NUMBER 12 A NEWSLETTER FROM THE L-5 SOCIETY AUGUST, 1976 Study group Jobs in Space NASA TO RECRUIT SPACE SHUTTLE ASTRONAUTS slashes L5 cost est. NASA has issued a call for Space Shuttle astronaut candidates. Applications will be accepted until June A team of 12 researchers at NASA The previous summer, 28 researchers 30, 1977 and all applicants will be Ames Research Center this summer has at Ames had bracketed the cost estimate informed of selection by December, concluded that the L-5 solar energy between 100 and 200 billion for a more 1977. proposal will cost between 30-60 billion elaborate program with less emphasis on dollars and that, given an Apollo-style space manufacturing facilities. At least 15 pilot candidates and 15 mission specialist candidates will be effort, the first solar power satellite The 12 researchers called for the selected to report to the Lyndon B. could be beaming energy to Earth in establishment of a habitat (the “Crystal Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex., 1992. A more cautious scenario, where Palace”) containing 6,000 people. They on July 1, 1978, for two years of development of each project phase would live in a “hatbox” in contrast to training and evaluation. Final selection would be delayed until each previous the “bicycle tire” (also known as the as an astronaut will depend on phase was fully tested, would see power Stanford Torus) of the previous summer’s satisfactory completion of the evaluation satellites in operation by 1999. design. (cont’d. on p. 2, col. 2) period. NASA is committed to an affirmative action program with a goal of having qualified minorities and women among the newly selected astronaut candidates. Therefore, minority and women candidates are encouraged to apply. Pilot applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, physical science or mathematics or have completed all requirements for a degree by Dec. 31, 1977. An advanced degree or equivalent experience is desired. They must have at least 1,000 hours first pilot time, with 2,000 or more desirable. High performance jet aircraft and flight test experience is highly desirable. They must pass a NASA Class I space flight physical. Height between 64 and 76 inches is desired. Applicants for mission specialist candidate positions are not required to be pilots. Educational qualifications are the same as for pilot applicants except that biological science degrees are included. Mission specialist applicants Artist’s conception of "Crystal Palace" habitat. Drawing by Carolyn Henson. must be able to pass a NASA Class II Copyright 1976 L-5 Society (cont’d. on next page) All rights reserved. space flight physical. Height between 60 specific payload equipment where their INTERSOCIETY CONFERENCE and 76 inches is desired. special skills are needed. ON ENVIRONMENTAL Pay for civilian candidates will be Potential users of the Space Shuttle SYSTEMS based on the Federal Government’s include government agencies and private General Schedule pay scale from grades industries from the United States and New Colony Design Unveiled GS-7 through GS-15, with approximate abroad. Gerard K. O’Neill was the keynote salaries from $11,000 to $34,000 per speaker at the Intersociety Conference on year. Candidates will be compensated (continued from p. 1, col. 2) Environmental Systems, held in San based on individual academic Diego, July 12-15. In his talk, “Outlook achievements and experience. Other The study was conducted June 21 for Space” he gave a brief summary of through July 30. Participants were David benefits include vacation and sick leave the concept of space colonization. He Criswell, Frank Chilton, Gerald Driggers, and participation in the Federal then revealed some details of the Government retirement, group health 1976 NASA Study’s “Crystal Palace” progress being made on the subject by and life insurance plans. Vital Statistics: his research team (which includes L-5 Civilian applicants may obtain a Population 6000 people members Jerry Driggers, Eric Drexler, packet of application material from JSC. Radius 235 M; RPM 1.95 and T. A. Heppenheimer) at NASA/Ames Requests should be mailed to either Length 220 M Total structural mass (including agricultural Research Center this summer. Astronaut (Mission Specialist) Candidate area not shown) 49,000 tons O’Neill projected that the first colony Program or Astronaut (Pilot) Candidate Cosmic ray shield 3,100,000 tons and solar power satellite production Program, Code AHX, NASA Johnson 1 g "gravity” at rim facilities could be placed in operation 54 M2 /person in shielded area Space Center, Houston, Tex. 77058. 2 38 M agricultural area/person 15-20 years from the date the project Military personnel should apply Structure mass/person 8.2 tons would be started. The number of people through their respective military needed to operate and maintain the space departments using procedures which will production facilities was estimated at a be disseminated later this year by DOD. minimum of three to seven thousand. Military candidates will be detailed to O’Neill unveiled a new colony JSC but will remain in active military configuration with a diameter of 500 status for pay, benefits, leave and other meters and a spherical shape. military matters. Concentrated light would enter through Currently, 31 persons are available as windows in the end, reflecting off mirrors Space Shuttle crew, including nine on the axis. A water inventory of 5 tons scientists. Twenty-eight of them are per person would provide the proposed astronauts assigned to the Johnson Space 10,000 inhabitants with plenty of Center and three hold government streams and swimming pools. (Rumor positions in Washington, D.C. has it the study group dreamed up this The Space Shuttle is a reusable vehicle parameter at one of O’Neill’s frequent that will replace virtually all of this swimming parties.) nation’s space launch vehicles. Shuttle One of the more significant findings missions could include deploying and of the study group was that it will be retrieving satellites, servicing satellites in feasible to operate the lunar mass driver, orbit, operating laboratories for which will ship lunar ores into high earth astronomy, Earth sciences, space orbit, at 100 gs of acceleration. The processing and manufacturing, and length of track needed to accelerate the developing and servicing a permanent payloads would be less than 2 miles, space station. requiring considerably less track than Launched like a rocket, the Shuttle was previously considered necessary. will perform Earth orbital missions of up The specific impulse delivered by the to 30 days, then land like an airplane mass driver, a linear synchronous electric and be refurbished for another mission. device, if used as a rocket engine, would Pilot astronauts will control the Shuttle be comparable to a plasma jet. during launch, orbital maneuvers and A panel discussion with audience landings and be responsible for participation followed, focusing on the maintaining vehicle systems. Mission problems of environmental control and specialist astronauts will be responsible farming in space. Panel members were for the coordination of overall orbiter Philip Quattrone, NASA/ARC; D. C. operations in the areas of flight planning, Popma, and William L. Smith, NASA consumables usage and other activities ‘Headquarters; Robert C. Reid, MIT; and affecting payload operations. At the Albert Hibbs, Brian O’Leary, Gerard Jack Spurlock, Georgia Institute of discretion of the payload sponsor, the O’Neill, William Phinney, Eric Drexler, Technology. They expressed varying mission specialist may assist in the James Garmarian, Bart Hibbs, David degrees of concern over the difficulties management of payload operations, and Kaplan, Jonathan Newman and John involved in farming in space. MIT’s Reid may, in specific cases, serve as the, Phillips. Consultants included John stated, “I have an eggplant in my garden payload specialist. They will be able to Blume, Hugh Davis, Owen Garriott, Peter and it’s sick. If that happened in space, continue in their chosen fields of Glaser, Henry Kolm, Gordon Woodcock it would be all over!” research and to propose, develop and and T.A. Heppenheimer -- Al Chambers A member of the audience, Carolyn conduct experiments. was the study administrator. Henson, who wrote “Closed Ecological Crews could consist of as many as Several papers detailing the findings Systems of High Agricultural Yield,” seven people-commander, pilot, mission of the study group will be published by presented at the 1975 Princeton Space specialist and up to four payload the AIAA this fall. Those interested in Manufacturing Facilities Conference, and specialists, who need not be NASA joining this organization should write who is the soft spoken, unassuming employees and who will be nominated to the AIAA, 1290 Avenue of the author of this article, replied, “In by the sponsors of the payload being Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019 or call aerospace engineering we need fail-safe flown. Payload specialists will operate 212-581-4300. design. If something goes wrong you

2 are back to flying lithium hydroxide on NASA NIXES CHLORELLA the Shuttle again. BURGERS Henson: What was the problem with Interview with Phillip Quattrone, Chief the molecular sieve? of the Advanced Life Support Research Quattrone: There isn’t any problem Project at NASA/Ames Research Center with the sieve per se. The Shuttle has a “dollar bow wave” problem. They need Carolyn Henson all the dollars they can get their hands on Henson: I understand your group at to develop the Shuttle; therefore they Ames does more blue-sky type research don’t want to develop any advanced and that the people at Johnson Space technology to fly on it, or as little as Flight Center are responsible for turning possible, in order to get the Shuttle to your ideas into hardware. fly within budget and on time. Quattrone: Yes, we look at system It is my opinion that in order to development from proof of concept up develop the closed ecosystem that O’Neill to one person design capability. is talking about, or say a zero or one- Henson: For years we’ve heard that sixth g habitat, for example, he needs a people in space will dine on algae lunar colony with a mini-closed ecology. burgers. A year and a half ago, Soviet This means we’re going to have scientist Alexander Kamin praised microbiological species, selected species chlorella algae as “cosmic factories” and of plants and animals. In order to “models of the future space industry.” demonstrate that these systems are Is NASA conducting research into algae? compatible or that each species will Quattrone: NASA is currently not function in space, we are going to have sponsoring any work in chlorella. For to test it in space. many years we supported work on We, as aerospace engineers, have been chlorella and hydrogen fixing bacteria. living with 99.99% reliability for years. The sum and substance of that work was That means you have 1 chance out of that, yes, we could develop systems that 10,000 of failure. We believe that it will were continuous, but, no, we couldn’t probably take a long amount of time -- feed it to anybody. our current predictions are anywhere Henson: So people don’t really like from 25-75 years-to demonstrate a chlorella burgers that much. closed ecological system. I don’t mean Quattrone: It hasn’t ever been shown prove it on the ground, I mean prove it that humans can eat algae without in space. As part of the Office of developing gastrointestinal problems. Aeronautics and Space Technology Henson: So it’s not just a matter of Summer Workshop, we took a look at the flavor, then? this question and we feel you have to Quattrone: Well, you and I are demonstrate every critical piece in normally eating around 15% protein; the flight before you get it accepted for rest is largely carbohydrate and fat. With flight. material from most unicellular organisms Henson: To get away from the subject you’re talking 60-75% protein. I don’t of “closed ecology”, how soon do you believe for a minute the nutritionists are think we will be attempting to grow at going to believe you can feed that least some of the food people need in percentage in a diet. space? Henson: In the keynote speech for Quattrone: First, let us define “need”. the Environmental Systems Conference, Are we talking about nutritional needs C. H. Gerard O’Neill presented his plan for or hobby shop needs? space colonies. What research steps do Henson: I see two factors here: the have a crashed plane. But on farms things you believe are necessary to create those psychological factor, and the second is normally go wrong, and farmers are used beautiful green scenes you see in the strictly economic. At what point do you to it. Even in space, it won’t be disastrous paintings of his colonies? see either of these factors becoming if the eggplants get sick. You can store Quattrone: I believe we are going to significant? food against crop failure. You can have go through many iterations of O’Neill’s Quattrone: In Spacelab plants will many separate farms, just as on Earth, so idea of a space colony. I don’t think even probably be grown strictly from a science that any individual crop failure represents O’Neill believes his current concept of a viewpoint to see what effect zero g has only a partial loss of that food supply. If space colony is going to fly per se. I on them. space farmers lose a crop, they will write don’t know whether it is feasible to have NASA has sponsored work with it off on their taxes and plant something a one gravity field in a space colony. If lettuce and tomatoes with the idea that else.” we are dealing with a reduced gravity these would be grown in space for “Who are they going to pay taxes to?” field then certainly there is a great deal psychological needs-for fresh tossed replied Reid. of research and development that has to salad kinds of things. I guess I wouldn’t For answers to that and many other be undertaken by the agency and by the see them grown in space for food until questions, be sure to read future issues country to develop a closed ecosystem. we have a space station, and then it of the L-5 News. During the past 13-15 years we have would be from a psychological spent a great deal of resources to develop standpoint. what we call physical-chemical life Henson: Right now McDonnell BOUNTY OFFERED support systems. We have developed Douglas and Grumman Aerospace are The L-5 News is offering a $25 reward regenerable CO2 scrubber system working on a study for a 200-person for an interview with either of the technology for CO2 reduction and H20 orbiting facility, tentatively planned for candidates for President on the L-5 reclamation. We have yet to fly only a the mid-eighties. Are they working with project. molecular sieve on the Skylab and we you on this project?

