Selected Articles from the
July 2000 Odyssey
Editor: Terry Hancock
Taking High School Students to the Moon
Anita Gale
It's the year 2024. You're an employee of Dougeldyne AstroSystems, and you're putting in a long night at work to finish off a proposal for the first large settlement on the Moon. Your customer, the Foundation Society, wants to build a community of 19,000 people to increase the capacity of lunar mining operations, build lunar infrastructure, and operate a lunar tourism center. The briefing is tomorrow morning...
Well, not really. You're actually a student from Tehachapi High School in California, and your "company" consists of classmates and some new friends from Vienna, Austria. To get here, you had to design the second settlement in Earth orbit, and your excellent design qualified your school as a Finalist in the Seventh Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aside from the fact that you're having one incredible experience in this industry simulation game, you're spending the weekend in the middle of a remarkable future that the Competition organizers have described for you. If only it could really happen like this. Here are some excerpts from the Program Book:
THE CUSTOMER
The FOUNDATION SOCIETY is an organization founded for the specific purpose of establishing settlements of its members in space.
The Foundation Society began the pursuit of its goal in the mid-1990's, when it led several grass-roots space advocacy organizations in fostering development of commercial infrastructure in Earth orbit. It first researched profit potential for launch vehicles providing lower costs per pound to orbit. Then the Society assured that new launch vehicles would have customers, by providing venture capital for companies developing new products that utilized or required launch services. [...] The results of these efforts encouraged American corporate interest in commercial development of the launch vehicle and space infrastructure to make large-scale access to space practical. More recently, the Society successfully lobbied the United Nations to establish agreements regarding mining claims on the Moon and near-Earth asteroids.
[....]
Press Release: Next Foundation Society
Settlement on the Moon
Foundation Society President Edwards Smith announced today that the organization's next Space Settlement--its third large community in space--will be on Earth's moon. Although it was confirmed that the Settlement, tentatively designated "Alaskol", will be on the lunar surface, a location was not specified. Alaskol will, however, provide a base for development of future Foundation Society interests on the moon. The settlement will have a population of 19,000 people when it becomes operational. The Society meets tomorrow with selected aerospace companies at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, to define requirements for Alaskol and solicit design proposals for its construction.
The primary incentive for developing a lunar settlement is the expectation that demand for lunar resources in space will continue to grow. The relatively small lunar materials exporting facilities that supplied construction of Alexandriat are operating near capacity for Bellevistat construction. Other space projects, including orbiting hotels, are foreseen that will need more lunar materials than can now be provided. Technologies developed for Alexandriat showed that substitutes for nearly anything needed by humans in space can be made from lunar materials, saving launch costs from Earth. Alaskol will also serve as a center for development of transportation infrastructure to efficiently gather various types of ores from different selenological areas.
Foundation Society analyst Gale Uttamchandani noted that another major factor in the decision to expand Foundation Society operations to the moon was market research that showed growing public interest in opportunities to vacation there. The companies proposing to bid on the contract to build Alaskol will be asked to include recreational activities that would appeal to vacationers. Uttamchandani said "creative uses of lunar attributes to improve visitor appeal will be considered during evaluation of designs." The Foundation Society will also make Alaskol facilities available for research scientists who are not Foundation Society members, and for other organizations to serve as a base for lunar construction projects.
When asked if the presence of lunar gravity and availability of lunar materials would make Alaskol an easier project to build than earlier Foundation Society settlements, which must rotate to produce artificial gravity, Smith said that there are actually more concerns about operating Alaskol, because "the lunar dust poses incredible design challenges. The stuff has been battered for eons by the solar wind, so it's electrostatically charged and it sticks to everything. Anything that goes outside ends up with dust on it. When things that were outside come inside, dust comes inside with them. Over time, the dust will accumulate, and eventually it will get into critical machinery. Because it hasn't been eroded by water or wind, it is terribly abrasive, and can damage equipment very quickly. We're concerned about that, and we hope the contractors can come up with some innovative solutions."
