European Space Exploration: Strategic Considerations of Human Versus Robotic Exploration
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Report of the Commission on the Scientific Case for Human Space Exploration
1 ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY Burlington House, Piccadilly London W1J 0BQ, UK T: 020 7734 4582/ 3307 F: 020 7494 0166 [email protected] www.ras.org.uk Registered Charity 226545 Report of the Commission on the Scientific Case for Human Space Exploration Professor Frank Close, OBE Dr John Dudeney, OBE Professor Ken Pounds, CBE FRS 2 Contents (A) Executive Summary 3 (B) The Formation and Membership of the Commission 6 (C) The Terms of Reference 7 (D) Summary of the activities/meetings of the Commission 8 (E) The need for a wider context 8 (E1) The Wider Science Context (E2) Public inspiration, outreach and educational Context (E3) The Commercial/Industrial context (E4) The Political and International context. (F) Planetary Science on the Moon & Mars 13 (G) Astronomy from the Moon 15 (H) Human or Robotic Explorers 15 (I) Costs and Funding issues 19 (J) The Technological Challenge 20 (J1) Launcher Capabilities (J2) Radiation (K) Summary 23 (L) Acknowledgements 23 (M) Appendices: Appendix 1 Expert witnesses consulted & contributions received 24 Appendix 2 Poll of UK Astronomers 25 Appendix 3 Poll of Public Attitudes 26 Appendix 4 Selected Web Sites 27 3 (A) Executive Summary 1. Scientific missions to the Moon and Mars will address questions of profound interest to the human race. These include: the origins and history of the solar system; whether life is unique to Earth; and how life on Earth began. If our close neighbour, Mars, is found to be devoid of life, important lessons may be learned regarding the future of our own planet. 2. While the exploration of the Moon and Mars can and is being addressed by unmanned missions we have concluded that the capabilities of robotic spacecraft will fall well short of those of human explorers for the foreseeable future. -
REASONS to MIND ASTEROIDS with the Rapid Progress Made In
ASTEROID MINING & ITS LEGAL IMPLICATIONS Neil Modi & Devanshu Ganatra Presentation ID- IAC- 16.E7.IP.23.x32357 REASONS TO MINE ASTEROIDS With the rapid progress made in technology, humans are taking huge steps in space today. There is huge potential in space, and particularly in asteroid mining. ENERGY CRISIS RARE EARTH METALS • Non-renewable fossil fuels like coal, oil currently account for 81% of • Many of the metals widely used in almost all industrial products the world’s primary energy. were always limited and are now in SHORT SUPPLY leading to skyrocketing manufacturing costs. • EARLIER, renewable energy could not compete with non-renewable sources because it relied on metals in short supply. Resources found • These include Platinum Group Metals (PMGS) and others like on asteroids would solve this problem completely. gold, cobalt, iron, molybdenum etc. Image Credit-The U.S. Energy Image Credit- FuelSpace.org- ‘How Asteroids Can Information Administration Save Mankind’ PROJECTED SCARCITY OF RESOURCES ON EARTH Image Credit-Shackleton Energy Company Image Credit- Chris Clugston’s ‘An Oil Drum- An Analysis’ (2010) THE NEED FOR WATER 1. SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR ASTRONAUTS- Since the main constituents of water HYDRATION AND OXYGEN are hydrogen and oxygen, it is a source of oxygen for life support. TO ASTRONAUTS 2. PROTECTION FROM RADIATION- Water absorbs and blocks infrared radiation, which means that by storing heat it helps to maintain temperature. 3. ROCKET FUEL- Rocket propellant is hydrogen and oxygen based, with a large percentage of the weight of a spacecraft taken up by fuel. 4. SPACE EXPLORATION- A GAS STATION IN SPACE KEY TO SPACE BLOCKS EXPLORATION WATER RADIATION Today billions of dollars are spent in rocket fuel to sustain space explorations. -
Global Exploration Roadmap
The Global Exploration Roadmap January 2018 What is New in The Global Exploration Roadmap? This new edition of the Global Exploration robotic space exploration. Refinements in important role in sustainable human space Roadmap reaffirms the interest of 14 space this edition include: exploration. Initially, it supports human and agencies to expand human presence into the robotic lunar exploration in a manner which Solar System, with the surface of Mars as • A summary of the benefits stemming from creates opportunities for multiple sectors to a common driving goal. It reflects a coordi- space exploration. Numerous benefits will advance key goals. nated international effort to prepare for space come from this exciting endeavour. It is • The recognition of the growing private exploration missions beginning with the Inter- important that mission objectives reflect this sector interest in space exploration. national Space Station (ISS) and continuing priority when planning exploration missions. Interest from the private sector is already to the lunar vicinity, the lunar surface, then • The important role of science and knowl- transforming the future of low Earth orbit, on to Mars. The expanded group of agencies edge gain. Open interaction with the creating new opportunities as space agen- demonstrates the growing interest in space international science community helped cies look to expand human presence into exploration and the importance of coopera- identify specific scientific opportunities the Solar System. Growing capability and tion to realise individual and common goals created by the presence of humans and interest from the private sector indicate and objectives. their infrastructure as they explore the Solar a future for collaboration not only among System. -
