ARESAM: STUDENT CONCEPT OF FUTURE MARS SPACE STATION

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1 MAR ARESAM: STUDENT CONCEPT OF FUTURE MARS SPACE STATION On the following pages are excerpts from our report. If you would like to obtain a full copy of our report, send a check or money order for $10.00 (to cover cost of printing and shipping) to: Jonathon Smith, 4571 South Lakeshore Road, Lexington, MI Jonathon Smith Jonathon Smith is a 16 year old high school junior. He lives in Croswell, Michigan and attends the Sanilac County Science and Math Center. Upon graduation he hopes to enroll at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and major in aerospace engineering, eventually becoming part of a manned mission to Mars. duesouth@greatlakes.net. Jim Bishop James Bishop is a 16 year old high school junior. He lives in Marlette, Michigan and attends the Sanilac County Math Science Center. He hopes to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and major in Engineering. strangescience@hotmail.com. A space station orbiting the planet Mars with the ability to house 18,000 full time inhabitants, equipped with such technology as Fractal Shape Changing Robots and a space elevator. Sound like fiction? Well, it is... for now. Aresam (the name of the station) was designed by a team of sophomores and freshman from Sanilac County, Michigan. The design is explained and detailed in a forty page report, including about thirty pages of typed print as well as drawings and diagrams. It was submitted for competition with other student designs from around the world in the International Space Settlement Design Competition (ISSDC). This design placed as one of eight finalists in the competition. Our report was structured around the ISSDC s RFP, or Request for proposal. It basically required that every team consider the full implications of what a space station required, and to provide for and facilitate those needs. We had to consider many scientific factors such as how to provide food/air/water/fuel for a population of 18,000 people so far from earth, how to power the station, and how to repair it. But we also had to consider many social factors such as how to keep a population of 18,000 people mentally sane 48,000,000 miles from earth, and how to organize the judicial and law enforcement systems for this independent society. In our design we greatly elaborate on the above, and include a limited price estimate, schedule for completion once construction has started, and plan for operation of Aresam. It goes over many major processes and contingencies that this station will use to survive emergencies in space, as well as addressing in depth many of the key technologies that make it possible. 567

2 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.0 A glint of light flashes in the distance, largely obscured by the glow of the planet Mars. You feel the deck vibrate slightly under your feet as the engines of your craft push you forward, accelerating toward Aresam, your destination. Anticipation builds as you near the end of your six month journey to your new home. After a while you notice that the glint you saw from afar has now grown into a huge network of interwoven solar panels, sucking up solar energy to be used by the machinery inside. Something catches your eye, and you are stunned as the entire inside portion of, a large torus, which has recently materialized from the blackness of space, melts away and becomes transparent. Small lights start appearing everywhere on the interior of the ring, and it dawns on you that you ve just witnessed your first sunset, or crossover from day to night on Aresam. A shudder rocks you in your seat as your ship makes its final adjustments for docking. You notice a protrusion extending from the torus, or rather from a large sphere filling the doughnut hole of the torus. As the ship keeps nudging forward you find that this protrusion connects to Aresam s docking facility; a giddy feeling races through your system as you realize that soon you ll be riding through that tunnel on one of Aresam s high speed maglevs. Wow. This is the only word left to you as you view the docking facility, with the glowing red surface of Mars in the background. Please remain in your seat until the ship has come to a full and complete stop, a voice says over the intercom. You hear a slight ticking sound and then a muffled THUD, as the ship mates with a docking airlock. The lights of your cabin come alive, bringing you back to the moment. You pick up your backpack and walk out into the hallway, already full with grinning faces and a low excited flux of conversation. Welcome to Aresam! As required by the Foundation Societies Request for Proposal, the Northdonning Heedwell design of Aresam, if chosen, will be an independent community capable of supporting a population of 18,000 full time inhabitants, has deciphered and prepared for all elements of basic infrastructure, etc.... However, the philosophy of our design, which will be exemplified throughout, was not to make a settlement that fit all the requirements of the RFP, or even fit them well. Rather, we sought to design the best station that could be designed; the most innovative, the most attractive, the cheapest, the best. This design philosophy was present through every meeting, discussion and decision made about the settlement; every dispute, every synergy, every last minute change, holding us to our purpose like a guiding star. We at Northdonning Heedwell now yield to you, the Foundation Society, the fruits of our labor; our response to the Aresam Space Settlement Request for Proposal. 2. STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING 2.1 The major structural material used in the construction of Aresam will be woven carbon nano-tube blocks. These blocks will be made by machines which link carbon atoms into linear molecule, molecules into rope and rope into blocks. These blocks are used in the construction of Aresam s main torus, central axis, two spherical hubs, and mounts/supports for solar cell array. In addition to being used on the exterior of the station, most of the interior structures such as houses, office buildings, restaurants, malls, tennis courts, etc..., are constructed of

