MMM #272 Since December 1986 FEBRUARY 2014 p 1 Soon many people will be able to fly to the edge of space. As prices drop, this will be but the beginning. Day flights and night flights, aurora flights, full moon flights; milky way flights. Further down the road are flights via the edge of space to especially attractive intercontinental destinations: Hong Kong, CapeTown, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai etc. Feature Articles 1 In Focus: Creating a Manufacturing “Beachhead” on the Moon, Peter Kokh 5 Growing “Start-up” Industries on the Moon, Dave Dietzler 6 “Backing up” our Civilization, Peter Kokh Left: Station at L1 -------- Right: archives of human civilization in a lunar lavatube For past articles, Visit http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_classics/ or /mmm_themes/ MMM #272 Since December 1986 FEBRUARY 2014 p 2 About Moon Miners’ Manifesto - “The Moon - it’s not Earth, but it’s Earth’s!” • MMM’s VISION: “expanding the human economy through of-planet resources”; early heavy reliance on Lunar materials; early use of Mars system and asteroid resources; and permanent settlements supporting this economy. • MMM’s MISSION: to encourage “spin-up” entrepreneurial development of the novel technologies needed and promote the economic-environmental rationale of space and lunar settlement. • Moon Miners’ Manifesto CLASSICS: The non-time-sensitive articles and editorials of MMM’s first twenty years plus have been re-edited, reillustrated, and republished in 23 PDF format volumes, for free downloading from this location: http://www.MoonSociety.org/publications/mmm_classics/ • MMM THEME Issues: 14 collections of articles according to themes: ..../publications/mmm_themes/ • MMM Glossary: new terms, old terms/new meanings: www.moonsociety.org/publications/m3glossary.html • MMM retains its editorial independence and serves many groups, each with its own philosophy, agenda, and programs. Sharing MMM may suggest overall satisfaction with themes and treatment, requires no other litmus test. Opinions expressed herein, including editorials, are those of individual writers and may not reflect positions or policies of the National Space Society, Milwaukee Lunar Reclamation Society, or The Moon Society. Copyrights remain with the individual writers. Reproduction rights, with credit, are granted to NSS & TMS chapter newsletters. • MMM color online downloadable PDF file version option for Moon Society Members using their username and password - do write [email protected] if you need help with your password. • For additional space news and near-term developments, there is a daily RSS feed space news section on http://www.moonsociety.org. You can also read Ad Astra magazine mailed to National Space Society members. • Milwaukee Lunar Reclamation Society is an independently incorporated nonprofit membership organization en- gaged in public outreach, freely associated with the National Space Society, insofar as LRS goals include those in NSS vision statement. MLRS serves as the Milwaukee chapter of both The National Space Society and The Moon Society: - http://www.moonsociety.org/chapters/milwaukee/ • The National Space Society is a grassroots pro-space member-ship organization, with 10,000 members and 50 chapters, dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. National Space Society 1155 15th Street NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005 (202) 429-1600 - www.NSS.org • The Moon Society seeks to overcome the business, financial, and technological challenges to the establishment of a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on the Moon.” - Contact info p. 9. • NSS chapters and Other Societies with a compatible focus are welcome to join the MMM family. For special chapter/group rates, write the Editor, or call (414)-342-0705. • Publication Deadline: Final draft is prepared ASAP after the 20th of each month. Articles needing to be keyed in or edited are due on the 15th, Sooner is better! - No compensation is paid. • Submissions by email to [email protected] - Email message body text or MS Word, Text files, and pdf file attachments or mailed CDs, DVDs, or typed hard copy [short pieces only, less than 1,000 words] to: Moon Miners’ Manifesto, c/o Peter Kokh, 1630 N. 32nd Street, Milwaukee, WI 53208-2040 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Focus Creating a Manufacturing “Beachhead” on the Moon There’s more to it than most of us suspect By Peter Kokh “A beachhead is a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a beach by sea and begins to defend the area while other reinforcements help out until a unit large enough to begin advancing has arrived.