3 Quattrone: No, they aren’t in Us: “Is Brown really in favor of space contact with us. colonies?” Brand: “He has asked Gerard O’Neill, Will the Grumman and McDonnell who is the major designer of space Douglas space station studies provide colonies, to give a presentation to the fresh tossed salad and bacon lettuce and California Energy Commission, which he tomato sandwiches for the astronauts? did. And the Energy Commission is On this suspensful note we will have to looking to put money into O’Neill’s leave our readers. research. . . . It’s something very large and very interesting in terms of a vision. It’s a long incremental business which would conceivably have several million people in far Earth orbit.” Space colonies, O’NEILL TO HEAD LDEF/USE said Brand enthusiastically, might have TASK FORCE some bearing on California’s high unemployment rate: “I do know that one USRA (Universities Space Research of Brown’s interests in space colonies is Association) has asked Dr. Gerard O’Neill that it would be an enormous to head its task group on Large-Scale construction effort, with low Space/Lunar Industry. A number of environmental detriment and quite concepts, materials, surface, and structure possibly high benefit.” tests will need to be conducted in California Governor Jerry Brown Us (petulantly): “But what does he support of any effort in large-scale space think the ideal society would look like?” structures. LDEF (Long Duration STEWART BRAND ON Brand (tolerantly): He’d say that’s Exposure Facility) will offer a unique the wrong question, because the opportunity for three to six month JERRY BROWN ON SPACE COLONIES answering of it prevents the realization exposures to the space environment of it. As soon as you’ve got a plan of what followed by recovery of the experiments From an interview of Stewart Brand by everyone wants to do, there’s no way it’s for ground-based analysis. USRA’s role The Village Voice, June 21, 1976, in an going to happen.” in the LDEF program consists of article critical of Brown. providing an interface between NASA SAUSALITO - Walled in behind a stack and the university community, including of cardboard boxes in his warehouse TIM LEARY ON SNAKE OIL, the following tasks: office Stewart Brand tells us we have the LIBERALS, AMINO-UGANDA ‘(1) Provide the academic community governor all wrong. Brand produced the with information about research Whole Earth Catalogue and now edits The This article by Dr. Timothy Leary is opportunities afforded by LDEF; Co-Evolution Quarterly. He has spent more or less a reply to “No Snake Oil (2) Offer technical assistance in the some time with Brown and published Salesmen Need Apply,” L-5 News, April, definition of experiments for LDEF; parleys with the governor, Gregory 1976, p. 5. (3) Receive, review and select Bateson, and others in his magazine. Since Hiroshima, territorial war as proposals for experiments and make Almost more than any other publication a stimulus for intellectual advancement recommendations for support and in the state the quarterly (circulation has been replaced by space rivalry. inclusion on LDEF missions; 28,000) gives one access to ideological Since Peenemunde and Sputnik it has (4) Assist Principal Investigators in currents in California and Brown’s links been obvious that the most intellectually obtaining financial support for to techno-zen. and survivally interesting issue on this experiment development; Brand: “He’s more of a process person planet concerns humanity’s transition to (5) Manage the development of than an issues person. He doesn’t take an extraterrestrial life. selected experiments to insure flight issue flat out until he’s in it and will readiness and compatibility. The familiar east-west competition refuse to commit himself till he has done continues, of course, on the surface of If you would like to become involved that. . . . The major environmental thing in this program, write to USRA LDEF/ the planet. Indeed, we might speculate is that he has more of a whole systems that such transcontinental rivalries exist USE Program Office, P.O. Box 5127, head.” Charlottesville, VA 22903 or phone on all nursery planets at that stage in Us: “Is he philosophically for no evolution when neurological-primates 804-295-7141. They provide a free growth?” newsletter. start assembly-line tool-making Brand: “That’s it. That’s the whole preparatory for post-planetary migration. ball of wax, not only philosophically, but But Apollo-Soyuz is probably an accurate behaviorally.” forecast of Inter-National collaboration in Us: “How does he deal with poor Space Colonization. people in this perspective?” “There can be no doubt that in the Brand: “I think he’s getting into the future the crews of orbital stations fact that a low-energy economy is a high will be international and space labor economy, that in a sense the energy exploration will become a matter problem and the jobs problem can’t solve involving the whole planet.” each other just by coexisting.” Brand Academician V. Glushko quoted stops to take down an endorsement for in Izvestia, August 1975. Brown for President from Paul Ehrlich, This cooperation among super- promoter of Spaceship Earth and author powers may seem, at first impression, to of “Population Bomb.” (“It is clear,” auger a utopian state of global harmony. goes the endorsement, “that he has more But evolutionary currents always run than a superficial commitment to novel deeper than the political and it is most approaches to our environmental and important that Apollo-Soyuz linkages Dr. Gerard O’Neill testifying before other problems.“) Brand has been not conceal the fact that Space Migration the Senate Subcommittee on Aerospace publishing, in his magazine, articles about confronts our species with the most Technology and National Needs. space colonies, plantations in space. critical choice it has faced in, perhaps,

4 the last 10,000 years. We recall that, after 1492, the various European powers set out boldly to impose upon the new world their own bizarre national versions of reality. Thus were created such astonishing cultural mutations as Spanish-America, Anglo- India and Amino-Uganda. Let us have no illusions. Space Migration will produce the most intense ontological struggles our planet has seen since the reptilian-mammalian conflict I of long-ago. Space Migration offers our unfinished species the opportunity to create new realities, new habitats, new neural perspectives, new worlds unlimited by territorial longitudes or gravitational chauvinisms. Shortly after the first lunar landing, one Thomas Paine, head of NASA’s Apollo program, produced in his exultation one of the most partisan statements since the Reformation. “This,” said Paine, “is a victory for the doctrinaire opinions-the former Space Habitat will be in the position of crew-cut guys who use slide-rules, read peevishly suspecting that any escape creating a new consensual reality. the bible and salute the flag.” Let us from earth gravity is an elitist liberation Within the limits of physical security the applaud Director Paine who in one from their compulsory egalitarian plans colonists can determine the political, magnificent flight of rhetoric manages to of limited-growth and intra-planetary cultural and aesthetic dimensions of the alienate all tax-payers who are female, bussing. psyche-space they inhabit. non-engineers, non-protestants, and The Space Migrant’s reply to the Comparisons with 15th Century prefer non-marine hair styles. Substitute socialists’ complaint is, of course, “let colonization or with the first two the word “Marx” for “bible” and the the meek inherit the earth; we have industrial revolutions are too modest. NASA version of whose reality should farther-out plans.” To which the liberal’s The migration situation may be more control space is in close agreement with stern reproach is: “You have no right to analogous to the movement from marine Soviet planners. float away from this planet with the to amphibian life or from reptile to Thus we see an upcoming conflict ill-gotten gains you have wrenched from mammalian. Imagine, if you can, the over the future of human evolution; a the poor.” The obvious response to the snake-oil commercials at the time of debate which is not political but rather liberals is, as always, to buy them off. amphibious migration: philosophic and finds its roots, not in When the administrators are shown that TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE UNLIMITED REAL ESTATE POSSIBILITIES: transient national rivalries, but in an private-enterprise-space migration, like SWAMPS, SHORELINES. FORESTS, inevitable tension which has existed for 15th Century colonization, will return PRAIRIES. CAVES, BURROWS!!!! YOU the last several centuries and which can enormous energy riches, the distribution CAN BE THE FIRST ONE ON YOUR BLOCK TO GROW SCALES, FUR, FEATHERS; TO best be described as technology versus of which they will be allowed to SQUIRM, SCRAMBLE. LOCOMOTE ON humanism, engineering versus ecology, administer, they will be intellectually MULTI-PEDAL APPENDAGES!!!’ poetry versus logic, freedom versus offended but practically mollified. control and snake-oil versus motor-oil. The Apollo project, we recall, We do well to listen to the shrewd For the last 30 years I have been perfectly executed its mission: to return advice of Astronaut Russell Schweickart preoccupied with this wretched moon-soil samples which turned out to (published in CoEvolution Quarterly) to misunderstanding between engineering be rich in the raw materials necessary for keep government bureaucracies out of and humanism and have attempted to the construction of space colonies. All Space Colonization and rely on private personalize, neurologize, eroticize and this, we suspect, was a serendipitous and initiative and personal investment of subjectify engineers, and on the other mildly disturbing side-effect to the NASA vision. hand to make more rigorous, precise, planners whose visions did not at the Was it not exactly “snake-oil” that replicable and objective the language and time include the possibility that civilian stimulated the last Age of Exploration? thought habits of poets and philosophers. Americans and their families might Marco Polo returning with spices, Interestingly enough, both engineers and insist on getting into the pioneer- pungents, perfumes, soft silks, strange philosopher-humanists are hopelessly frontier action. herbs and medicaments? Upon what trapped in the wheels of their own As G. Harry Stine speculates in his substances was the wealth of the East abstractions and control mechanisms. book, The Third Industrial Revolution, India Company founded? Did not Ponce We are led to wonder whether the the industrialization of space opens de Leon set off after the Elixir of Life? solution to these rigidities which prevent enormous new perspectives: “...new Did not Coronado seek the fabled Seven engineer-bureaucrats from industrial empires will be forged, new Cities of Gold? communicating smoothly with each other billionaire industrial moguls will emerge.” If Space Migration is going to be as well as harmoniously meshing with the Much more significant than the economic anything more than insectoid bureaucracy humanists is a certain lack of neurological are the cultural possibilities of Space or another Alaska pipeline adventure flexibility which can accurately be Migration. It is the remarkable controlled by the oil politicians, the described as “snake-oil deprivation,” anthropological genius of Gerard O’Neill lunar Mafia and the Inter-Planetary This polarity between technology to recognize that the establishment of Teamster’s Union, it is going to be and humanism is artificial and statistically thousands of space-cylinder habitations “snake-oil” that softens the rigidity, common-place-i.e., stupid. It is both the will allow for an enormous plurality of soothes us through the moments of self-appointed liberal humanists and the culture-styles and moral systems. hardship and makes the venture one of civil service engineers who threaten Literally each group of colonists who hedonic liberation and experimental Space Migration with their clashing band together to finance and design a diversity.

