LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN SPACE INDUSTRIALIZATION, SATELLITE SOLAR POWER, AND SPACE HABITATS richer sources of materials. The "heretical" approach skips the lunar surface and goes directly to the asteroids. Even more outrageous things will be reported in coming months-laser launched rockets ($2O/kg to geosynch) and high performance solar sails, etc. But for now .... Towing Asteroids into Earth Orbits for Exploration and Exploitation Special Session of the Eighth Lunar All but the newest readers of the Science Conference, March 16, 1977 L-5 News are familiar with the organized by Dr. David Criswell "orthodox" aporoach to space habitation/industrialization. In this Two recent developments encourage approach, the lunar surface is used to immediate consideration of the supply new materials, though mention is possibility of bringing asteroids into given to the later use of asteroids as orbits about the Earth for exploration Published monthly by L-5 Society, Inc., at 1620 N. Park Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, Subscription price: L-5 Society members, $3.00 per year, included in dues ($20.00 per year, students $10.00 per year). Subscription price to non-members available on request. Single copies, when available, $1.00 each. Send Form 3579, ADDRESS CHANGES AND SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS to L-5 SOCIETY. 1620 N. PARK AVE., TUCSON, AZ 85719. Second class postage paid at Tucson, Arizona. ¢1977 L-5 Society. All Rights Reserved. and exploitation: per year of new electrical generating and allow industrially significant (1) The distribution of crater sizes on capacity.) The first remotely located production of synthetic fuels for the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and the Earth, ground/sea stations are designed to immediate input to the U.S. tanker and and recent astronomical surveys indicate receive very high microwave beam pipeline networks starting in 1987. They the possible existence of many thousands densities from the space platforms in will meet all demands for new energy of asteroids larger than 100 meters in order to speed construction, lower costs supplies for the U.S. by 1990. diameter in orbits approximately 1 AU (astronomical unit) from the Sun and with velocity differences with respect to Earth of approximately 3 km/second, or less. Retrieval of such asteroids requires L-5 in Congress 10 to 100 times less energy than for similar main belt asteroids located Testimony of Dr. T. Stephen In this regard, I think we should take a between Mars and Jupiter. Cheston, Associate Dean, Graduate special note of the work of Gerard (2) The mass-driver, first proposed for O’Neill, Professor of Physics at Princeton ejecting soil pellets from the Moon, can School, Georgetown University, University, on space manufacturing/ be used in space as an electric rocket Before the Science and Space colonization, Peter Glaser of Arthur D. engine. A mass-driver coupled to a 100 Subcommittee, Committee on Little, on the satellite solar power stations, megawatt power plant (possibly a solar Commerce, Science and and Krafft Ehricke of Rockwell array) could be assembled in low Earth Transportation, United States International, on space industrialization. orbit. Reaction mass necessary to propel Their work gained prominence for the the mass driver tug for the 3 to 9 month Senate, March 17, 1977 first time, or renewed prominence in the cruise to rendezvous with an asteroid Senator Stevenson and Members of the case of Peter Glaser, in the wake of the could be obtained by pelletizing the Committee: environmental and “limits to growth” oxygen/hydrogen tanks from the 30-50 l appreciate very much your invitation concern about the outcome of the shuttle flights necessary to lift the tug to share with the Committee observations exponential growth of our current assemblies into low Earth orbit. After on developments related to the proposed industrial patterns. Unhappy conclusions rendezvous, the tug would cruise back to NASA budget. were being drawn about the future of Earth in 3 to 5 years using approximately My principal intention is to invite the our society and creative thinking was 80 percent of the asteroid as reaction Committee’s attention to two new necessary to come to grips with these mass. Conceivably, the initial groupings that are emerging in regard to critical issues in a substantive way. venture could return 10,000,000 metric space development. One is oriented Creative thinking came from O’Neill, tons of material to Earth orbit for less towards educating public opinion, while Glaser, and Ehricke, who posed ways to than 20 cents per kilogram (versus $1000/ the other is primarily academic and partially solve the problems of pollution kg for shuttle and tug launch to university-based. and resource depletion by moving at geosynchronous orbit) by the mid-1980s I would like to begin by outlining very least some of our industrial capacity into at a cost of one to two billion dollars. briefly the background of support for space. I won’t