of others' efforts. Even the more recent conferences have not fostered the ideas of living in space very strongly. Note that much of the direct research has been truly innovative. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1992 12:02:46 MST From: "Richard Schroeppel" To: r-lentz@nwu.edu Cc: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu Subject: SSI path This is my first blush reaction to your message about SSI's research relevance and future plans. (I came within a hair of dropping my renewal this year, because I felt that no progress was evident.) Your list looks a bit light on robotics/remote-manipulation. We may need high-bandwidth (laser?) communication links. Probably DOD is already doing the research, so it might not be a critical path item. I'd like to see a plan with milestones, not just for SSI but for the whole effort of space development. The Rockwell chart might be an appropriate place to begin, although it's wrong in many particulars and too superficial & grandiose. I'd like to see cost estimates, better descriptions of the boxes, etc. The plan will have lots of ORs and IFs, and will obviously be revised frequently. SSI might serve as a library for space development information. Given the likelihood that some new propulsion schemes are needed, SSI should gather relevant reports, such as the Bob Forward summary of exotic propulsion, and Dani Eder's summary from a few years ago. It would be nice to have these available in electronic form for net distribution & update/commentary; even a bibliography would be a beginning. Do you have a current report on mass-driver & rail-gun technology? Have you looked at offshore recruiting? There are probably a lot of interested Japanese & Russians who would support SSI if they knew about it. (Russian researchers are on sale this year.) If I were doing the planning, I'd drop the "betterment of mankind" goal; mankind isn't much interested, and few people believe that there's money to be made. I'm not supporting you to improve the world economy or to save the environment; I want to go. Rich Schroeppel rcs@cs.arizona.edu ------------------------------ From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) Subject: Re: SSI path To: rcs@cs.arizona.edu (Richard Schroeppel) Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 19:16:09 PDT Cc: r-lentz@nwu.edu, space-tech@cs.cmu.edu X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4dev PL32] Hi, > If I were doing the planning, I'd drop the "betterment of mankind" > goal; mankind isn't much interested, and few people believe that > there's money to be made. I'm not supporting you to improve the > world economy or to save the environment; I want to go. You wanna go. So do I. How much money have you donated for this purpose, compared to the >$30 billion per year spent for military, commerce, and environmental monitoring from space? best regards, Nick szabo@techbook.com ------------------------------ From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo) Subject: Re: seeking comments on research for SSI evaluation To: r-lentz@nwu.edu Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 19:56:55 PDT Cc: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu, lentz@reber.astro.nwu.edu X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4dev PL32] Hi, That was a pretty good list of SSI research projects and directions. I see two major items missing: 1. Volatiles, prospecting and use of: volatiles play a dominant and critical role in current Earth-based industries, but the list of SSI research projects are skewed towards processing of regolith, metals, etc. Even making "dry" products on Earth often requires an abundant supply of volatiles for lubricant (including air, which we take for granted), cooling, cleaning, etching, finishing, coating, etc. In addition the manufacture of propellants, pharmaceuticals, food, air, water, etc. is vital to space industry and colonization. Prospecting for volatiles should include the current closest known sources, the Jupiter-family comets and Mars, as well as Phobos, Deimos, near-earth asteroids, and lunar poles. Processing and storage of volatiles should be studied. My design for a solid-ice, zero-tankage-factor rocket should be considered as an inexpensive way to bootstrap space materials and move amounts of them around the solar system. The current line of research assumes that volatile use should be minimized. We need another thread of research that assumes volatiles will be abundant, since that circumstance could greatly reduce the cost of space industrialization and colonization. 2. Too much emphasis is placed on a single commercial project, SPS, at the expense of a wide variety of other current and future space uses. These include our first, largest, and fastest growing space industry, communications, as well as space manufacturing, environmental monitoring, and military uses. SSI can bring new methods to bear in solving these problems, for example: * Materials substitution for communications & environmental monitoring platforms * NASA space manufacturing assumes raw materials will be very expensive; SSI should study the advantages of zero-g/vacuum processing on a large scale with inexpensive native materials. There is a large opportunity for SSI to do breakthrough work and lead civilization into the era of space colonization. Nick Szabo szabo@techbook.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 20:13:53 -0700 From: George William Herbert To: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu Subject: Re: What have you done? >You wanna go. So do I. Third! >How much money have you donated for this purpose, compared to the > >$30 billion per year spent for military, commerce, and environmental >monitoring from space? Actually, ~$45 billion. NASA is about $15B; DOD spends about $19B, and the ESA and other european totals are about $6B. plus everyone else. What have _I_ done? I'm trying to develop a $250-500/lb Big Dumb Booster with something like 750 hours of work in it so far just on my part. If I was charging someone for that, it would be about $30k. (At consulting rates) Plus some effort friends of mine have put in, etc. How 'bout you, Nick? 8-) -george ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 11:54 PDT From: jean@opus.dgi.com (Blue Jean) To: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu Subject: The Lunar Society