5 Power,” by D. R. Keonig); four sessions on Energy Conservation and Storage; two on Urban Energy Management; and single conferences... sessions on Heat Pipes, Advanced Auto Propulsion, Biomedical Power, Stirling PRINCETON PLANS L-5 Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space Cycles Engines, Thermionics (“NASA PROJECT CONFERENCE of the IISL. The four topics to be covered Thermionic Conversion Program,” by are: J. G. Lundholm and J. F. Morris), MHD Tentative plans for a conference on 1. The future of Space Law the L-5 project at Princeton May 11-13, and Other Topping Cycles, and 2. Space Law and Energy Alternative Fuels. 1977, were reported to the L-5 News. 3. Relationship of Air Law and Space The conference would be sponsored The following registration fees are in Law order: jointly by NASA-AIAA and Princeton. 4. Various subjects This is the first conference on the subject Prior to After The Chairman of this Outer Space Law since the Space Manufacturing Sept. 5, 1976 Sept. 5, 1976 and Science seminar will be Professor Conference held in 1974. Watch AIAA Regular $75.00 $90.00 Carl Q. Christol of the Department of publications and the L-5 News for Student $20.00 $20.00 Political Science of the University of further information. These prices include a copy of the Southern California. You will be Conference Record (to be distributed interested to know that papers will also at the door) which will contain all 250 be given by Ronald Stowe of the State papers that are to be presented. Those Department and by Stephen Doyle, wishing to attend should either send a formerly a Sub-Committee Chairman of check for the appropriate amount before the ABA Aerospace Law Committee, September 5, 1976, to: with particular emphasis on American Institute of Chemical communications. Also papers will be Engineers given by six members of the Aerospace Meeting Department Law Committee. Many other reports will 345 East 47 Street be given by distinguished US and USSR New York, NY 10017 outer space scientists. or pay the higher amount at the door. L-5 News will be reporting on the ENERGY CONFERENCE TO Conference in the future. INCLUDE SPACE POWER This year’s Intersociety Energy ERDA PUBLIC MEETING Conversion Engineering Conference will IN SAN FRANCISCO include three separate sessions on Space ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES Apollo Astronaut Russell Schweickart Power. The conference will be held FOR THE WEST September 12-l7 at the Sahara Tahoe AAS/AIAA BICENTENNIAL Hotel in Stateline, Nevada. Of particular The Energy Research and Development SPACE SYMPOSIUM interest to L-5 members are four papers Administration (ERDA) is sponsoring a ASTRONAUT SCHWEICKART on photovoltaic solar cells for space public meeting at the Sheraton-Palace TO CHAIR POWERSAT SESSION applications; a paper on “Transportation Hotel, San Francisco, September 20-22, Options for Satellite Solar Power to discuss the National Plan for Energy The American Astronautical Society Systems,” by Gordon R. Woodcock and Research, Development, and and the American Institute of E. E. Davis; “Thermal Engine Solar Demonstration. Aeronautics and Astronautics are Powersats,” by Daniel L. Gregory; and The Steering Committee includes such sponsoring a Bicentennial Space “Derivation of a Low Cost Satellite diverse organizations as the Electric Symposium October 6, 7 and 8, 1976, in Power System,” by James E. and Ronald Power Research Institute, the Western Washington, D.C. Sessions of special N. Drummond (to be presented at a Interstate Nuclear Board, Friends of the interest to L-5 members are “Mankind’s session on Advanced Concepts). Earth, and the Sierra Club. Commerce: The Industrialization of Other programs will include five Persons who wish to attend, Space,” and chaired by Hon. Jack sessions on Geothermal Energy; three comment on the Plan at the meeting, or Campbell and “Mankind’s Resources: sessions on Coal and Oil Shale; four on to submit written testimony should The Need to Augment Earth’s Stores,” Solar Power (which will include papers contact Martha D. Dixon, Coordinator, chaired by Russell L. Schweickart. This on “Comparative Performance of Solar San Francisco Public Meeting, ERDA, latter session will consider solar power Thermal Power Generation Concepts,” 1333 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612. from space and the mining of lunar by G. L. Schrenk, and “New Concepts resources. in Solar Photovoltaic Electric Power Those who wish to obtain registration Systems Design,” by E. Federman, R. L-5 AT WORLD CON forms should write to the American Ferber and P. Pittman); two sessions The L-5 Society will be represented Astronautical Society, 6060 Duke St., on Electric Vehicles; three on at the World Science Fiction Convention, Alexandria, VA 22304. Electrochemistry; two on Brayton Cycles Kansas City, September 2-6, by L-5 and Expanders (which will include papers Director Keith Henson. He will be SPACE LAW CONFERENCE on “Operational Evaluation of a Closed speaking on the “Life in Space” panel, The AIAA jointly with the IISL-IAF Brayton Cycle Laboratory Engine,” by chaired by L-5 member and well known are conducting a seminar October 10th G. D. Duvall, and “The Mini Brayton science and science-fiction writer Jerry through October 16th, 1976, at Anaheim, 1300 We Space Power Engine,” by Pournelle. Other panel members include California, at which approximately six J. Dunn, F. X. Dobler, and R. D. Gable); Norman Spinrad and Larry Niven. Soviet attorneys from the Academy of three sessions on Hydrogen; two on L-5 members who are in the area or Sciences and about twenty professional Rankine Cycles; two on Wind Power; two who are planning to attend are requested attorney members of the Aerospace Law on Thermoelectrics; two on Nuclear to call the L-5 headquarters in Tucson as Committee of the American Bar Power (which will include a paper on the Society has a table at the Con and Association will participate. It is the 19th “Heat Pipe Nuclear Reactor for Space will need help to keep it open. 6 UC SAN DIEGO’S PHYSICS ACCESS TO ENERGY energy forms, and in vaporizing myths DEPT. SPONSORS COLLOQUIUM Earth/Space News which are currently receiving heavy media ON SATELLITE SOLAR POWER attention. In a working environment of One of the prime drivers of future hoaxes and Luddites, it would benefit space planning is the dream of “cheap” The University of California, San the advocate of common sense to be Diego’s Department of Physics is power from Space. The L-5 colony prepared to counter half-truths with sponsoring a colloquium on “Low Cost system, for instance, is dedicated to well-grounded truths. Dr. Beckmann’s Solar Power From Satellites (with Solar Satellite Power Systems (SSPS) as Access to Energy is an excellent source of means of economically justifying its Ferroelectric Heat Engines)” to be the intellectual ammunition. colonies in Space. However, to be truly delivered by Dr. James E. Drummond, Subscriptions are $9 per year, and may the Director of Plasma Engineering at justified, the SSPS must not only bring be ordered from positive return to the colony, but must Maxwell Laboratories, Inc., and Editor Access to Energy of also compete on price with other sources IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. Box 2298 The colloquium will be held October of energy. Boulder, Colorado 80302. 6 at 4:00 PM in the Undergraduate One of the statements made quite Science Building (USE), Room 2622 often by L-5 proponents is that no (Revelle Campus). The colloquium is foreseeable energy source will be able to REPLY TO “ACCESS TO open to the public, and interested L-5 compete on price with the SSPS -- once ENERGY”: members are invited to attend. it’s in place. This is a very strong L-5 ACTIVISTS BEWARE! statement, and certainly needs much Carolyn Henson more quantitative analysis before it can be justified to the satisfaction of the The author of the above article energy companies, potential users, and apparently ran into some overly AIAA/FASST TO CONDUCT the person who pays for it: the taxpayer. enthusiastic L-5 supporters. To our STUDENT CONFERENCE ON In the analysis, both existing energy knowledge there has been nothing in THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN OUR sources and realistic near-term energy print proposing that solar power in space SOLAR SYSTEM sources must be considered. Any source is the only energy source that will be which promises firm prices at less than competitive in the future. Please The American Institute of Aeronautics 15 mills/kWh will not allow breakeven remember: we haven’t proven anything and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Forum for the presently defined L-5/SSPS yet. Our project just looks pretty for the Advancement of Students in system for over 35 years. promising. Science and Technology (FASST) are This is not to say the SSPS cannot be pleased to announce a student conference justified. With everchanging technologies, on “The Search for Life in our Solar it holds perhaps as much chance to System,” to be held October 8 at the Jet further reduce its own costs and Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, difficulties of development as do other California. Participation is limited to energy forms. However, it would behoove college and university students and the serious planner to be well aware of teachers. the alternatives before he makes a $100 Several major scientists involved in Billion (or $200 Billion, or $400 Billion) the search for extraterrestrial life, decision to throw his entire weight behind including key Viking Project personnel, SSPS as the solution to the energy have been invited to participate in this problem. student symposium. The October One alternative energy source, conference will deal with the following discussed in the May issue of Access to issues: Energy, is the migma fusion technique -- Evolution of our Cosmic Perspective being developed by the Fusion Energy The Biology of the Solar System Corporation in Princeton, NJ. The fusion Development of the Viking Program technique holds promise of being able to & First Results produce up to 6 MW in a power cell only The Future of Unmanned Probes 4 feet in diameter. Further, it is a Manned Exploration of the Planet concept which -- by the claims of its innovator, Dr. Bogdan Maglich -- can Mars YEARS FROM START OF PROGRAM After Viking-What? achieve break-even in two years, and can Our Place in the Universe & the produce commercial energy within six However, we do have to take issue Search for Extraterrestrial years. At a truly economical cost. with the assertion of the Earth/Space intelligence The migma fusion concept may or News that with a price of 15 mils per A final program and listing of speakers may not come to be. There’s a lot of kWh that it would take over 35 years to is available on request from FASST. A work yet to be done. But the energy break even on the project. Gerard O’Neill small registration fee (less than $10.00) planner must be aware of pending in “Space Colonies and Energy Supply will include the closing dinner. alternatives in energy, if he is to make a to the Earth,” Science, Dec. 5, 1975, pp. The conference is being designed so rational decision. 