Smith said that Alaskol's name originated with an early Foundation Society member who visited the moon and said "it's cold, remote, barely populated, with crystal-clear skies, stunning scenery, and long days and nights--reminds me of Alaska". "Alaska" is an Athabaskan word meaning "The Great Land", which the Foundation Society considers appropriate for the first human community on extraterrestrial soil.
Series concludes in the August 2000 edition of the Odyssey.
OASIS Gives Agamemcon
"All Space/All The Time"
Steve Bartlett
In its ongoing space education effort, OASIS provided programs and speakers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing, the entertainment industry, medicine, academia, amateur rocket groups, and other organizations joined at this year's Agamemcon science fiction convention in Burbank over June 23-25. Subjects ranging from education and launch vehicles to the science of directed energy weapons, the convention's space and science programming track appealed to a wide range of interests.
The convention's keynote event, a discussion on "The Politics of Space," drew hundreds of convention attendees to hear how space affected their lives and what they could do to promote the exploration, development, and settlement of space. Speakers included actor-turned-Congressional-candidate Jerry Doyle from the Babylon 5 television series, radio/television personality and aerospace consultant Warren James, and OASIS vice-president Steve Bartlett. The wide-ranging interchange covered political process, the effect that a small group of citizens can have on space-related decisions, education, space-related spin-offs, international relations, and numerous other topics.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided numerous speakers to discuss on-going and future robotic space projects. Robert Gounley from the Mars Exploration Group and JPL gave the standing-room audience an update on recent findings of possible liquid water on the surface of the Red Planet. He showed the rapt audience the latest photos showing what appear to be water channels and other signs of flowing water on that world's forbidding environment. Gounley also spoke on the current status of the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter in a separate talk the next day.
Steven Collins, of the Deep Space One project, discussed efforts underway to bring that advanced technology spacecraft back into operation for an upcoming cometary encounter. Collins later joined Dr. Steven Pravdo, of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program in the talk "Rocks In Space" on asteroid exploration. The NEAT project searches for objects in the near-Earth region which could pose a collision threat and has already discovered dozens of asteroids and comets. Both Collins and Pravdo addressed recent findings from the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker probe now in orbit around the asteroid Eros.
Even closer to Earth, Craig Peterson, from the Laboratory's Advanced Projects group, briefed conventioneers on proposals to send low-cost robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. The project would send probes to the surface of the Moon, where they would deploy small rovers similar to the Sojourner vehicle used on the Mars Pathfinder mission to pick up samples, transport them to a central location, and launch them back to Earth on a small rocket. Peterson's talk also discussed possible conflicts between this government-sponsored mission and proposed commercial efforts in the same vein. Astronomer Terry Hancock joined Peterson to address reasons why the Moon deserved further exploration and the possible benefits of developing the resources located there.
Norm Cook from the Boeing Company discussed efforts underway to dramatically reduce the cost of space access and to upgrade the Shuttle's capabilities. Cook is currently working on the X-37 reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator and the Shuttle programs and he discussed the status, approaches, and issues on those programs. Aerospace consultant Warren James addressed work on the Lockheed-Martin/NASA X-33 reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator project.
Cook later gave a lively talk on the newest developments on the International Space Station (ISS) and Mir Space Station programs. The latest ISS module, called Zvezda, is scheduled for launch in mid-July, while MirCorp recently announced its first paying space tourist, a Los Angeles-based financier. (Cook had given another talk on ISS at the 1999 Agamemcon convention.)
Popular speaker Dr. William Ernoehazy, an emergency physician from Central Florida and past associate physician in the Space Shuttle emergency preparedness program, gave talks on space medicine, genetic research, improvements to the human body, and life beyond Earth.
Other speakers and topics included Seth Potter from Boeing discussing Solar Power Satellites, Mark Holthaus from the Pacific Rocket Society on Amateur rocket projects, teachers Gail Bondi and Cathy Udovch on the future of education, and Tina Beychok on science editing. In all, OASIS provided over twenty hours of space and science programming for this year's convention, including a taping of the Hour 25 radio program for broadcast later that evening.
Manning the Table
Tina Bartlett
While some OASIS members were busy talking in panels at AgamemCon, others were doing work just as important - manning the OASIS booth and spreading the good word about space activism and activities.
