Transcript Space Settlement "For me the single overarching goal of human space flight is the human settlement of the solar system, and eventually beyond.

Space Settlement
"For me the single overarching goal of human space flight
is the human settlement of the solar system, and
eventually beyond. I can think of no lesser purpose
sufficient to justify the difficulty of the enterprise, and no
greater purpose is possible," Michael Griffin, current
NASA administrator, in 2003 testimony before Congress.
Al Globus
San Jose State University
Chairman, NSS Space Settlement Advocacy Committee
Science and Engineering
• Scientists answer questions.
• Engineers build things.
• In order to build things, it is often
necessary to answer questions.
• In order to answer questions, it is
often necessary to build things.
• Question: will life fill the solar
system?
• Answer: build space settlements
Space Settlement
• Not just a place to go work or visit
for a limited time
– Not a space station (ISS, Mir)
– Not exploration
• A home in space
– Hundreds or thousands of residents
– Many space settlements (thousands)
• A least some residents plan to spend
their life there
• Some residents are raising their kids
Where: Orbit?
• To raise children that can visit Earth requires 1g
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– Moon 1/6g Mars 1/3g
– Orbit any g, for 1g rotate at 2rpm = 250m radius
Continuous solar energy
Large-scale construction easier in 0g
Short supply line to Earth (hours vs days/months)
Greater growth (orbit 100+x vs. Moon/Mars 2x)
Orbital disadvantage: materials
– Millions (NOT billions) of tons from Moon/NEOs
• Kalpana One weighs about 15 million tons
• Under Van Allen Belt substantially reduces this
What
• A space settlement is a home in orbit,
not just a place to work.
• Live on the inside of air-tight,
kilometer scale, rotating spacecraft.
O’Neill Cylinder
Kalpana One
body mounted solar arrays
and power rectenna
thermal rejection
200m
250m
Shielding inside
rotating hull
Hull 15 cm steel
Population 5,000
550m
transparent end caps
Why
Growth
• Largest asteroid converted to space
settlements can produce 1g living area
100-1000 times the surface area of
the Earth.
– Reason: 3D object to 2D shells
– Easily support trillions of people.
– New land
• Build it yourself
• Don’t take from others
Wealth and Power
• China’s Ming dynasty
– 1400-1450 ocean exploration
– Pulled back, was colonized
• English 100 Year War 1337-1453
– Failed military expansion in known world
– Established empire overseas
• English merchant marine, 1485-1509
• 1550s Irish colonization
• American colonies 1600s
• 625 million x energy on Earth
– Total solar energy available
• One smallish asteroid, 3554 Amun, contains
$20 trillion materials.
– There are tens of thousands of such asteroids
Nice Place to Live
• Great views
• Low/0-g recreation
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Human powered flight
Cylindrical swimming pools
Dance, gymnastics
Sports: soccer
• Independence
– Separate environment
– Easy-to-control borders
• Other, for example, weather art
How?
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/photos/sts71/mir-imax/hmg0018.jpg
How (cont)
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Solar energy
Asteroid and lunar materials
Apollo - we can do anything
Profitable business
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Communication, earth imaging satellites
Sub-orbital tourism: save your money!
Orbital tourism: need $1-8 billion prize
Old folks home: no wheelchairs!
Small, special groups. Religious? Prisons?
Solar power satellites
Asteroid materials for Earth
When?
• A few decades should be sufficient to
build the first one
• No serious effort now
• Technology precursors
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Safer, cheaper launch
Extraterrestrial materials
Large scale orbital construction
Closed ecological life support systems
And much more
Who
• Today: highly trained astronauts, or
– $20 million tourist trip to ISS
– $200,000 sub-orbital tourist trip in a few years
• Tomorrow: anyone who wants to go.
– 100 - 10,000,000 people per colony
– Ultimately, thousands or even millions of
colonies
• Sounds unrealistic?
– A hundred years ago few had ever flown in an
airplane.
– Today ~ 500 million person/flights per year.
How much will it cost?
• If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
– How much did Bucharest cost?
– We invented money
• Cheaper than war
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$1 trillion/year
Millions of deaths last few decades
Massive destruction
Creation of terrorist
• Space settlement
– Unknown costs, but
– Much, much less than $1 trillion/year
– Few deaths (a few hundred so far)
Conclusion
The settlement of the solar system
could be the next great adventure
for humanity. There is nothing but
rock and radiation in space, no living
things, no people. The solar system is
waiting to be brought to life by
humanity's touch.
BACKUP
2020 Tourism
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Hotel
Doctors
Maids
Cooks
Recreational directors
Reservation clerks
etc.
These may be the first colonists.
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Low/0-g
Handicapped/Elderly Colony
No wheelchairs needed.
No bed sores.
Easy to move body even when weak.
Never fall and break hip.
Grandchildren will love to visit.
Need good medical facilities.
– Telemedicine
• Probably can’t return to Earth.
People Live Everywhere
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Every continent, including Antarctica
Hottest, driest deserts
Coldest, iciest regions
Wettest rain forests
On water
For short periods, in orbit
6,000,000,000 people on Earth
Life is Everywhere
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On nearly all land areas
In nearly all waters
In the rocks under the Earth
In near-boiling water
In ice
On desert rocks
On a spacecraft on the Moon
Next Target: Orbit
• Your lifetime: thousands of people living in
orbit
• A few centuries: most of humanity in orbit.
• Next
millenium:
generation ships
to the stars
Key Problem: Launch
$/kg
$/me
(73 kg)
Failure rate
22,000
1,606,000
0.5-1%
2,600-30,000
189,8002,190,000
6 - 33%
5
365
1/2,000,000
2010 NASA goal
2,200
160,600
1/10,000
2020 NASA goal
220
16,060
1/10,000
Shuttle
Commercial
launcher
airline
Stanford Torus