943-947, estimates that repayment of all that students can develop a better Access to Energy is a newsletter which research and development and understanding of the biological, regularly discusses every conceivable construction costs plus 10% real interest geosciences, as well as the engineering energy form in a straight-forward, no (that is, above inflation) per year, would contributions being made to the search nonsense manner. The newsletter is occur 24 years from the beginning of the for life by our planetary space exploration published monthly by Dr. Petr project, or 12 years from the start of programs. Beckmann, professor of electrical actual solar power generation. In this For additional information, please engineering at the University of Colorado. scenario, total project cost (up to the contact Leonard David, Director of It is explicitly “pro-science, pro- total payback point) is assumed to be Student Programs, FASST, 1785 technology, pro-free enterprise.” Dr. $178 billion, and power cost is assumed Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Beckmann is equally capable in describing to start at 15 mils per kWh and drop Washington, D.C. 20036. technical aspects of new and existing gradually to 10 mils per kWh by the

7 time payback is achieved. by coal or oil, costs 20 to 35 mils per Mark Hopkins, in “A Preliminary kilowatt-hour6. Costs for more advanced Cost Benefit Analysis of Space coal and nuclear alternatives should be Colonization”, submitted to the Federal approximately 25 mils/kWh by 19907. Energy Administration, goes into great For the same time period, power from detail (59 pages worth) on the techniques geosynchronous satellites is projected to and assumptions behind O’Neill’s cost at least 27 mils/kWh, if not much calculations of the payback period. A more8. This cost could be reduced to copy of Hopkin’s report is available from 16 mils/kWh with the investment of the L-5 Society for $4. perhaps several tens of billions of dollars The Earth/Space News does not say to develop a huge, single-stage-to-orbit how they determined that the aerospace freighter, or to develop L-5 “presently defined L-5/SSPS system” manufacturing facilities for power Two belts of satellites provide solar power could not allow breakeven for 35 years. satellite production. continuously to Earth in the form of If they or anyone else have discovered Most of the proposed thermonuclear beamed microwave power. Every point flaws in O’Neill’s and Hopkin’s analysis power plants would, like the coal and oil on Earth can be reached. of the project we would like to hear powered generators, disperse one and a about them. orbit for Power Generation Satellites. It is half times as much energy into our It should also be noted that the FEA concluded that the lower orbits, for a environment than they sell in the form of has estimated that $580 billion will be number of reasons, among them their far electricity. These huge thermonuclear spent on capital investment in greater economy, can best realize the plants thermally pollute from point energy over the next 10 years (Energy potential of the SSPS concept. sources. While the total heat released Reporter, April, 1976, p. 1). The L-5/ Preliminary design configurations for might not upset the global heat balance, SSPS option would cost about $100 both photovoltaic and turbogenerator it could adversely affect local billion in its first 10 years, or about 1/6 iso-insolation Power Satellites (IPS) are environments. The same kind of problem of the U.S. energy capital budget. This described. Furthermore, a new power could be found with power from geo- would by no means be a case of putting generation system is discussed. stationary power satellites: the power the “entire weight” of energy investment This system-a thermal engine-is able beam is so intense in the radio-frequency behind this program. to eliminate the need for mechanical part of the spectrum that it might turbines to generate electricity and restructure the area of the ionosphere it FUSION WOES 9 therefore is an order of magnitude lighter penetrated . As fusion is one of the potential than the turbo-generator system. We can make Satellite Solar Power competitors of solar energy from space Two probable transportation modes for available to all the world, with ±45° sun (currently the primary justification for and IPS are considered. A combination of synchronous orbits. It can make power L-5 colonies), readers of the L-5 News all these factors appears to yield a final available in extreme northern and may wish to read the editorial in Science, power cost on the ground of only six southern latitudes; it also cuts the scale July 23, and the articles of W. D. Metz, mills per kwh and greatly reduced of individual power satellites from 5000 June 25 and July 2. disturbance of the ionosphere. megawatts to 200 megawatts, about the The editorial starts off: size of conventional steam generators. “Viewed from a distance, energy from This is due to the decrease in the the fusion of light nuclei is a glamorous diffraction limited power satellite concept. Advocates have talked of antenna size with the shorter distance obtaining unlimited amounts of cheap, between transmitter and receiver (4600 clean energy from the virtually and 4700 km vs. 35,800 km for inexhaustible deuterium of the oceans. geosynchronous orbit). But looked at closely, deuterium fusion We may begin to see low Earth- is far from practical application: if orbital space peopled with construction achieved it will be costly, and it will and maintenance crews for power create large quantities of radioactive satellites and with the operators of substances.” small-scale space processing plants. These Compared with the problems fusion are not the cities of O’Neill; this is a Conventional/powersat turbogenerators. engineering faces, construction of solar nation of dispersed, hard-working, self- power plants from L-5 colonies seems reliant, highly skilled, highly paid simple-or is it only that we just haven’t ANOTHER ROAD TO individuals-the generation of found the hard problems yet? -K.H. COLONIZING SPACE homesteaders that might precede the city-builders. James E. Drummond Because each Earth power receiver LOW COST POWERSAT SYSTEM Ronald N. Drummond An abstract of a paper by James E. would receive the power it needs from By following an evolutionary path many, non-stationary directions, each Drummond of Max well Laboratories, Inc., to space colonization, it should be and Ronald N. Drummond, which will beam need be only a few per cent of the possible to “pay-as-we-go” on the road be presented at the Intersociety Energy intensity of the beam from a to exo-industrial development. What Conversion Engineering Conference in geostationary powersat where it is an economically and technologically Stateline, Nevada, September 12 - 17. penetrates the ionosphere. What effect viable first step toward industrialized there is is transient: no part of the Criteria for selection of the optimum space? The answer may be in a ionosphere is in the line of transmission orbit for a Satellite Solar Power Station combination of small-scale processing for more than a minute. (SSPS) are presented. To meet these and in development of Satellite Solar For up to 1.2 hours a night several criteria fully, two orbital belts at an Power (SSP). Not necessarily, it should nights running every Spring and Fall, a average 4650 km altitude situated at plus be noted, power from huge geostationary geosynchronous satellite would be in and minus 45 degrees to the plane of the satellites each serving a small region on shadow; at these times, the power would 4 ecliptic appear to be the best. These low Earth as proposed by Peter E. Glaser , stop flowing. (Peter Glaser suggests that 5 iso-insolation orbits are compared with the Boeing Company , or Gerard K. a second satellite a score of degrees out the previously proposed geostationary O’Neilll. Power at the busbar, generated of phase in the same orbit couId serve 8 the eclipsed area during these times, but this paper: J. Burgess, R.A. Fitch, D. Fitzgerald, 1964 to 2% in 1975 (half of that funded this compounds costs.) The lower orbits, C.M. Hensen, R. Hunter, P. Korn, R.E. LeQuay, by industry). which would precess 360° annually, are W.R. Martini, A. Mondelli, G. Nester, F.W. Heiss observed that the fact that the Perkins, L. Van Deerlin, and D.J. White. the permanent sunshine belts of this total U.S. space program costs “only” planet. References: $3 billion per year came as a surprise to Space manufacturing facilities are not 1) Gerard K. O’Neill, “Space Colonies and some committee members, who were required for this approach, and the great Energy Supply to the Earth” aware of the much larger budgets of Science, 190, 5 December 1975 pp 943-7. development cost of the aerospace 2) Gerard K. O’NeiII, interview in Penthouse, several other Federal programs. (HEW, freighter is avoided. We can still turn to August 1976, pp. 87-90: 174-6. for example, spends $3 billion every 9 the technologists, with a more modest 3) Ron Chernow, “Colonies in Space May Turn days.) request: accelerated development of low Out to be Nice Places to Live”, Smithsonian, February, 1976. pp. 62-9. mass power converters. There are several 4) Peter E. Glaser, in Solar Power From LISTENING TO THE UNIVERSE conversion techniques which could lead Satellites, Hearings Before the Subcommittee Jay S. Huebner, Department of Natural on Aerospace Technology and National Needs to lower weight powersats. We refer to Sciences, University of North Florida, one in which not only are the foundations of the Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, U. S. Senate, 94th Congress, 2nd Jacksonville, FL 32216 clear in principle, but