Planetary Defence Activities Beyond NASA and ESA
Planetary Defence Activities Beyond NASA and ESA Brent W. Barbee 1. Introduction The collision of a significant asteroid or comet with Earth represents a singular natural disaster for a myriad of reasons, including: its extraterrestrial origin; the fact that it is perhaps the only natural disaster that is preventable in many cases, given sufficient preparation and warning; its scope, which ranges from damaging a city to an extinction-level event; and the duality of asteroids and comets themselves---they are grave potential threats, but are also tantalising scientific clues to our ancient past and resources with which we may one day build a prosperous spacefaring future. Accordingly, the problems of developing the means to interact with asteroids and comets for purposes of defence, scientific study, exploration, and resource utilisation have grown in importance over the past several decades. Since the 1980s, more and more asteroids and comets (especially the former) have been discovered, radically changing our picture of the solar system. At the beginning of the year 1980, approximately 9,000 asteroids were known to exist. By the beginning of 2001, that number had risen to approximately 125,000 thanks to the Earth-based telescopic survey efforts of the era, particularly the emergence of modern automated telescopic search systems, pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) LINEAR system in the mid-to-late 1990s.1 Today, in late 2019, about 840,000 asteroids have been discovered,2 with more and more being found every week, month, and year. Of those, approximately 21,400 are categorised as near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), 2,000 of which are categorised as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)3 and 2,749 of which are categorised as potentially accessible.4 The hazards posed to us by asteroids affect people everywhere around the world. -
ASTEROID MINING and IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION A. A. Mardon1 and G
82nd Annual Meeting of The Meteoritical Society 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2157) 6189.pdf ASTEROID MINING AND IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION A. A. Mardon1 and G. Zhou2, 1University of Alberta, 2George Washington University. Introduction: Like many space exploration missions, cost is a determining factor. Transportation alone imposes a cost of $10,000 per kilogram for the entire mission making it simply not profitable or attractive to potential investors. A poten- tial near-instantaneous solution would be to develop an asteroid mining economy developing of a human-commercial market. It is suggested that this scenario will create the economic and technological opportunities not available today. Fu- ture manned missions would require the use of native material and energy on celestial objects to support future human and robotic explorations. The process of collecting and processing usable native material is known as in-situ resource utiliza- tion (ISRU). Currently, space travelling requires missions to carry life necessities such as air, food, water and habitable volume and shielding needed to sustain crew trips from Earth to interplanetary destinations. [1] The possibility of a mis- sion depends on the deduced market value from commercial sale of the product. Engineering choices are identified; a ma- trix of mineralogy, product and process choices can be developed. [2] One major consideration in the process of obtaining energy and life supporting materials from the lunar surface is the identification and excavation of raw material. [3] Lunar soil is produced primarily by meteorite impacts on the surface. This process caused for mineral fragmentation with com- position consisting of miscellaneous glasses, agglutinates and basaltic and brecciated lithic fragments. -
So, Has Voyager 1 Left the Solar System? Scientists Face Off Cosmic-Ray Fluctuations Could Mean the Craft Has Exited the Sun's Magnetic Field
NATURE | NEWS So, has Voyager 1 left the Solar System? Scientists face off Cosmic-ray fluctuations could mean the craft has exited the Sun's magnetic field. Ron Cowen 21 March 2013 A space physicist this week suggests that NASA’s venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft has become the first vehicle to venture beyond the heliosphere — the magnetic bubble created by the Sun — but other mission scientists disagree. William Webber of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces bases the claim on signals recorded last August by the Voyager 1 cosmic-ray subsystem — a device that he helped to build — along with his late colleague and study co-author Francis McDonald. JPL-Caltech/NASA Voyager 1 recorded a sudden drop in cosmic rays The instrument recorded a dramatic drop in the intensity of the cosmic rays trapped last August, a possible sign that it had left the in the Sun’s magnetic field and a concomitant rise in that of rays generated by more Sun's sphere of influence. distant reaches of the Galaxy. That pattern indicates that Voyager 1 has travelled beyond the Sun’s magnetic influence and is no longer being shielded from galactic cosmic rays, the researchers report in a study published online this week in Geophysical Research Letters1. But if one is to believe a press release issued by NASA on 20 March (the same day the report was published), the two researchers jumped the gun. Other Voyager scientists who analysed the same data last autumn reiterate what they said then: the cosmic-ray data indicate that Voyager 1 is in a transition zone within the outer part of the heliosphere, but until a dramatic change in magnetic-field intensity and direction is detected, the craft remains firmly within the Sun’s magnetic sphere of influence. -