3 carbon-nano tube blocks. 568 Major studies have been done into the effects of the Zero-G environment on the human body. Most have shown a decrease in muscular strength, and an overall degenerative effect on human bones. Therefore it was determined early off that any area in the station housing large amounts of people for a substantial time would have to have artificial gravity. The main torus of Aresam is the only part of the station that truly fit the above description, therefore it is the only area of Aresam that is provided with artificial gravity. There are several theoretical ways of producing an artificial gravity field (i.e. harnessing a small black hole, creating a gravity well with huge energy generator, etc...) but for all practical purposes, these will not be feasible until many years in the future. There is really only one manageable way to create artificial gravity in the space environment, and that is using centrifugal forces. According to Einstein s special relativity, an accelerating body (space ship, etc...) induces on its contents forces that equal a gravitational field. The greater the magnitude of acceleration, the greater the artificial gravitational effect. Therefore, by spinning a circular torus shaped structure, you create acceleration (and therefore gravity) on any surfaces facing the center of the circle. On Aresam, the intensity of the gravitational field will be 1 g, which will be produced by spinning the torus at approximately 0.6 rpm. 3. OPERATIONS ENGINEERING 3.1 The orbital location of Aresam will be a geo-synchronous orbit around the equator of Mars. There are several reasons for this. First, the space elevator is to be attached to Mars at Middle Point, a location on Pavonis Mons that lies directly on the equator. By keeping Aresam a set distance from the elevator, shuttles can easily make the orbit transfers necessary to transfer goods to and from the elevator. This also provides unlimited access to the Martian surface by inhabitants, as the two structures (Aresam and the elevator) will always be aligned in the most convenient orbital locations. Secondly, in case of an emergency evacuation, Aresam will always be above its emergency bunkers on the surface. This would prevent the stranding of the residents in the rugged Martian terrain that might occur if Aresam were on the opposite side of the planet when the emergency occurred. During the construction phase of Aresam, all the materials used in construction will be lifted off the surface of Mars via SSTO RLV s (single stage to orbit re-usable launch vehicles) capable of lifting 100 tons to the construction site. The Lockheed Martin Corporation created a prototype model of an SSTO RLV, the VentureStar, in the 1990 s, and since that time they have found wide-spread use on Earth. These ships will launch from quickly erected bases on Mars, and will land at the very same bases. They will be serviced and fueled on the surface by a skeleton crew of base operators.

4 Transportation in Aresam will have two overall dimensions, local and long distance travel. The local level deals with transportation around the homes of the people and to the local malls and restaurants. For these purposes, and ones similar, the residents will have two means of transportation available to them, sidewalks and escalators. The side walks are ten feet wide and provide a specific walkway for residents to the nearest escalator. The escalators are located every half mile and run down to the train stations located in the middle of the torus. Residents can ride these escalators down into the downtown section of Aresam, where the theaters, office buildings and expensive restaurants are. 569 On the long distance scale, there will be really only one means of transportation for the residents, maglev trains. There are seven maglev trains servicing the population of Aresam, six in the main torus and one in the central axis. The six in the main torus will be stacked in two groups of three, each stack traveling the opposite direction of the other. Because the trains are propelled using magnets, they are just as safe suspended above the ground as on the ground, and this allows the stacking of several trains. The trains run two main circuits. The top train in each stack stops only at designated train stations and transports passengers to the agricultural section of the torus, The bottom two trains stop at every train station in the economic area, and don t venture out to the agricultural section of the torus. The function of the two bottom trains is similar to that of New York s or Toronto s subway system, i.e. to transport people to different parts of the city. The central axis, as well as the main torus of Aresam, will spin, but the two spheres will remain stationary. Therefore, buffer sections will be built to allow passengers to go from the main sections of Aresam. into the spheres. The buffer zones are themselves only cylindrical shaped connectors between the central axis and the spheres that are capable of being accelerated and then slowed down. The procedure for transfer of passenger/materials from the central axis to one of the spheres by use of the buffer zone is as follows. A maglev train inside the spinning central axis approaches the stationary buffer zone. The passengers/materials on the train are off loaded onto a small station located very close to the buffer zone. Next, the buffer zone is accelerated using magnets to mach the spin of the central axis. Once it has achieved this acceleration, the passengers/materials are transferred into the zone. Once everyone/everything has been transferred into the buffer zone, it is then de-accelerated to a complete stop. The initial train s passengers/materials are transferred into the stationary sphere. 3.4 Independent Facilities Aresam, as a whole, will be a single integrated community. However, certain structures of Aresam exist and operate independent of the rest. These are Aresam s independent facilities. There are three major independent facilities, the space elevator, the Mars base and the eco-parks. The space elevator is an innovative and efficient solution to one of space developments greatest obstacles; how to provide economical transportation to planetary orbit. Standard means of transporting goods to low planetary orbit requires a launch vehicle loaded with millions of