go into any specifics about Scientific results of immense space endeavors, albeit in a very simplistic their concepts on the assumption the importance should result from studies of fashion. Surveys have concluded that Committee will receive this information virtually unlimited quantities of the popular support for space during the from other sources. I will just say that materials returned. Asteroids should 1950s and 1960s arose from the public’s these concepts have caused space to be provide considerably less altered samples desire to have the United States looked at in an entirely different light of early solar condensates than obtained preeminent in its competition with the than before, and it is viewed this way by from the Moon or certainly from Mars. Soviet Union. Space was a symbol of groupings in our society that are only At long last cosmochemists can do national prestige and U.S. progress in this now beginning to manifest their interest. “whole” rock analyses. Of far wider area polished the American image around The first of these new groupings is interest is the possible economic the world. This support provided the fairly well-articulated and identifiable. It potential. backdrop for the development of the is the various coalitions of individual Speculative Scenario: well-sized space enterprise that begat citizens that have united their resources Between mid-1977 and 1979 intense substantial labor and industry and energies to educate the public on the ground-based and space (possibly using involvement. These interests, in turn, potential of space. They are kind of surveillance satellites) searches discover became advocates of space for the “Common Cause” organizations for space several Earth-crossing asteroids larger obvious reasons that it provided jobs and development and reflect deep grass-roots than 100 meters diameter, with small company earnings. With the winning of interest. Some of these coalitions are velocity differences with respect to Earth. the race to the Moon, the force of public propelled in part by youthful energy that A nuclear or solar powered tug is support for space dissipated to a large is somewhat reminiscent of the anti-war deployed by 1981 in the first major degree and left advocacy for space movement of the late 1960s and at times shuttle program, and asteroid rendezvous development primarily in the hands of are strange combinations of disparate and docking occur in mid-1982. labor, industry and professional groups sectors of our society. They combine Automatic analysis of asteroid material who were its immediate beneficiaries. under single organizational roofs elements supplied to the mass driver allows These latter groups were not sufficiently that remind one of counter-culture/ between 1982 and 1985 for design, strong to protect NASA in the early radical activism, with senior officials of fabrication and deployment of chemical 1970s from fairly substantial budget industry, whose hallmarks are restraint, processing equipment and manufacturing reductions and a major debate over the caution and conservatism. They combine machinery. People, machines, and the efficacy of the Space Shuttle. utopian visionaries with pragmatic asteroid rendezvous in high Earth orbit in In the mid-1970s, however, a subtle bureaucrats whose primary concern is 1985. Now hollowed-out, the asteroid but significant change began to take next year’s budget. provides raw materials for construction place. New concepts emerged focusing A group of this sort that I have of space solar power stations of three on the utilization of space that triggered concrete knowledge about is the L-5 trillion watts output and simultaneously interest and support for space Society, based in Tucson, Arizona. It a shelter against radiation for workers. development from groups and individuals came into being in July, 1975, with the (Presently, the U.S. consumes 500 billion who had not been previously involved in professed goal of educating the public watts per year and needs 60 billion watts it. I wouldcount myself among them. about space industrialization, satellite -2- Consonant with the basic thrust of the recommendations of the ERDA Task Group, the House Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications increased the FY ‘78 authorization for Energy Systems/Satellite Solar Power Systems by $5 million to support much needed further study on system definition and to initiate a comprehensive environmental impact and benefit analysis of SSPS. I believe the House action is a valuable contribution to advancing research on this promising area of future energy production and deserves serious consideration. The second new grouping that I would like to bring to the Committee’s attention has no specific shape and at the moment is of ill-defined size, but draws its members from the academic and intellectual community related to the social sciences and the humanities. These individuals, for the most part, have not been previously involved or even interested in space development. They solar power and space habitats.