National Space Programmes 2012 - 2013
National Space Programmes 2012 - 2013 Introduction projects – a massive injection of innovation into the blood stream of the UK’s space sector. Meanwhile, the Welcome to the second edition of the UK Space programme of scientific instruments has reached a Agency’s National Space Programmes brochure. milestone with the delivery of MIRI for the James Webb This document contains financial and management Space Telescope, the result of over a decade’s hard information about our suite of National Space work by the UK-led European consortium. The national Programmes, provided in order to give you an insight exploration and the Earth observation technology into the wide range of investment we are making in programmes have also made good progress, while the UK’s space sector. both UKube-1 and TechDemoSat-1 are preparing for launch in 2013. It is going to be another exciting year. It is now approaching two years since the Agency’s full establishment. During this time the UK space sector We hope you find the brochure valuable. It’s hard has continued to grow, as has its contribution to the to capture the huge range of projects that the UK economy as a whole, currently thought to be £9.1 Space Agency has underway in a few pages. For billion a year and directly employing 28,900 people. further information and also to download our other The average growth rate of the UK space sector is publications, please see our website: almost 7.5%; the National Space Programmes are in http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency place to complement our investments in a range of European Space Agency, European Commission and And don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter bilateral projects in order to further this growth in line and follow us on Twitter - @spacegovuk ! with the six themes of our civil space strategy: Dr. -
FROM the SUN to the STARS Narration & Sync Transcript FINAL
FROM THE SUN TO THE STARS narration & sync transcript FINAL page 1 of 35 FROM THE SUN TO THE STARS Transcript including narration (in caps) and sync dialog (lower case.) Existing “open” captions (lower thirds and web icons and language sub-titles noted.) Underwriter announce: “FROM THE SUN TO THE STARS” IS MADE POSSIBLE, IN PART, BY NASA, THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION. (Sputnik beep) Narration: IN JUST FIFTY YEARS, WE’VE GONE FROM ONE SIMPLE SATELLITE CIRCLING EARTH… …TO MANY THOUSANDS OF OBJECTS ORBITING OUR PLANET. THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE SPACE AGE WAS THAT BELTS OF RADIATION SURROUND US. NOW WE KNOW THAT FORCES ORIGINATING AT THE SUN EXTEND OUT ALMOST EIGHT BILLION MILES, TO THE VERY EDGE OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. (Music swells) …AND THAT OUR HIGH-TECH CIVILIZATION IS MIGHTILY IMPACTED BY “SPACE WEATHER” NICKY FOX: (no lower third here) We live in the atmosphere of the sun so when the Sun sneezes the Earth catches a cold. IT WAS THE “INTERNATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL YEAR” OF 1957 THAT LAUNCHED THE SPACE AGE. TWO THOUSAND SEVEN AND EIGHT HAVE BEEN WHAT’S KNOWN AS THE “INTERNATIONAL HELIOPHYSICAL YEAR” OR “IHY.” IT’S A TIME TO PLAN NEW SPACECRAFT… …AND TO RECRUIT A NEW GENERATION OF TEACHERS, STUDENTS, AND SCIENTISTS IN NATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE TO WORK IN SPACE PHYSICS. (Segment titles – text over black – fly in rapidly) FROM THE SUN TO THE STARS narration & sync transcript FINAL page 2 of 35 EACH ACT IN OUR PROGRAM STANDS ALONE… BUT TOGETHER THEY’RE A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF IHY… AND WHEN YOU SEE THIS ICON, THAT’S A SIGNAL THERE’S LOTS MORE INFORMATION ONLINE. -
Annual Report
The 2008 Annual Report of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group Released March 2009 International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) – Annual Report:2008 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK 1 International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) – Annual Report:2008 CONTENTS Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 4 Part 1: The Role of the ISECG 1.1 Overview …………………………………………………………………………. 6 1.2 Working Groups of the ISECG …………………………………………………… 7 1.2.1 Enhancement of Public Engagement …………………………………………… 7 1.2.2 Establishment of Relationships with Existing International Working Groups …. 7 1.2.3 The International Space Exploration Coordination Tool (INTERSECT) ……. 8 1.2.4 The Space Exploration Interface Standards Working Group (ISWG) ………….. 8 1.2.5 Mapping the Space Exploration Journey ………………………………………... 8 Part 2: Current and Near-Term Activities of ISECG Members 2.1 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) …………………………………………………………… 10 2.1.1 The International Space Station (ISS) …………………………………………… 10 2.1.2 Emerging Government Capabilities …………………………………………….. 10 2.1.3 Emerging Commercial Providers ……………………………………………….. 11 2.2 Beyond LEO – The Moon and Mars ……………………………………………….. 11 2.2.1 Moon ……………………………………………………………………………… 11 2.2.2 Mars ………………………………………………………………………………. 12 Part 3: Progress in 2008 towards Opportunities for Integrated and Collaborative Space Exploration 3.1 Robotic Network Science – The International Lunar Network ……………………… 16 3.2 Joint Development for Robotic Exploration – Mars Sample Return ………………………… 17 3.3 Collaborative -