We got plenty of visitors, all of whom enjoyed plenty of Mars bars, Milky Ways and Starburst candies! The free posters were a big hit, especially the pictures of Microcosm's launch last year. One of our speakers, Steve Collins from JPL, was kind enough to "replenish" the poster stock with a stack of really neat posters touting Deep Space 1.
One person who stopped by really qualified as an "Old Spacer." He had worked on the LEM 5 for Grumman and showed off the patches on his jacket to prove it, along with an old paystub with autographs from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the back. He had plenty of great stories to tell about his part in the Apollo program.
Many thanks to everyone who sat in the booth, including Pam Hoffman, Paula DelFosse, Diane Rhodes, Bob Gounley, Terry Hancock, and (from the Florida Branch of OASIS) Gail Bondi and Bill Ernoehazy. Everyone helped out by chatting up con-goers and making OASIS an even stronger presence this year.
Thanks again!
For more coverage about past Agamemcon efforts, see NSS Packs the House at Agamemcon III.
A Ring of Power
Terry Hancock
One of the worst properties of the Moon for colonization is its extremely long day-night cycle, which presents a real problem for any colony which intends to operate on solar power. On Earth, the standard solution for this problem is to time-buffer the power using batteries. Studies have shown, however, that extending this system to the 15 day long lunar night is extremely expensive. Batteries are a clear loser here, although regenerative fuel-cell technology may be viable.
Recently, however, I hit open a seemingly naive idea, which nevertheless made more and more sense as I analyzed it: if time- buffering is so difficult, why not try space-buffering? There is, of course, a simple means of doing this, which is also used on Earth: electrical power lines.
This seems like a Herculean task when you first say it: "Why not build a power line that runs all the way around the Moon, with power stations distributed along it, so that part of the system is always in sunlight?" Our experience on Earth tells us that this is a ridiculous idea, bound to be much harder than local time-buffering schemes.
But the Moon is much smaller than the Earth, and while we are accustomed to thinking of no-air and no-water as obstacles, we are forgetting the headaches that oceans and bad-weather cause us on Earth. Obstacles such as the Lunar highlands are relatively trivial -- we have built many powerlines on Earth over rougher terrain, and the lower gravity will make even that task easier (both by reducing the strains on the cable, and by reducing the dangerousness of operating vehicles on the high-grades involved).
Proponents of Lunar polar colonies cite the month-long available sunlight as an advantage, while detractors cite the difficulty of the low sun-angles and the awkwardness of navigation. However, I propose we consider an intermediate solution:
Imagine a power line that runs completely around the moon, at about the 60th North parallel, connecting multiple colonies with solar power stations and inverters. Such a system would provide continuous solar power without the need for long-term storage batteries (small batteries would still be used to stabilize the grid). Most of the objections to a polar lunar base site would not yet apply at 60 N Lat -- the sun angle would be relatively low, but tilted solar panel arrays on the ground would work -- shadowing would be a noticeable problem, but could be solved simply by spacing the arrays appropriately.
The near-Earth side would be a good location for communications and navigation coordination with Earth, while the far-side would be a useful site for a large astronomical observatories exploiting the radio-silence of the Lunar darkside. Significant power lulls at the Lunar half-phases would provide an incentive for additional near-terminator sites to be populated.
The total length of this loop would be about 5460 km or 3390 miles (exactly half of the equatorial circumference of the Moon). Possible extensions might include a polar route to reach ice reserves in the far Lunar north. This is similar to building a power line from Florida to Seattle, or from LA to Alaska.
Initial construction could consist of a glass-fiber-encased soft aluminum conductor, which could be made entirely with native materials, thus eliminating most of the mass burden of equipment needed from Earth. Initially this cable could just be laid on the surface, perhaps covered by regolith -- much like transoceanic cables built on Earth. Fiber optics for communications, and the track itself form a right-of-way for future development on the Moon.
This picture solves the power lull problem; provides good sites for a number of different "competing" base concepts; and immediately moves towards a more global view of Moon colonization. Since colonists would be encouraged to spread out along the line, here would be less motivation for territorial and management disputes between the many parties interested in developing the Moon.
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