Appendix I. Shackleton s plans

Transcription

1 Appendix I Shackleton s plans Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 E. Seedhouse, Mars via the Moon: The Next Giant Leap, Springer Praxis Books, DOI /

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3 Appendix II: International Lunar Decade Goals 1. Develop a plan for the systematic international study of lunar resources including mineral, geographic, and orbital resources, assigning responsibilities to countries, firms, and organizations based on their capabilities determined through a competitive process. 2. Develop an internationally shared and accessible database of lunar resources, including procedures for updating and accessing the database and preserving the security of information. 3. Develop procedures for communications between different research groups, outposts and business incubators, tourist bases, and other facilities operating on the Moon. 4. Establish a competitive process for providing access to specific firms seeking to exploit specific resources in specific locations on the Moon such that they can exploit the resources according to the principles set forth in Article 11, paragraph 7 of the Moon Treaty. 5. Develop a Lunar Development Fund that coordinates the international development of key enabling technologies required to advance exploitation of the resources of the Moon as well as their use in pre-commercial, pilot applications, and business incubator facilities that may be located in specific regions of the Moon. 6. Launch competitive calls open to research institutes and research oriented firms from around the world to develop technologies and operational consortia to develop required technologies for the exploitation of lunar resources. 7. Develop specific programs, incorporating a competitive process that encourages excellence, to increase the space research and space technology development capabilities of states that have had limited opportunity thus far. 8. Develop long-term financing mechanisms that can lead to the development of commercial- scale resource extraction, energy production, transport, and other facilities on the Moon and in cislunar space. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 E. Seedhouse, Mars via the Moon: The Next Giant Leap, Springer Praxis Books, DOI /

4 164 Appendix II: International Lunar Decade Goals 9. Provide for mechanisms for conflict resolution including an appeals process to higher authorities. 10. Develop an organizational structure for a Lunar Development Corporation to support the fulfillment of the above objectives within the general principles set forth in the Moon Treaty particularly as relates to the international regime referred to in Articles Secure sufficient funding from participating governments and private sources such that the above objectives can be effectively fulfilled during the course of the International Lunar Decade.

5 Epilog First, you go to the moon before you go to Mars. You re not going to go to Mars before going back to the moon. You need to establish a goal to go to the moon and do that first and have a program laid out for an effective way to do it, but they re not doing that right now and I think that s really key to exploration. George W.S. Abbey, former director of NASA s Johnson Space Center, in an interview with the International Business Times, December 2014 If we return to the moon just for science and exploration then activities will be limited by the amount of money our nation is willing to devote. But, if we establish a sustainable, economically viable lunar base then our science and exploration will be limited only by our imagination. Astronaut Ron Garan Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 E. Seedhouse, Mars via the Moon: The Next Giant Leap, Springer Praxis Books, DOI /