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beachhead We can apply it by analogy to a first resource-advantaged site on the Moon. Before we humans descend upon the Moon in numbers, we need to have ready made shelter against the cosmic elements, in particular, against various forms of radiation, that can damage living tissue, and shorten the lifespans of human crews and settlers. And to do this, we need to be able to pre-manufacture materials with which to create shelters within which to live and operate. It has been clear for some time now, that it would be wise to send robotic crews “to do the dirty work” starting basic manufacturing operations, and building safe living spaces for human crews to follow. We will always need robots to do work that requires being out-vac, exposed on the sur- face for long periods. Robots may drive the overland bus and truck routes for example, and do the prospecting. For past articles, Visit http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_classics/ or /mmm_themes/ MMM #272 Since December 1986 FEBRUARY 2014 p 3 We have already talked about this several times in past issues. In MMM #242, three years ago (already!) on the front page, we introduced readers to NASA-JSC’s “Project M” - putting telepresence-operated “robonauts” on the Moon to pave the way for humans. Do watch this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFPNcWN7QnM I have watched it many times and it still gives me a thrill. It is possible but unlikely, that we will have fully autonomous robots to do what needs to be done before humans arrive to find ready made and properly c quarters.If the robots need teleoperation only once in a while, teleoperators on Earth can possibly make due inwith the 3 second time delay involved. If they need more constant guidance, a forward outpost at the Earth-Moon L1 or L2 Lagrange points may be needed. While “maintaining” those two positions will require some fuel, there would be no advantage at all to teleoperating from either of the two flank positions, L4 and L5 as while these positions are stable, no position- keeping needed, they are as far from the Moon’s surface as Earth itself. Shielding needed at L1 and/or L2 Lagrange points The problem is that at these points, well outside of the Van Allen Belts which protect Earth, low Earth orbits and Geosynchronous orbits, in comparison with lunar surface sites, crews will be exposed to radiation from the entire sky, not just the half of it that they would be exposed to if they were on the lunar surface. Now Apollo astro- nauts on the last three missions spent more time on the surface, up to 3 full days, with little ill efect. But changing crews twice a week, or even weekly, even monthly, would be exorbitantly expensive. L1 Station with Bigelow modules: Juxtaposition of images by the author If we do need a small crew at one of the Lagrange points, we will need to provide shielding. The simplest way of doing that could be to house them in a Bigelow 330 module with its one foot thick Vectran walls made of light chemical elements. Tests show that polyethylene is a much better radiation absorbent than any kind of metal. More importantly, its light density and overall weight makes it less expensive to ship from Earth. And while that shielding may be enough in Earth orbits within the Van Allen Belt, it might very well be insufcient beyond those belts at the various Earth-Moon Lagrange Points. The two Bigelow Genesis modules tested are in low Earth orbits as will be the similar-sized Bigelow module NASA wlll attach to the International Space Station for further tests. For past articles, Visit http://www.moonsociety.org/publications/mmm_classics/ or /mmm_themes/ MMM #272 Since December 1986 FEBRUARY 2014 p 4 Perhaps the National Space Society, the Moon Society, and the Mars Society should push NASA to budget a radiation exposure test for a B330 module. Putting it at either L4 or L5, just for the test, would be ideal, as from either “perch,” a telescopic camera on board could relay to observers on Earth, a view of one of the Moon’s “flanks” that we can never see from Earth’s surface thus gaining publicity and stirring public interest in the Moon. But that is a lesser consideration. Left: a computer generated image of the Moon centered on 60°W as seen from L4 Right: the corresponding image of the Moon centered on 60°E as seen from L5 If tests showed that the B330’s foot thick vectran hull provided insufcient long term shielding, then versions with appropriately thicker hulls could be produced for use at an L1 or L2 teleoperations station. But if first tests show that this hull, designed more for puncture resistance than for radiation resistance, does not ofer the needed deep space radiation protection, then it is back to the drawing boards. We need to know, and we need to know without further delay. Back to teleoperating robots etc. on the Moon’s (or Mars’) surface from an outpost in orbit. Down on the Moon’s surface, the robonaut crew could prepare the site, and set up simple “manufacturing” equipment to making basic shielding materials like easily stacked “lego blocks” made of compressed and sintered moondust.