Issue #1 – 2012 October
TTSIQ #1 page 1 OCTOBER 2012 Introducing a new free quarterly newsletter for space-interested and space-enthused people around the globe This free publication is especially dedicated to students and teachers interested in space NEWS SECTION pp. 3-22 p. 3 Earth Orbit and Mission to Planet Earth - 13 reports p. 8 Cislunar Space and the Moon - 5 reports p. 11 Mars and the Asteroids - 5 reports p. 15 Other Planets and Moons - 2 reports p. 17 Starbound - 4 reports, 1 article ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ARTICLES, ESSAYS & MORE pp. 23-45 - 10 articles & essays (full list on last page) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENTS & TEACHERS pp. 46-56 - 9 articles & essays (full list on last page) L: Remote sensing of Aerosol Optical Depth over India R: Curiosity finds rocks shaped by running water on Mars! L: China hopes to put lander on the Moon in 2013 R: First Square Kilometer Array telescopes online in Australia! 1 TTSIQ #1 page 2 OCTOBER 2012 TTSIQ Sponsor Organizations 1. About The National Space Society - http://www.nss.org/ The National Space Society was formed in March, 1987 by the merger of the former L5 Society and National Space institute. NSS has an extensive chapter network in the United States and a number of international chapters in Europe, Asia, and Australia. NSS hosts the annual International Space Development Conference in May each year at varying locations. NSS publishes Ad Astra magazine quarterly. NSS actively tries to influence US Space Policy. About The Moon Society - http://www.moonsociety.org The Moon Society was formed in 2000 and seeks to inspire and involve people everywhere in exploration of the Moon with the establishment of civilian settlements, using local resources through private enterprise both to support themselves and to help alleviate Earth's stubborn energy and environmental problems. -
Gardini, Bruno; Ongaro, Franco; Vennemann, Dietrich
Aurora Exploration Programme 7th ESAWorkshoponAdvancedSpaceTechnologiesforRoboticsandAutomation'ASTRA2002' ESTEC, Noordwijk,TheNetherlands,November19-21,2002 1 The Robotic Exploration Missions of the Aurora Programme 7th ASTRA Workshop, ESTEC 19-21 November 2002 ASTRA, 19-21 B.Gardini, F.Ongaro, D.Vennemann – ESA/ESTEC 1 November 2002 List of Contents 7th ESAWorkshoponAdvancedSpaceTechnologiesforRoboticsandAutomation'ASTRA2002' • Introduction • Objectives of the Aurora Programme ESTEC, Noordwijk,TheNetherlands,November19-21,2002 • Aurora Programme outline • Aurora Preparatory Period • Exploration Scenario • European Human/Robotic Exploration Scenario • Near term Planning • Near Term Missions Scenario 2 • Aurora candidate missions – Exobiology Mission (ExoMars) – Mars Sample Return Mission (MSR) – In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) Mission – Lunar Mission – Advanced MSR – Arrow Missions • Aurora Mission Scenario • Conclusions. ASTRA, 19-21 2 November 2002 Introduction 7th ESAWorkshoponAdvancedSpaceTechnologiesforRoboticsandAutomation'ASTRA2002' • In the coming decades the scientific and human exploration of the solar ESTEC, Noordwijk,TheNetherlands,November19-21,2002 system is expected to progress further beyond the low Earth orbits. An international human mission to Mars may become a reality by the years 2020 – 2030. 3 • To decide in which areas of expertise Europe wants to have a lead in the future requires a detailed analysis of the European Technology strengths and an assessment of its strategic value. • The Aurora Programme, approved -
VBI China DA 2K11
VBI China DA 2k11 China DA China DA ................................................................................................................................................................ 1 China 1NC .............................................................................................................................................................. 2 China 1NC .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Uniqueness—China Leads in Space ..................................................................................................................... 4 Uniqueness—China Leads in Space ..................................................................................................................... 5 Uniqueness—Chinese Heg Now ............................................................................................................................ 6 Uniqueness—Chinese Heg Now ............................................................................................................................ 7 Uniqueness—Chinese Heg Now ............................................................................................................................ 8 Uniqueness—Multipolarity Now ............................................................................................................................. 9 Brinks—Now Key Time .......................................................................................................................................