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VADEMECUM ‘Go with Me’ VADEMECUM ‘Go With Me’ 2006 Submission to the Student Space Settlement Contest NASA Ames Research Center ALEXANDER BRIDI 56 Rue de Tenbosch, 1050 Brussels, Belgium [email protected] +011 32 473 898 170 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................7 2. Why do we need a space station?................................................................................7 3 .What should Vademecum be like? ..............................................................................8 3.1 Design Options.........................................................................................................8 3.2 Vademecum’s Life Support System........................................................................20 3.2.1 Air System........................................................................................................20 3.2.2 Vademecum’s Biomass System ......................................................................22 3.2.3 Food Production ..............................................................................................24 3.2.4 Thermal System...............................................................................................25 3.2.5 Waste Management System ............................................................................26 3.2.6 Water Management System ..........................................................................27 3.2.7 Energy Generation, Storage and Distribution System: .............................27 3.3 Gravity....................................................................................................................29 3.4 Noise Management..................................................................................................33 4. How do we build the Space Station?..........................................................................33 5. Where should Vademecum be located? ...................................................................38 6. Implementation Plan..................................................................................................42 6.1 Preparing the Project on Earth ................................................................................43 6.2 Shipping materials from Earth ................................................................................44 6.3 Building Vademecum in low orbit ..........................................................................44 6.4 Spinning it to create artificial gravity......................................................................46 6.5 Installing and Testing the life support system.........................................................47 6.6 Inhabiting Vademecum ...........................................................................................47 7. Transportation: ...........................................................................................................48 8. Risks.............................................................................................................................49 8.1 Radiation .................................................................................................................50 8.2 Health Hazards and Contamination.........................................................................52 8.3 Fire ..........................................................................................................................52 8.4 Other........................................................................................................................53 9. How to organize Vademecum -- The Station’s Governance System ......................53 9.1 Vademecum’s Principles and Code of Ethics .........................................................55 10. Vademecum’s Financing and Implementation Timeline.......................................56 11. Conclusion: ................................................................................................................60 2 List of Tables Table 1 - Vademecum’s overall quantifiable design criteria ..............................................9 Table 2 - Vademecum’s overall non-quantifiable design criteria .....................................10 Table 3 - Comparative Toroidal Design Options for Vademecum ...................................16 Table 4 - Overall Physical Properties of Crops at Maturity..............................................23 Table 5 - Comparison of Natural and Artificial Gravity...................................................31 Table 6 - Main Lunar Resources.......................................................................................34 Table 7 - Materials from Asteroids ...................................................................................36 Table 8 - Comparative table of minerals to be derived from Asteroids and the Moon.....38 Table 9 - Absorbed Dose Limits and Recommendations by the International Commission on Radiological Protection................................................................................................51 Table 10 - Vademecum’s Implementation Timeline and Costs........................................57 Table 11 - Vademecum’s 4 financing stages ....................................................................58 Table 12 - Velocities for various transfers ........................................................................71 List of Figures Figure 1 - Comparative Design Options for Vademecum.................................................11 Figure 2 - Vademecum as a Toroidal Ellipsoid.................................................................13 Figure 3 - Toroidal Ellipsoid Option – Cross Section view.............................................13 Figure 4 - Vademecum as a combination of 2 ellipses, or “combo” option .....................14 Figure 5 - Combo Option – Cross Section view ...............................................................14 Figure 6 - Vademecum as a truncated ellipsoid ................................................................15 Figure 7 - Truncated Ellipsoid - Cross Section view .......................................................15 Figure 8 - Vademecum with micro-gravity center, twin mirrors and solar panels – Side view ...................................................................................................................................18 Figure 9 - Vademecum with micro-gravity center, twin mirrors– Cross Section............19 Figure 10 - Expanded Vademecum with micro-gravity center, twin mirrors and solar panels.................................................................................................................................19 Figure 11 - Expanded Vademecum with twin mirrors– Cross Section............................20 Figure 12 - The five Lagrangian points in a two-body system (e.g., the Earth and the Moon)................................................................................................................................41 Figure 13 - Strands of inter-molecular hydrogen bonds and aromatic groups ................45 Figure 14 - Creating artificial gravity ..............................................................................47 Figure 15 - Escape Velocity.............................................................................................49 Figure 16 - Vademecum with flexible mirrors (moving up/down and tilting sideways to maximize exposure to sunshine) .......................................................................................62 Figure 17 Inertial view of dropped ball.............................................................................67 Figure 18: Rotating view of dropped ball .........................................................................68 Figure 19: Dropped a ball in artificial gravity: relationship of floor radius to trajectory deflection...........................................................................................................................69 3 List of Annexes Annex 1 - The impact of living in a 0g environment on humans ………………………63 Annex 2 - Living in Artificial Gravity: What happens when an object is in motion relative to its environment ……………………………………………………………...65 Annex 3 - Another option for building Vademecum: drawing materials from Asteroids……………………………………………………….70 Annex 4 - Equations to calculate the location of the Lagrangian Points ……………….73 Annex 5 - Optional Transportation beyond LEO ………………………………………80 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….82 4 Acronyms C Centigrade dW Dry Mass EVA Extra-vehicular activities fW Fresh Mass G Gravitational constant g Gram / Unit of acceleration due to gravity GEO Geosynchronous Orbit HEO High Earth Orbit ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection IPO Initial Public Offering ISS International Space Station kg Kilogram kW Kilowatt kPa Kilopascal L Liter LEO Low Earth Orbit LIBOR London Interbank Offered Rate m Meter MAP Microwave Anisotropy Probes Mb Millibar MW Megawatt NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NEA Near Earth Asteroid NEO Near Earth Object NGST Next Generation Space Telescope PESTO Photosynthesis Experiment Systems Testing and Operations R & D Research and Development rpm Rotations per minute SCR Solar Cosmic Rays SISCA Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory SPE Solar Particle Events Sv Unit of dose equivalent for radiation UN United Nations UV Ultra Violet 5 Acknowledgements
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