projections based Session, 19 and 21 January 1976 (U. S. IEEE Spectrum, upon presently measured material Government Printing Office, Washington, Reprinted from parameters may allow an order-of- 1976) pp. 2-41. June 1976. magnitude reduction in weight over even 5) Gordon R. Woodcock and Daniel L. Gregory, “OrbItal Solar Energy Technological I wish to point out that the search for optimistic forecasts of solar cell and Advances”, in Proceedings of the Tenth turbo-generator technology, the Cascaded Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering signals from extraterrestrial civilizations 1 Dielectric Power Converter (CDPC).10-12 Conference (IEEE, New York, 1975). described by Machol could be more This estimate is 0.35 grams per watt of pp. 1057-64. thoroughly and economically conducted 6) John Winch, in 1977 NASA Authorization, from outer space. Large steerable power output including interstage heat Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Space transfer, take-out circuitry, solar Science and Applications of the Committee on antennas are expensive to build for use concentrators, and structural framework. Science and Technology, U. S. House of on the Earth, as they must support their It is not an asymptotic projection, but Representatives, 94th Congress, 1st and 2nd own weight and be able to withstand Sessions, on H.R. 11573: 13-17 October, 6, wind storms. In addition the Earth’s one that should be demonstrable within 11-13, and 18 November 1975. (No. 331, about five years. With projected Volume I, Part 1 (U.S. Government Printing sources of electromagnetic noise, and the performance, the cost of electrical energy Office, Washington, 1975). p. 256. absorption and reflection of our at busbars on Earth would drop to 6.2 7) Ibid. atmosphere add substantially to the 12 8) Edward Greenblat, in Solar Power from problems of receiving and detecting the mils per kilowatt-hour! SSP could Satellites, op. cit., p. 153. begin to carry its share of the world’s 9) James E. and Ronald N. Drummond, signals. These problems may well be load as soon as shuttle 2 is ready. “Derivation of a Low Cost Satellite Power insurmountable from Earth if the other System”, in Proceedings of the Tenth civilizations use frequencies other than The Homesteaders of Space Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering those near the water hole. It may become a new era of the Conference (IEEE, New York, in press). The availability of virtually unlimited individual. The clusters of powersats will 10) James E. Drummond. “Dielectric Power solar energy, the apparent ease of eventually consist of about twenty-five, Conversion”, in Proceedings of the Tenth Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering manufacturing the required instruments 200 megawatt units. Each of these units Conference (IEEE, New York, 1975). pp. and antenna,2,3,4 the absence of weight, will be made up of about ten, twenty 569-75. wind, an atmosphere, and sources of megawatt sub-units. Each sub-unit could 11) James E. and Ronald N. Drummond, “Low interference in outer space lead me to be carried into one of the iso-insolation Cost Satellite Solar Power” in Solar Satellite Power System Concepts, Hearing Before the conclude that intelligent civilizations will orbits by a single shuttle flight and it Subcommittee on Space Science and assume that we would only attempt to could be assembled in two weeks by a Applications and the Subcommittee on Energy receive their messages in outer space. The man and wife team! Research, Development, and Demonstration history of the Earth, viewed in units of Every month or so they could take a of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, 94th Congress, geological time, is that we acquired the few days off to visit their closest 2nd Session, 20 February 1976 (U.S. ability to detect electromagnetic waves neighbors and attend an all-orbit round Government Printing Office. Washington, in dance; changing orbital phase wouldn’t press). outside the visible region of the spectrum cost that much fuel. When they got to 12) James E. and Ronald N. Drummond, at the same time that we acquired the “Derivation of a Low Cost Satellite Power the dance hall, a fixed up old shuttle fuel ability to go to outer space. It seems System”, op. cit. possible, perhaps likely, that other tank, they could have a good time in the civilizations would reason that a best tradition of the old West. civilization not intelligent enough to These people would be motivated not conduct significant manufacturing in only by high wages, but by their own AIAA ADDRESSES REPUBLICAN outer space would not be advanced personal stake in space. AND DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM enough to interpret messages from space. By the time we are ready for cities in COMMITTEES I suggest those who support the search space, there will be a sparsely settled, for signals from intelligent civilizations in but proud and vigorous nation of Klaus Heiss of the American Institute space may wish to consider supporting individuals populating space from the of Aeronautics and Astronautics appeared efforts to colonize space5 as the most power orbits of Earth to the mines of the before both the May 1 Democratic efficient means to accomplish their moon. And then the aerospace freighter Platform Committee meeting and the objectives. will come; like the railroad a century ago, June 22 Republican Platform Committee. the freighter a half century hence will Heiss called for: 1. R.E. Machol. IEEE Spectrum, March crystallize and unite the scattered people. 1. The need to establish a global 1976. pp. 42-47. 2. G.K. O’Neill, Physics Today, Sept. 1974, Then, as before, cities will arise in the resources information system by 1985. 2. Shuttle experiments for space pp. 32-40. midst of human wealth, in the fulness of 3. G.H. Stine, The Third Industrial time. industrialization, including solar power Revolution, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York generation for Earth. (1975). 3. Continued exploration of space. 4. G.K. O’Neill, Science 190 (1975) 943- 4. An increase in Federal R & D 947. Acknowledgements: 5. The L-5 Society, 1620 N. Park, Tucson, We wish to thank a number of our associates funding. Heiss noted that total U.S. R & AZ 85719. See J.S. Huebner, Forum, IEEE for helpful comments affecting portions of D funding has fallen from 3% of GNP in Spectrum, Jan. 1976. pp. 38-39. 9 SOVIET COSMONAUTS ON L-5 The two cosmonauts who spent 63 days in orbit aboard Salut 4, V. I. Sevastyanov and P. I. Klimuk, recently visited Princeton to chat with some of Professor Gerard O’Neill’s students about the L-5 concept. Home, Home At the International Council of Scientific Union’s Committee on Space Research meeting in Philadelphia, the cosmonauts discussed the L-5 concept with reporters. “People have to go into space,” stated Sevastyanov. “Earth’s on Lagrange resources are limited.” Klimuk expressed a reservation about T. A. Heppenheimer life aboard Salut 4: “There are no pretty girls up there.” U.S. astronauts may One of the most common questions be a number of professional and escape that problem, however, if NASA’s at lectures on space colonies is “how can administrative positions in the colony. current effort to recruit women for I make sure I'm chosen to go?” NASA But these would be filled largely from Shuttle crews is fruitful. hasn’t yet made any plans for crew the pre-existing project staff, by people selections for the big colonies. How do who already were engaged in the Earth- you think people should be chosen? One based design and development work. of the participants in this summer‘s study Beyond this, however, the statement on space colonization at NASA/ARC has reflected a deliberate effort to colonize speculated on the process: space following the historical precedents It started in the late 1980’s, with an of the colonization of America, and of announcement sent out from Washington the settlement of the West. to be put up in the nation’s post offices. The statement quite deliberately It read as follows: implied an effort to avoid overly rigid FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT criteria for selection. It would have been OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE quite possible to staff the project with Several thousand positions are now open, philosopher-workmen in the tradition of for skilled and semiskilled workers capable of Eric Hoffer, with Ph.D’s and other assisting in the construction and operation of advanced degree holders who happened the initial Space Colony. Additional positions to be making a living in the building are open for the construction in space of the trades. (Certainly, there were quite initial group of Solar Power Satellites. enough of those.) However, space Preference is to be given to single workers, colonization advocates realized they male and female, under age 30. Married would defeat their own purpose if they couples, both of whom are acceptable for these employment opportunities, also are followed restrictive selection policies, welcome to apply. Facilities for child care will which would lead to public perception be limited, so that preference will be given to of the project as benefitting only a couples with no more than one child. chosen, elitist few. So far as possible, it Affirmative Action hiring procedures are in appeared desirable that selection for force. positions in the colony should be on the Applications are invited from workers with basis of “first come, first served.” RUSSIAN WOMEN experience in the following industries: Moreover, such a policy would open ON PEDESTAL Shipbuilding, Heavy Electrical Construction, the option of a new life to precisely those Industrial Construction. Also, applications are people who would welcome it. This point SOVIETS “PROTECT” THEM FROM invited from persons with backgrounds in RIGORS OF COSMONAUT Experimental Agriculture, Chemistry, or deserves elaboration. It is not the settled, PROFESSION Plant Science. the secure, the affluent who have historically been attracted by the risks The husband of the only woman Wage scales are in accord with the Davis- Bacon Act. In addition, employees who hold and opportunities of a new frontier. cosmonaut, Gen. Andrian Nikolayev, their positions through the end of Rather, it has been those people, often commenting on the current Soviet construction of the initial Space Colony, will young, with energy and ambition, but policy excluding women from careers be granted clear title to a home within the with only limited opportunities at home, as cosmonauts, said, “A cosmonaut has Colony. who have been so attracted. to be a pilot, a commander, an engineer Applicants are invited to sent a completed In its early days, space colonization and a scientist. We love our women very Federal Form 57 to: was controversial. There were those who much, and we spare them as much as Space Industrialization Administration possible.” He added that at some point Department SC questioned its value, who scoffed at the idea that people could