6 166 Epilog The Moon is where the action is going to be in the 2020s and 2030s and beyond. It will serve as a vital stepping stone and test bed that will enable us to venture deeper into space and eventually all the way to Mars. Between July 1969 and December 1972, there were a few astronauts who spent some time on the lunar surface. That was more than 45 years ago and the time has long since passed for a return. But, this time, a manned mission will not be a flags and footprints venture this time, the goal will be to learn to live in deep space and to test the myriad technologies required to enable an eventual manned mission to the Red Planet in the very distant future. Given the state of current national space policy in the US, the next boot prints on the Moon may be Chinese or they may belong to a commercial enterprise it s difficult to say. What we do know is that NASA s proposal to send a crew to capture an asteroid has received less than a lukewarm reception and we also know that NASA s chief, Charlie Bolden, is adamant that there will be no manned mission to the Moon during his tenure as administrator. So a commercial return to the Moon seems likely, perhaps led by a consortium that follows a multi-participatory strategy akin to the collaboration that has been so successful demonstrated by the partners of the International Space Station (ISS). Why New Space? Well, the rise and rise of the commercial sector is thanks in part to the industry following its own agenda and motivations, which is a path no government can follow. Since New Space companies have their own agenda, they are much more agile in setting and achieving goals. Companies like Shackleton Energy Company (SEC) don t have to spend inordinate amounts of time discussing policy objectives, nor do they have to spend countless and often fruitless hours engaged in seemingly endless and protracted dialog debating the next destination. SEC doesn t have to ask itself why they are sending people into space and they don t have to worry about how the US, or any other nation for that matter, can use manned spaceflight to advance its interests. SEC know why they are going to the Moon and that reason is to establish a propellant-production facility to supply those engaged in cis -lunar and low Earth orbit (LEO) activities. Simple. Now to that manned mission to Mars. Most spacefaring nations agree that a manned mission to Mars should be the ultimate long-term objective and most agree that the only way to achieve such a monumental goal is to first return to the Moon. There have been whole books written that advocate living off the land as a way to realize a manned mission to Mars but very few of the technologies needed to achieve this have been field tested. And then there is the life-support question. Do we have a bioregenerative life-support system capable of sustaining a crew for three years? We don t. Which means we have to lug tonnes and tonnes of life-support consumables, which means more mass, which means more cost, which in turn means the whole enterprise becomes too expensive. And, even if we did have a bioregenerative life-support system that had been tested and tested again, what about the radiation issue? Yes, radiation again. The topic has been discussed at length in this book but it needs to be mentioned again because radiation rules out any potential manned mission to Mars: Radiation shielding is the most overlooked feature of proposed interplanetary vehicles. NASA and space industry mission planners consistently underestimate the radiation hazards on a trip to Mars, particularly from GCRs [galactic cosmic rays] and thus minimize the shielding to protect against this exposure. The conventional wisdom states: NASA cannot afford to shield against radiation because the enormous mass penalty will make a Mars mission too expensive. However, a truly safety conscious

7 Epilog 167 approach insists NASA cannot afford NOT to shield effectively against radiation, despite the mass penalties. It is time for NASA and the space industry to face up to radiation exposure as a major concern for crew health and for their ability to carry out a successful mission and to protect the crew against it. Dr. M. Cohen Thanks to the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that was carried along with the Curiosity rover to Mars, we have a much better idea of the deep-space radiation environment. For example, we know thanks to an article published in Science in May 2013 that a 360-day return trip to the Red Planet will result in a radiation exposure of 662 ± 108 millisieverts and we know that 95% of that radiation will be from galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) which are almost impossible to shield against. So how do we provide our Mars-bound crew with protection equivalent to the protection provided by Earth s atmosphere? Well, one way to do it would be to build a spaceship with a hull one meter thick. Or perhaps we could use water. This subject is often brought up in discussions about how to protect Mars astronauts against killer radiation: just put them in a storm shelter surrounded by water. Job done. Not quite. Lets engage in some hypothetical mission design for a moment. Let s assume the manned Mars vehicle is the same size as the Mars500 cylinder that is, the spacecraft measures about 3.5 meters in diameter by 20 meters in length. Now let s propose we use water to shield the vehicle. We know that to provide protection equivalent to 5,500 meters of altitude on Earth would require a hull five meters thick, but this is a budget mission, so the engineers have decided that a one-meter-thick hull will have to do. With one meter of water shielding around the hull, the hull would be 5.5 meters in diameter and 22 meters in length. Now let s calculate the volume of shielding. This done by calculating the difference between the two cylinders: 22π(5.5 2 ) 20π(3.5 2 ) = 1,321cubic meters. Now we know a cubic meter weighs 1,000 kilograms, so we have to get 1,321,000 kilograms into space. How do we do that? Even if we have the Space Launch System (SLS) which may (if it is built) have a maximum payload capacity of 130,000 kilograms, you would need more than 10 launches and it would be pointless exercise anyway because the radiation shielding isn t enough to keep the astronauts safe. For that, you need a hull that is at least five meters thick. You do the math on that one. So returning to the Moon will buy scientists some valuable time to sort out the radiation problem and the life-support challenge and the in-situ resource utilization well, you get the idea. So, as the ISS winds down, commercial enterprise will head to the Moon. Commercial contracts will be signed to deliver propellant to LEO and to cis-lunar space. Resources will be mined and government procurement may leverage commercial investment which may result in cost reductions. And, while these activities are taking place, experience is being gained that can help those who eventually strike out for Mars. So the lunar surface will become not just a destination, but part of a commercially led drive to develop and establish a permanent presence on the Moon. As a technical and logistical training ground, the lunar surface will provide the ideal platform to advance the planetary technology needed for eventual Mars settlement. And, because this will almost certainly be a commercially driven venture, it can adopt an agile approach with a higher tolerance for risk than traditional government missions. No doubt about it, the surface of the Moon is the only logical place for the next giant leap.