5 dollars of fuel which accelerates its payload to a speed capable of breaking gravity s grip. This excessive and constant use of fuel drives up the price of planetary exports beyond that of being affordable. Using a space elevator, the scene is drastically altered. The space elevator literally pulls itself out of a planet s gravity well without the use of any fuel per se. Thus the price of extra-terrestrial exports delivered to low planetary orbit by a space elevator is barely increased, making the exports not only affordable, but also profitable to the one exporting. This is important because it encourages economic investment in space and space related fields. These are facts which in general show the superiority of the space elevator over rocket propulsion for transporting goods into LPO; however, the specific advantages that will be provided to Aresam by this important piece of infrastructure far surpass these. First of all, Aresam, as an independent but limited community, will depend largely on imports of natural resources to drive its industry. These imports have to be supplied from someplace by some means. However, if these imports need to be transported over large distances, such as the asteroid belt, they may cost as much or more than the products to be manufactured out of them. The same may be true if the imports needed to be launched by chemical propulsion out of a gravity well, and this is clearly undesirable for a community wishing to export its goods for sale. However, using the space elevator, Aresam can have access to an entire planet of resources with none of the two problems previously stated. As already explained, the cost of transporting the raw material into planetary orbit with the elevator are relatively nil, and the materials need only be shipped from a low Mars orbit to the high Mars orbit Aresam will be occupying. Thus it is possible and profitable for Aresam s industry to produce goods for sale to the Earth system and the asteroid colonies AUTOMATION 5.1 Several thousand temperature, humidity, and atmospheric gas sensors will monitor the atmosphere of all of Aresam s living space. The information collected by these probes will be wired to Control Computer 2, a super computer of the same type as Control Computer 1, located also in the control building. This computer will have no other network ports and will not be accessible by any other computer system on Aresam. The collected information from the probes will be contrasted to set standards. The super computer will then send out commands to the atmospheric scrubbers as needed, adjusting the local atmosphere of the probes. Several thousand pressure sensors will be wired to the same computer system. They will notify the computer that if the pressure for any one given area begins to rapidly decrease, which would indicate a hull breach. The computer will then issue orders to robots on the exterior of the station, instructing them with the location of the hull breach and instructions on how to fix it. 6. SCHEDULE AND COST 6.1 June 2040: Crew and materials for Mars base are sent out. This consists of a crew hab,

6 along with a large number of FSCR s and the SSTO RLV ships. Also included will be chemical factories to begin mining of materials from the Martian soil, and factories mining carbon from the atmosphere, and factories to construct carbon blocks out of the carbon. The FSCR s will begin constructing the Mars bunkers, and launch pads. At the same time this is sent, two separate convoys will also be sent out, one to Diemos and the other to the Martian North Pole. The convoy to Deimos will consist of FSCR s equipped for mining, and a factory capable of producing solar cells. This convoy will begin manufacturing solar cells for Aresam and the space elevator. The convoy to the Martian north pole will consist of FSCR s equipped for mining ice, and a number of robotic rovers. Mining of the ice at the north pole will commence immediately, and the ice will start to be shipped to the Mars base construction site. This water will start to be stored, and part will be used to manufacture rocket fuel The main expense in the annual operation of Aresam will be paying its employees. The total annual expenditure on employees will be $180,000,000. This is assuming a work force of 2,000 people getting an average income of $90,000 (some of the less technical employees receive salaries of $50,000, while the technical employees receive $125,000 a year.) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special Thanks out to my mother, Joan Smith, for editing and often re-writing large sections of this presentation and report. Also to all the other team members who helped design the station, and to Robert Zubrin for helping me to believe that we will one day go to Mars. Jonathon Smith 571 Thanks to the whole team for helping out with the project; we wouldn t be here without you. Jim Too Low they Build, Who build Beneath the Stars." Edward Young