build comfortable women would be allowed to work in 600 Independence Avenue S.W. Washington, D.C. 20546 space stations as “specialists”. lives in space. Indeed, for many people, The Federal Government is an Equal the life of a pioneering space colonist This article was submitted by EROS Opportunity Employer M/F. would have represented a definite step (Equal Rights in Outer Space). This simple statement summed up, down. in a few words, much of the philosophy But there is another, more numerous HELP THE L-5 NEWS which would guide the colonization group of people for whom this was effort. To begin, it reflected the fact that certainly not the case. I, and many of my The L-5 News staff appreciates the the principal types of jobs in the colony, friends, were from this group. A typical help of those who send in copies of requiring new hiring, would be associated member would be a construction worker articles appearing in magazines and with large-scale construction or with who lives in an apartment in Brooklyn. newspapers. We especially need photo- running the colony’s agricultural and life- He commutes by subway to construction graphs and drawings. support systems. There would, of course, sites in Queens or the Bronx. He thinks 10 men and women. A work force mostly in the work force now preparing of men would soon have given rise to a assembly of the Space Colony and Power most unpleasant social atmosphere, Satellites. Your salary will be $20,000 resembling, if not a boom town, then per annum, subject to Federal tax but ‘possibly a prison or an army camp. A not to any state tax. sexually mixed work force would ensure “Please return the enclosed form in the the development of a much more normal event you wish to accept this offer. society. The colonists would meet, fall in Should you accept, you will report for and out of love, marry or divorce or live training to the Space Colony Training together, and proceed to establish homes Center, Houston, Texas, no later than and families. May 30, 1988. You are then eligible for In addition, the pay policies were reimbursement of travel and moving designed to foster a stable society. The expenses, up to a limit of 6000 pounds Davis-Bacon Act requires that Federal of personal and household belongings. construction workers be paid the Further information is provided in the “prevailing” wage, which typically is an enclosed brochure.” adequate but hardly lavish rate. Even The brochure, titled “Living and more important, however, was the Working in Space”, was an attractive provision that those who build the colony description of the life to be found in the could thus attain that common goal of colonies, as well as of the nature and American society-a home owned free importance of the work we were to do. and clear. This provision was a modern We newly-hired colonists learned that in version of the Homestead Act of 1862. Houston we would be moving into a That Act provided that any farmer who simulated space colony-a full-scale would work his land for a term of years, mockup of the colony interior, complete would receive clear title to it. By thus with garden apartments and closed-cycle stimulating the development of the life support, as well as with training family farm, that Act greatly contributed facilities for the industrial operations we to the growth both of American would be undertaking in space. The agriculture and of the states of the apartments were unfurnished, but we Midwest. were to furnish them to our taste, with So these policies were intended to the 6000 pounds each of us could bring. encourage the settlement of space, not by It all was rather heady, and we were For many people the life of a pioneering opportunists or speculators, but by not displeased when on May 30, 1988, space colonist would have represented a homeowning families. This certainly the President of the United States came definite step down, but there is another, tended to promote the growth of a stable, down to greet us. So it was with more numerous group of people for civilized society in space. considerable elan that we started our new whom this was certainly not the case. These policies, of course, had a lives. We were told that the first colonists bearing upon the internal economy of the would leave for space in about a year, the Adirondacks are in South America, colony. There were social engineers, in with all to be moved there within the and when he visits the ocean, it is at the early days (some of them are still following six months. We also were told Bradley Beach or Coney Island, where he around) who tried, rather arbitrarily, to that from the start we would be regarded finds all the solitude of a seal rookery. impose internal economic and social and were to regard ourselves, as if we For over thirty years now, space policies so as to achieve their personal were living in space. In practice, this colonization has been offering to people ideals of utopia. Fortunately, that was meant: once in the Houston “colony”, like these a definite step up. avoided. In its engineering design, the we couldn’t get out except through a But if space was to be colonized by colony rested upon soundly proven lengthy bureaucratic hassle. No trips to a more-or-less random sample of the principles, such as the use of current Earth, as it were; and any colonist who young and ambitious, seeking escape rocket technology. Similarly, it seemed insisted on visiting Earth would soon from a world they never made, then there advisable to found the colony society find himself no longer a colonist. was a pitfall to be avoided. This was the upon such familiar concepts as the During the early decades of space problem of the boom-town. This problem nuclear family, the privately-owned colonization, this policy would be the was very clear along the route of the home, and the use of money as a medium cause of considerable controversy, much Alaska Pipeline, built a few years before of exchange. Some people said that the irony, and occasional tragedy. Intuitively, the start of colonization, by just the type colony should have a “non-money one would think that the way out to the of worker who turned out to be attracted economy,” whatever that means. It’s colonies is difficult whereas the way back by the colonization project. In Alaska, difficult to see what such proposals is easy. In fact, the reverse was so, the workers were mostly men, who were demonstrated, other than the love of because of the characteristics of the paid very high wages but who were not novelty on the part of their proponents. space transportation systems in use. part of a settled society. As a result, So, there were those post-office For the outward trips, both to the there was an enormous growth of crime announcements. There also were a lot of Moon and to the colony, there was a and prostitution, accompanied by a would-be space colonists who sent in well-developed system. There were Heavy roaring inflation. Alaska in those days Form 57. One of them was me. From Lift Launchers, built with a winged and was very much like Nevada in the days of the large piles of these forms which recoverable variation of the old Saturn the Comstock Lode; the physical ecology mounted up at 600 Independence V first stage, along with a hydrogen-fueled of the tundra was being preserved, but Avenue S.W., the most interesting upper stage. The upper stage was based the social ecology of the state took years applicants were invited for interviews, on hardware from the Space Shuttle to recover. and in due course the lucky selectees program. This combination put 200 tons The policy of space colonization received a letter: into low orbit. Then, there was a large contained two measures to avoid this “Dear Sir or Madam: space-based rocket-it is still in use-to pitfall. The first was the requirement that “It is with considerable pleasure that carry the cargo onward. It used, for from the start, the work force had to the Space Industrialization propellant, hydrogen brought from the have approximately equal numbers of Administration offers you employment Earth, along with oxygen obtained from 11 lunar rocks at the colony. The oxygen, time to rotate homeward a group of these must be designed to minimize losses of valuable though it is, actually is a by- people, the Space Industrialization these elements. In addition, numerous product of the extensive ore-processing Administration would set up special micronutrients are required, in the form operations which produce the aluminum Shuttle flights, each with a compartment of certain minerals, for good growth of and other metals for the colony. This capable of holding 100 people (in rather people, animals, and plants. Designing space-based rocket has long been shuttling cramped quarters) for the return. the biosystems of the space habitat will routinely between low Earth orbit, three Additional colonists often were require calculating the flow rates and hundred miles up, and deep space. accommodated, but this was only on a pathways for all the recycled elements. So there was a well-advanced system standby, space-available basis. In the habitat ecosystem, the rate of for carrying people and freight on the So the whole colonization effort was carbon fixation must be balanced against outward leg. The problems arose on the directed to taking people and equipment the rate of carbon waste production for return to Earth. The space-based rocket out, not to bringing them back. It was proper recycling. Estimates of waste could readily carry people to the low planned on the assumption that most of production can be made from data on orbit, which is 99.9% of the distance to us wouId want to stay, to make space our daily per-person carbon waste production Earth, from either the Moon or the home. Any request for return had to be from the 1968 Stanford Summer Study, colony. But there was no regularly processed through the bureaucracy, to be in which the daily per-person solid human scheduled return service to cover that coordinated with upcoming flight waste production rate was estimated at last 0.1%. schedules. Occasionally there would be 100 g. About 90% of this is undigested

For many years there was only one an extracurricular return (one cellulose [polymeric glucose, (C6H10O5)n] way to get down, and that was with the enterprising chap met his Congressman and of that 90%, 40 g is carbon. In Space Shuttle. The second stage of the during a congressional junket to the addition, the daily per-person production