Hi folks! I thought this might interest a few minds in the space-tech community. One small comment : If the Email address given below does not work, please contact me and I will forward the information ... or you can always use the USnail mail .... :) -jeanie jean@dgi.com ******************************** * Peaceful, honest people have * * the right to be left alone. * ******************************** -------Begin Forward Message----- It's less than ten years to 2001... ... do you know where YOUR space program is? THE LUNAR SOCIETY was founded because of a single profound and distrubing insight: politicians, bureaucrats, and aerospace corporate managers are not going to get US into space. We can't afford the price of a ticket, let alone the space-equivalent of the covered wagon. The only way WE are going is if we build the machines, vehicles, tools, habitats, factories, encampments and homesteads -- OURSELVES. Think about the early visions of von Braun and Ley, Clarke and Heinlein, Goddard and Oberth and Tsiolkovski, and ask youself why we haven't come farther in the last fifty years? A big part of the answer is -- the national space program doesn't exist to fulfill those visions. It does exist to create jobs in certain congressional districts and to advance national prestige. That approach won't open the high frontier of space. The Lunar Society was created because of the deeply held belief that if real progres is to be made towards the goal of settling the high frontier, private groups and individuals must lead the way. Governments will not be the agents of progress, nor is it desirable that centralized, monolithic, bureaucratic organizations dictate the future of free people on the frontier of space. TOO MUCH IS AT RISK TO DENY OUR PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO ACT TO CREATE OUR OWN FUTURE. _What are the Society's Goal?_ To provide the individuals the means to homestead the space frontier. To fund the infrastructure that will permit human settlement of near-Earth space and Earth's Moon. To conduct research into advanced technologies which will lower the cost of access to space. And to educate everyone about the challenges of the age of space, so that we all have the opportunity to play a role in this great adventure. In Herman Oberth's words: "This is the goal: to make available for Life every place where life is possible; to make inhabitable all worlds as yet uninhabitable and all Life purposeful." _Why now?_ In the past decade there have been rapid advances in materials, small computers, software, propulsion systems and life support. These technologies have enabled an assault on the barriers of access and cost which blocked small, non-governmental space efforts in the past. Taking inspiration from the experimental aviation community, and employing the experiences of entrepreneurs and scientists, engineers and enthusiasts, the time is right for a non-governmental program which will create a space civilization. _Why Another Organization?_ Because we have a unique role to play. The Lunar Society will not lobby Congress for more money for the U.S. space program, or publish glossy magazines for members. Others can play those parts. The Society is raising money to fund needed technology development which will make settling the high frontier feasible as well as economical. And then, we'll step aside and let private businesses pick up the effort. Let's not forget author Larry Niven's words: "After all, we're capitalists, right?" We're starting small, working on components such as engines, software, space suits, and design studies, but we're advancing quickly to flying vehicles, space platform design and planning lunar missions. REAL HARDWARE FOR REAL MISSIONS. No other organization today has the comprehensive space settlement program of the Lunar Society. _Join Us!_ The Lunar Society is leading the way on the return to the Moon, and the creation of the first human home on another world. We need your support in order to jump-start the future. For if not you, then who? "To accomplish this goal we have committed our lives, fortunes and honor. If you share this vision, join us." Jerry Pournelle, Ph.D., Chairmen James Ransom, President ENROLLMENT The Lunar Society is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization founded in 1986 by Dr. Jerry Pournelle, present Chairman, along with Dr. Philip Chapman (former Apollo astronaut) and Mr. James Ransom (Society President). The Society has established an Associates Program to permit individuals to participate directly in the greatest adventure ever undertaken by the human race. Associates receive the Society quarterly newsletter _Cisluna_ plus discounted admission to the annual Society conference. Cost is $100/year. The Society if not a menbership organization, and the contributions of the Associates are principally used to support hardware development programs, not to provide menber services. Contributions are tax-deductible. Any amount of contribution is welcome; any donor of $25/year or more will receive _Cisluna_. Enroll by mailing a check to the Society at the address below, or by calling our voicemail/fax system and using your VISA or MasterCard. CISLUNA 93 Lunar Society Associates may attend the CISLUNA 93 conference and exposition (January 15-17, 1993, San Francisco Bay Area) at a discount. Attendance is $35 per person for the Associate and one guest before Nov. 30, 1992, or $50 after. Non-Associates $50 before Nov. 30, 1992, $65 after. Send a check to the Society at the address below, or call our voicemail/fax system and use your VISA or MasterCard. P.O. Box 2500, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Voicemail/Fax : (415) 593-5575 Email : cisluna@teracons.com "There is no way back into the past: the choice, as Wells once said, is the Universe, or nothing" - Arthur C. Clarke "The Earth is too fragile a basket in which to keep all your eggs" - Robert A. Heinlein "Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." - Konstantin E. Tsiolkovski "Is the surface of the Earth really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?" - Prof. Gerard K. O'Neill "We desire to open the planetary worlds to mankind." - Dr. Wernher von Braun "The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us are going to the stars." -Anon. ------------------------------ End of Space-tech Digest #124 *******************