8 Index A Acute radiation syndrome, 6 Aerocapture, Alzheimer s, Apollo, 4, 10, 11, 19, 20, 28, 30, 32 34, 42, 45, 48, 52, 61, 75, 77, 85, 86, , 138, 144, 150, 153, 154 Appendectomy, 110 Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), 50 52, 54, 131 Atlas V, 75, 80, 83 Automation, 44 B Bigelow aerospace, 57, 58, 66, 71 73, 129, 130, 149, 157 Bioregenerative life-support system (BLSS), 87 89, Bone loss, 2, Business model, 156 C Cataracts, 5, 8 13, 17, 18, 114, 121 China, 28, 35 40, 50, 52, 55, 127, 129, 143, 144, 155 Closed-loop life support, 86 Collaborative pathways, 50 Commercial justification, 71 Contour Crafting, Cryogenic propellant, 157 D Delta IV, 80, 82 Descent and landing, 18 25, 135 E Entry, 2, 18 25, 33, 39, 53, 60, 85, 94, 111, 144 European Space Agency (ESA), 28, 35, 36, 40 46, 49, 55, 64, 67, 115, 139, 140 F Falcon heavy, 80, 81, 84, 85 Fusion, 37, 59, 125, G Galactic cosmic radiation, 17 Gallbladder, 112, 113 Gallstones, 112 Genetic testing, 114 Golden spike, H Helion energy, 152 HTP See Hypersonic transition problem (HTP) Human physiology, 62 Hypersonic transition problem (HTP), 23 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 E. Seedhouse, Mars via the Moon: The Next Giant Leap, Springer Praxis Books, DOI /

9 170 Index I ICP See Intracranial pressure (ICP) ILD See International Lunar Decade (ILD) Infrastructure development, 61, 66, 68, 141, 155 In-situ resource utilization, 66, , 141 International Lunar Decade (ILD), Intracranial pressure (ICP), 12, 122 K Keravala, Jim, 68, 69, 130 Kessler syndrome, 139, 140 L LRO See Lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) Lunar assets, 58, 72, 129 Lunar prospecting, 7, 50, 59, 68, 101, 102, 111, 112, 114, 148 Lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO), 67, 156 Lunar station, 28, 35, 36, 66, 143, 149 M Mining, 58 60, 67, 68, 70 72, 126, , 135, 136, 148, 149, O Omics, 114 OpenLuna, 58, P Platinum, 59, Pollution, Pre-emptive surgery, Project horizon, 63 Project M, 96 Property rights, 58, 71, 72, , 141 R Regolith, 8, 38, 41, 44, 49, 51, 55, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 74, 76, 92, 93, , 135, 149, 152, 153, Rogozov, L., Robotics, S Salvage, 126, , 141 SEC See Shackleton Energy Company (SEC) Shackleton Energy Company (SEC), 58 60, 66 70, 85, 126, 129, 130, 144, , Shielding, 3, 8, 11, 17, 80, 100 Shimizu corporation, SinterHab, 43, 44 Solar particle event (SPE), 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 Space Launch System (SLS), 47 51, 80, 84 SPE See Solar particle event (SPE) STP See Supersonic transition problem (STP) Sustainable space enterprise, 77 Supersonic transition problem (STP), 23 V VIIP See Visual Impairment Intracranial Pressure (VIIP) Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), 8, 47, 49 Visual Impairment Intracranial Pressure (VIIP), 12, 13, 122 VSE See Vision for Space Exploration (VSE)