Heavy Lift Launchers were not colony and posed as his aide, with the of gaseous carbon waste (CO2) usually recoverable or reusable; their engines and Congressman’s assent), but in general the runs to 1050 g, of which 287 g is carbon. instruments were packaged for re-entry, system worked. Most of us truly were The recycling rate of the space habitat but their main structures were not. The highly motivated, and fully aware of our must therefore be 327 g C per person- problem then arose from this: Space commitment to leave Earth for good. But day.1 Shuttle flights were common, but in the early days of training, it was The NASA studies of the early sixties opportunities for return by Shuttle were discomfiting to some to learn that they and Howard Odum, in his American rare. could pick up Houston stations on the Biological Teacher article, made two Some people got down by a kind of radio, yet could not go out to visit that assumptions about carbon recycling space hitchhiking. This involved the fact city. systems in space which, in the light of that there was a fairly constant Shuttle The training was directed to two goals. recent thinking, are uncalled-for: traffic to orbit and back, engaged in the Of course, we had to learn our trades, 1) That any space biosystem would routine business of launching and acquiring familiarity with the equipment be limited by materials and energy, and maintaining the world’s communications and developing our skills. But in addition 2) that bacteria are the most efficient and Earth-observation satellites. we were to experience life in what, so method of decomposition and algae the Occasionally, too, there was a Spacelab far as could be built on the Earth, was a most efficient method of fixation. flight, wherein the Shuttle would stay in genuine space colony. Inevitably, some Using solar energy and materials from orbit for up to a month. On such flights, found it was not for them, and dropped the moon eliminates the first assumption. the Shuttle often was in such an orbit out. It was far easier to allow for this Consideration of the efficiencies, on a that the space-based rocket could when their leaving involved walking out qualitative basis, of biological and rendezvous with it. A returning colonist a door into the Texas sunshine, rather nonbiological alternatives to the second could go to the low orbit and hitch a than returning from space. second assumption will show that algae ride on the Shuttle; there was usually There was another purpose as well, and bacteria are really not the best room in the crew compartment of the which was served by the training producers and decomposers.2,3 latter to rig a couple of jump-seats for program. As we learned soon after our Although a detailed engineering the return. arrival in Houston, we would not be analysis has yet to be made, spending our early years in space in decomposition seems to be the area anything so commodious or comfortable where mechanical components will be as the actual colony. Instead, we would most useful in closed ecosystems. be living and working in a facility known Biological decomposition is messy, slow, to all as the “construction shack”-a and almost always generates undesirable place with all the ambience its name side products. In a “natural” ecosystem, implies. But we had additional which Howard Odum advocates as the motivation to do the construction of the best method to use in space, the carbon colony quickly, for having once lived in dioxide evolution of soil generally runs it, as it were. at about 1.2-8.4 g per sq. m-day.4 Nearly 4 sq. m would be necessary to process “Home, Home on Lagrange” will be the solid wastes of a single person. continued in the next issue of L-5 News. Decomposition might be speeded up by concentrating the wastes in a microbial reactor, as in the designs for closed CARBON CYCLING IN ecosystems advanced during the early SPACE COMMUNITIES sixties, but biological decomposition always leaves a certain amount of . . . all the ambience its name implies.” James Kemp f unusable biological material behind, even Whatever type of farming method is if only the biomass of the decomposing There were, indeed, regular flights chosen for the space colonies at L-5, bacteria. Taste and nutritional from the Moon and the colony to Earth. strict recycling of bioelements will be considerations would seem to preclude These were principally reserved, however, necessary, to reduce resupply from the using these bacteria or algae grown from for the senior administrators and lunar Earth or elsewhere. Carbon, hydrogen, decomposition products as food, as the work crews, who were in space on and nitrogen are rare on the moon and early studies advocated. (After all, who temporary tours of duty. When it was the biosystems of the space communities wants to eat bacteria and algae anyway?) 12 Clearly, a mechanical decomposition recycling of all the other micro and L-5 SOCIETY LOCAL CHAPTERS system, in the form of a catalytic burner, macro nutrients is not critical. For as suggested by the Hensons, or a wet example, during childhood, the human The New York Chapter is coordinated oxidation system would be preferred. body requires more calcium than it by Dan McHugh and Loren Abdulezer, 333 J St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 10021. On the other hand, no mechanical excretes, for bone growth, and thus acts system has yet been designed which can as a calcium sink. If this should be true The Seattle Chapter can be contacted fix carbon with the area efficiency of of other elements at other times of life, through Marcia W. Buxton, 928 18th photosynthesis. In addition, a chemical the habitat’s biosystems must be designed Ave W., Kirkland WA. means of producing tasty food from the to accommodate the shortage. The more The San Diego Chapter can be reached raw materials has yet to be achieved. efficient the habitat’s biosystems are, the through Jeff Bytof, 1848 Fread Lane, Carbon fixation would seem to be the less resupply (at high cost) is necessary, Cardiff, CA 92007. process which could best be accomplished so biosystems designed for maximum The Bloomington Chapter can be biologically. efficiency of recycling should also be the reached through William Gardiner, Estimates of the amount of per-person most cost-effective. 756 S. Lincoln St., Bloomington, Indiana 47401. area needed for a operating space farm have been advanced on the basis of crop 1) Moonlab, Stanford Summer Study, Predating the formation of the L-5 Society is the MIT Space Habitat Study yields on Earth and human nutrition 1968. Group. Formed by veteran L-5 staffer requirements. Keith and Carolyn Henson 2) The Closed Life Support System, NASA Eric Drexler, the current Study Group used hydroponic crop yields and SP-134. president is Beverly Bugos. She can information on human nutrition, along 3) Odum, “Limits of Remote Ecosystems be reached at the Political Science with yields of animal protein products Containing Man,” American Biological Teacher, 25, pp. 424-443, 1964. Department, MIT, Cambridge, MA. from domestic animals, to arrive at a per- 4) di Castri and Mourey, Mediterranean The New Jersey Chapter can be person area of 32 sq. m. Drs. I. Richards Type Ecosystems -- Origin and Structure, p. reached through William Agosto, and P. Parker estimated that from 250- 208. 1973. 9 Franklin Blvd., Somerset, NJ 08873. 430 sq. m/person would be needed, using 5) Henson and Henson, “Closed Ecosystems The West European Chapter is linear programming based on human of High Agricultural Yield,” 1975. coordinated through Phillip John Parker, nutritional needs and crop yields from 6) Richards and Parker, “Estimates of Crop 24 Fifth Ave., Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent, conventional agriculture. Richards and Areas for Large Scale Space Colonies,” 1975. ST7 1DA, England, U.K. Parker assumed that direct farming of 7) Rosenburg, Microclimate: The Biological Our contact in Australia is Kim Peart, the lunar regolith would be the method Environment, pp. 213-215. G.P.O. Box 1441P, Hobart 7001, of choice for the space farm, while the Tasmania, Australia. Hensons advocated a hydroponic system.5,6 Israeli technical translator Jack The efficiency of photosynthesis on Halpern has just established the Japan Chapter of the Society. He can be Earth would seem to put a lower limit on the amount of area needed to fix reached at 923 Nishiyano Kokufucho, carbon and regenerate oxygen. Tokushima City 77931, Japan. Depending on the intensity of culture, The Los Angeles Chapter can be conversion of from .l% (for ranch reached through James M. Parker, farming) to 4% (for experimental culture) 402 E. Badillo, Apt. 5, Covina, CA of the total incoming solar radiation to 91723. high energy carbon compounds has been A list of locally-active members of the achieved. Assuming a solar flux of 500 ly L-5 Society is available from Society per day, a quantum efficiency of 10, a headquarters, 1620 N. Park Ave., Tucson, respiratory loss of 33%. and an AZ 85719. atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.7 the corresponding -6 carbon fixation rates are from 9.8 x 10 BOOK REVIEW to 3.92 x 10-4 g C per sq. cm-day. Assuming a recycling requirement of The Hunger of Eve, Barbara Marx 327 g C per person-day, per person space Hubbard, Stackpole, Parisburg, Virginia. farm areas of from 33.4 to .834 sq m In the waning days of the Apollo would be necessary to cycle carbon. program, Rep. “Tiger” Teague (D-Texas) Comparison with previously quoted SHUTTLE STUDENT PROGRAM pushed a bill through Congress figures shows that crop yield, rather than NASA is evaluating how a space authorizing Barbara Hubbard, an heiress carbon fixation rate, appears to be the shuttle payload development program and mother of five, to buy the hardware more critical factor as far as space farm involving primarily university students and services for an entire Apollo mission. area is concerned. Because a large could be formed. The idea, proposed She had stormed the halls of NASA percentage of most food crops by the Forum for the Advancement of and Congress with a small band of incorporate carbon into leaves, stems, Students in Science and Technology, Inc. supporters composed of such diverse and other nonedible structures, crop (FASST), also has started to win some people as a Catholic nun and a retired Air yields represent only a small portion of congressional interest. FASST hopes to Force officer. Her project, “Harvest the total carbon fixed. The efficiency of be able to have wording incorporated in Moon,” was eventually defeated by a crop production can be increased by such NASA documents as Spacelab slow and unimaginative bureaucracy. using domestic animals to convert non- announcements of flight opportunity What happens when a housewife turns edible plant materials to usable protein, that will facilitate student participation. crusader? Barbara Marx Hubbard’s book but the carbon cycling load imposed by The forum is also seeking financial chronicles her odyssey toward the future: domestic animals must be weighed support. how she expanded her role as housewife against their protein contribution. For additional information, please and mother to become an author, Many refinements must be made in contact Leonard David, Director of lecturer, and chairperson of The these figures before a workable design Student Programs, FASST, 1785 Committee for the Future. can be made for the space farm. In Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, While Barbara’s “Harvest Moon” was addition, it cannot be assumed that the D.C. 20036. stymied, she has been far more successful 13 with her