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Sustainable Space Development

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Presentation on theme: "Sustainable Space Development"— Presentation transcript:

1 Sustainable Space Development
A low-cost way to permanently open the solar system.

2 A single Falcon Heavy 50 tons to orbit.

3 The Orbital Transfer and Landing Vehicle

4 Destination: The ice at the Moon’s north pole.

5 9 tons of equipment

6 JSC Robonaut set-up of basic mining operations.

7 Icy dirt  Steam out volatiles  Distillation  Electrolysis  Rocket fuel !

8 ULA depot at the Earth-Moon gravitation point

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10 Delivery of propellant to any Earth orbit

11 Bootstrapping for low cost

12 Preparation: Bigelow inflatable habitats

13 Preparation: Univ. of Arizona’s lunar greenhouse

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15 Humans return to the Moon

16 Permanent lunar base: Continuous habitation

17 The first woman on the Moon

18 Metallurgy and machining

19 Progressive self-sufficiency

20 Propellant & material export

21 Space solar power

22 Rapid Progress

23 Enabling early Mars settlement

24 Permanent space settlement

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26 LunarCOTS.com CisLunarOne.com

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28 Credits: l Music - AudioMachine, “You Were Born for This” l Falcon Heavy - SpaceX l Earth departure stage - NASA l Lunar north pole - NASA l Xeus cryogenic lunar lander - Masten Aerospace l Teleoperated steamer - _______ l Fuel depot - United Launch Alliance l Orbital transfer vehicle - _________ l Inflatable habitat - Bigelow Aerospace l Lunar greenhouse - University of Arizona l _______ capsule - NASA / Boeing l Lunar base - ____________ l Woman on Moon - Unknown artist l Metallurgy - Dennis Wingo l Mass driver - _____________ l Metal suits - ______________ l Solar power satellite - _________ l Mars settlement – Mars Foundation by Georgi Petrov l O’Neilian colony - _________

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30 Percentage of NASA’s Budget Needed to Enable Commercial Companies to Develop Lunar Resources Until They No Longer Need NASA Support

31 l The Falcon Heavy will likely launch before the end of 2014.
Notes: l The Falcon Heavy will likely launch before the end of 2014. l 9 tonnes of payload to the lunar surface if hydrolox used tonnes of payload if ion propulsion in cis-lunar transit. l The OTLV would actually be smaller than the EDS depicted It would have external legs, down-pointing thrusters, and a heat shield. l A prospecting mission would first need to characterize the lunar ice before mining equipment were landed. l The OTLV would be larger than Xeus, have no external tanks, and would have a heat shield. Later on, the lander and an OTV “tanker truck” would likely be separate craft. l Mining equipment might not use a mobile steamer but rather excavators and transporters. This will be determined after the first landed prospecting mission.

32 Notes (cont): l An L1 Circuit (not shown) would bring water or fuel to the EML1 depot before a Cis-lunar Circuit could be done. l The “tanker truck” may not be the turtle-like configuration shown but cylindrical with a heat shield on one end of the cylinder. This would be similar to SpaceX’s reusable upper stage. l The inflatable habitats might be placed within a hillside or in an appropriately sized crater in order to make regolith coverage easier so that astronauts could have excellent radiation protection. l Humans would return to the Moon not in a capsule as depicted but in the OTLV essentially as cargo. l The first woman on the Moon will be watched by nearly a billion girls. She could be the wife of an astronaut already landed and waiting. l Bits of pure metal can be fairly easily separated from regolith. Concentrated solar light might provide the initial means of melting the regolith.

33 Notes (cont): l The initial transport of propellant and materials would be done by lander not a mass driver. l The icy regolith will provide the water, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen needed for life support. With radiation shielding, and a good exercise program, the astronauts will be able to potentially stay for years at a time on the Moon. Developing centrifugal gravity would be an early goal. l A very large population is unnecessary to achieve self sufficiency. However, creative approaches to “good-enough” technology will likely be means whereby a colony would become fully self-sufficient. Lessons learned would be applied on Mars. l Solar power satellites and rotating free-space colonies would be enabled by lunar resources. However, they would not be the priority. Martian settlement would commence the moment the lunar base began requiring less NASA funding as the base began providing for itself and exporting to the markets.

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