latest project: the colonization futurists with accurate, up-to-date secondary experiment for an early 80’s of space. In the summer of 1974, when information, interviews with experimental Spacelab mission whereby the crew the concept was unknown, she financed scientists, and imaginative ideas about (maybe in their spatial relaxation time?) Eric Drexler (now an L-5 activist) to the world of the future. could undertake photography of the L-5/ work as a research assistant to Gerard K. The inaugural issue of Aging L-4 points for the Branch? Has anyone O’Neill on space colonization. Tomorrow features profiles of today’s any ideas in developing this further, i.e., In the fall of 1975, seeing the fledgling controversial “youth” drugs and a candid definition of the equipment required, L-5 Society struggling for existence, she interview with Dr. Robert N. Butler, the pointing requirements, viewing infused it with money and advice. She is new director of the newly-created opportunities? Assistance can be given now a Director of the Society. National Institute on Aging. with Spacelab features since the Editor Barbara is going on a nationwide tour Aging Tomorrow is edited by Saul does have a copy of the ESA Spacelab to promote The Hunger of Eve. She will Kent, former editor of Immortality and a Payload Accommodation Handbook-the kick it off with a press conference in frequent contributor to The lmmortalist experimenters provisional ‘bible’. Washington, D.C., September 13; she will It is published on a bimonthly basis. Additionally, many details can similarly appear in Boston, September 20-22; Charter subscriptions are $6/year; copies be given for NASA’s Shuttle since the New York City, September 22-25; of the inaugural issue are $1.50 each. Editor also has a copy of the Shuttle Minneapolis, September 27-29; Chicago, Write to: Aging Tomorrow, Box Payload Accommodations handbook. 617-PL, Cathedral Station, New York, September 29 - October 2; and Toronto, Australian L-5 Branch October 4-6. N.Y. 10025. The name/address of the current The Hunger of Eve will be available Australian Co-ordinator is: through the L-5 Society (about FROM WEST EUROPEAN Kim Peart September 15), hardbound, $8.95 plus L-5 NEWSLETTER L-5 Society, Australian Branch fifty cents postage and handling. Libration Cloud Photography G.P.O. Box 1441P, NASA’s Office of Space Flight PIO, Hobart 7001 BIBLIOGRAPHY UPDATE Dave Garrett - an ‘old’ friend - has Tasmania, “Gerry O’Neill and His Solar Powered confirmed that the Skylab Student Australia. Space Factory”, Robert C. Lutz-Nagey, Experiment, ‘Lunar Libration Points To help the Australian Branch begin Automation, July, 1976, pp. 22-33. Photography’ did not take place due to operations, the W. European Branch lack of viewing opportunity of the cloud. issued a news release and a small, feature The experiment number was ED-21. article to the Australian press and New The Editor has suggested that maybe Zealand press, as well as supplying Kim the L-5 Society (W. European Branch) with latest copies of ‘L-5 News’. We hope could persuade the European Space to hear from our ‘Down Under’ colleagues Agency (ESA) to take along a small, soon! Inside THE L-5 SOCIETY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! The L-5 staff this month included The L-5 Society has been in existence Nicholas Elbaum, of Geofstown, New for a year now. This issue is the last of Hampshire; Eric Drexler, of Cambridge, Volume One. Massachusetts; and Tucsonans Dennis We don’t have any members at L-5 Artwork by K. E. Drexler Riggin, Andy Schuerger, Daniel Lomax, yet, but otherwise the concept has made Jonathon Nix, and Keith and Carolyn a lot of progress toward becoming an “A System for the Refining of Lunar Henson. accepted idea. Materials in Space,” by K. Eric Drexler, Thanks to a generous donation from The first L-5 News, last September, is available from the L-5 Society for $2. William O’Boyle, of New York, the reported on political support from Rep. Eric has been a research assistant to Society has had a paid staff (one person) Morris Udall, the first Summer Study, Princeton Physics Professor Gerard K. since the last week in July, our half-time and Dr. O’Neill’s testimony before O’Neill since 1974. He participated in administrator, Daniel Lomax. If your Congress. As you can see from this issue, the 1976 NASA/Ames Research Center check comes back and your order does the L-5 concept is now of concern to study on space colonization, where he not, he is the one to complain to. groups ranging from lawyers to farmers. researched the problems of refining We are also investing some of our A number of conferences are planned, lunar materials. special funding in this, the most extensive and even NASA has started to speak out. The paper includes block diagrams and expensive newsletter of our history. From this year’s Summer Study at and is well footnoted. It will be of value We Plan to bulk-mail copies to those who NASA/Ames, it looks like the Society to those who are giving technical lectures have previously inquired about the may not be in existence too long: our on space colonies and industrialization. Society, but did not join; and also to goal, which is to have tens of thousands some other lists we can use. If, by some of people living and working in space, AGING TOMORROW oversight, you receive an extra issue, we could be realized by 1990. What will it be like to grow old in the would appreciate your passing it on to We of the L-5 staff are deeply future? When will the aging process be a friend. appreciative of the efforts of all those stopped? Will it be possible to rejuvenate If enough response is generated by who have helped: the many staff the aged? How will an extended lifespan this mailing and by our booth at World volunteers, those who have contributed aid in the exploration of space? Con, we should be able to maintain at articles and news, and the generous Aging Tomorrow attempts to answer least a 16 page newsletter; otherwise it support of members and donors who these and other questions of concern to may go back to 8-12 pages. made possible our first year of service. 14 LOCAL ADVERTISING in America, the vastnessof the unexplored 5. Resources. Friends of the Society can help it to continent increased the value of each 6. Damage Assessments and expand its membership by placing the individual in the Westward movement. Prevention. following advertisement in local college The unknown promoted cooperation. 7. Logistics. or university newspapers, and in other There was unity in purpose and 8. Information Storage and publications as appropriate. excitement in discovery. Retrieval. Members who wish to arrange the In this respect, Americans will be In closing I suggest we start several placement of an ad but who cannot drawn much closer together as they study groups and submit the requested afford to donate the cost of the ad should challenge the inconceivable vastness of articles to the British Interplanetary write the Administrator, L-5 Society, the universe. The worth of each individual Society (June L-5 News, p. 5). I am 1620 N. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, will increase during this endless Outward willing to work on one of the study providing details, including the name and movement. America will once again groups, and if anyone else in the Bay Area is interested, please contact me address of the publication, approximate become one family, pushing back an circulation, and cost of a minimum infinite wilderness, an endless sea of time either at work (415) 768-2534, or home insertion. The Society will then, budget and space. (415) 355-7825. permitting, place the ad with the As a people, we cannot be confined! Ray S. Leonard publication. We are a magnificent eagle that should Pacifica, California not be caged! It is our destiny to soar SPACE COLONIES: latest news, progress among the stars! Of all nations, ours has I am no scientist, only a simple art reports, job opportunities - read L-5 NEWS the opportunity to look into the face of student, who reads science and science (monthly) included in L-S Society member- God. We must not allow this 200-year fiction, and believes man should move ship, $20/yr. (students, $10). Members in- experiment in human fulfillment to fail. off into the Universe, where his clude most major space colony researchers. We are the hope of humanity! We are the technology and computers can truly Request trial membership from L-5 Society, vision of tomorrow! grow. At heart I am a naturalist, and in A2,1620N. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719. spirit I am a Viking. No obligation. Robert M. Sprankle Miami, Florida Kim Peart Hobart, Tasmania There are needed a number of study Australia groups or task forces to work on the hundreds of technical details mentioned INTERIOR VIEW OF STANFORD TORUS by Dr. Gray in your June 1976 news- On the back cover is artist Don Davis’s Letters letter. We should organize these groups conception of the Interior of the Stanford The greatest problem now is not our similar to the professional societies such Torus, a huge space colony design from the inability to take advantage of the as the American Society of Mechanical 1975 NASA/Ames Summer Study on Space opportunity of space, but rather the lack Engineers. Colonization. Stationed a quarter of a million miles from of awareness on the part of many Using these groups we would establish Earth and constructed almost entirely of ore national and corporate leaders of space ourselves and our organization as experts mined from the Moon, the colony would investment and development as the only to be called upon for the staffing of the contain a population of 10,000 people. They solution to our long-term problem: actual program and manning the first would live and work in an Earth-like environment inside a vast wheel more than a ideological survival. space habitats. These groups should mile in diameter. However, because we are the nation publish in acceptable formats problem Trees, grassy parks, birds - even streams and that never lost the pioneer spirit, once assessments, backgrounds, solutions, etc. ponds will help give a familiar setting for the national and corporate leaders become Several study groups or task forces colony’s population. Beneath the upper living area is a level of offices, stores, service aware of the problem and its solution, that come to mind immediately are: buildings, and facilities for light industry. most will not ignore the opportunity to 1. Environmental Systems and Screened from harmful cosmic rays by the relive our heritage. Integration. overhead chevron mirrors, the colonizers would Yes, going into a future of space 2. Social Systems. enjoy unlimited sunlight. Those sections of the exploration will in many ways be similar colony devoted to intensive agricultural use 3. Failure Modes. would make use of the sunlight to supply the to going into the past. During the 1800s 4. Medical and Infectious Diseases. total food requirements for the colony.

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