TTSIQ #12 page 1 JULY 2015 Epic goals of humankind: from our own backyard to beyond our own galaxy INDEX 2 Co-sponsoring Organizations NEWS SECTION pp. 3-157 3-29 Earth Orbit and Mission to Planet Earth 29 Space Tourism 30-36 Cislunar Space and the Moon 37-71 Mars 72-91 Asteroids & Comets 92-119 Other Planets & their moons 120-157 Starbound ARTICLES, ESSAYS pp 159-184 160 “Reimagineering” Public Conceptions of Moon & Mars Bases & Outposts - Peter Kokh 161 Mars is so boringly “monochromatic” - Opticians to the Rescue? - Peter Kokh 162 NASA should include Mission-Appropriate Cubesat Hitchikers on every Planetary Mission - PK 162 Space Settlement the Easy Way - Al Globus 162 International Lunar Decade Declaration - Dave Dunlop 164 Return To The Moon International Lunar Decade Workshop at ISDC 2015 - Dave Dunlop 170 Expanding Economic Models for Returning to the Moon and the International Lunar Decade DD 174 Powering a Moon Base through the Lunar Night - Sacramento L5 Soc. NSS Chapter 179 The Moon or Mars: Flawed Debate, False Choice - Madhu Thangavelu STUDENTS & TEACHERS pp 185-196 197 List of Recent Feature Articles and Essays in Our Sister Publications: Ad Astra, Moon Miners’ Manifesto: This issue is online at: www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/ and at: www.nss.org/tothestars/miwcepts TTSIQ #12 page 2 JULY 2015 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 L5 Society and National Space insti- tute. NSS has an extensive chapter network in the United States and a number of international chapters in Europe, Asia, and Australia. NSS hosts the 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. The Society has a network of chapters in the US and has been an afliate of NSS since 2005. About Space Renaissance Initiative - http://www.spacerenaissance.org/ SRI’s focus is on use of space resources to address the challenges of runaway population growth and increasing use of Earth resources at a non-sustainable pace. “The settlement of space would benefit all of humanity by opening a new frontier, energizing society, providing room and resources for the growth of the human race without despoiling Earth, creating a lifeboat for humanity that could survive even a planet-wide catastrophe.” About The Mars Foundation - http://marsfoundation.org/ - http://marshome.org/ The Foundation seeks to involved interested persons in the design of Mars outposts and settlements, maximizing use of building materials that can be produced on Mars, to illustrate the near-term feasibility of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars. About Open Luna Foundation - http://openluna.org/missions The OpenLuna Foundation aims to return to the moon through private enterprise. A stepped program of robotic missions, then a short series of manned missions to construct a small, approximately 8 person outpost . About SEDS: Students for the Exploration and Development of Space - http://www.seds.org/ SEDS is an independent, student-based organization promoting the exploration and development of space by educating people about the benefits of space, via a network of interested students, providing an opportunity About Moon Miners’ Manifesto - http:www.MMM-MoonMinersManifesto.com MMM, has been published 10 times a year since issue #1 December 1986 by the Milwaukee Lunar Reclamation Society chapter of the National Space Society. It has also served the Moon Society and its predecessor, Ar- temis Society International, since October 1995. Most issues deal with the opening of the Lunar frontier, suggesting how pioneers can make best use of local resources and learn to make themselves at home. This will involve psychological, social, and physiological adjustment. Much of what will hold for the Moon, will also hold true for Mars and for space in general. There is one Mars theme issue each year, and occasionally other space destinations are discussed: the asteroids, Eu- ropa (Jupiter), Titan (Saturn), even the cloud tops of Venus, and interstellar destinations beyond. This issue is online at: www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/ and at: www.nss.org/tothestars/miwcepts TTSIQ #12 page 3 JULY 2015 • Most of the “editor’s summaries” of news articles will be in the form of bullet points of the contents. We welcome your comments - Peter Kokh, Editor, [email protected] NATIONAL & INTERNATIONALSPACE AGENCIES SPACEPORT NEWS ANALOG FACILITY TRAINING NASA Prepares for Future Space Exploration with International Undersea Crew www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-prepares-for-future-space-exploration-with-international-und ersea-crew 26 June, 2015 - NASA will send an international crew to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean this summer to prepare for future deep space missions during the 14-day NASA Extreme Environment Mission Op- erations (NEEMO) 20 expedition slated to begin July 20. NEEMO 16 aquanauts Kimiya Yui and Tim Peake pose with their support diver and astronaut Mike Gernhardt in the DeepWorker single-person submarine. • NEEMO 20 will focus on evaluating tools and techniques being tested for future spacewalks on a vari- ety of surfaces and gravity levels ranging from asteroids to the moons of Mars and Mars’ surface. • There have been 20 missions at Aquarius in the past 15 years: Living and working in the highly opera- tional, isolated and extreme environment of the sea floor has provided significant science and engi- neering for the benefit of human spaceflight. • It has also clearly proven to be as close to spaceflight as is possible here on Earth. • The mission will test time delays in communications due to the distance of likely mission destinations. This issue is online at: www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/ and at: www.nss.org/tothestars/miwcepts TTSIQ #12 page 4 JULY 2015 • The crew will assess hardware from the European Space Agency that allows crew members to read the next step in a procedure without taking hands or eyes away from the task using a tablet, a smartphone and a head-mounted interface. • The NEEMO crew and two professional habitat technicians will live 19 m (62 ft) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in Florida International University’s Aquarius Reef Base undersea research habitat 6.2 mi (5.4 nautical mil) of the coast of Key Largo, Florida. • For more information about NEEMO, the crews, etc., visit: http://www.nasa.gov/neemo BUILDING IN SPACE Spiderlike Robots Could Build Giant Space Structures 7 April, 2015 - www.space.com/28846-spiderfab-space-structures-incredible-technology.html Humanity could soon be building huge structures in space one piece at a time, the way spiders spin their webs here on Earth. • Tethers Unlimited is developing an in-space manufacturing system called "SpiderFab," using spider-like robots to put together large objects in orbit or beyond. • SpiderFab could help build big radio antennas, space booms, and solar arrays in the next decade. • But the company has an even grander vision for the technology and associated projects. • Its really long-term objective for all of this work is to eventually enable the use of in-situ resources to construct the infrastructure in space needed to support expansion throughout the the solar system. Tethers Unlimited envisions using spider-like robots (seen here in an artist's concept) to assemble huge structures in space. Bringing costs down • The current model of spacecraft manufacturing — in which everything is built and assembled on the ground, and is then launched in one piece is a very expensive and time-consuming process. • And the size of systems is somewhat limited by the size of the deployables that are possible to fold up and fit within a launch shroud • SpiderFab is an efort to decrease costs and increase efciencies by launching raw materials, such as carbon fiber, to orbit. There, robots would transform these materials into truss substructures, and then assemble and integrate these pieces into larger systems. The potential benefits of such an approach are substantial. • We can deploy apertures and baselines much larger than we can currently fit into launch shrouds, • The payof will be higher power, higher resolution, higher sensitivity and higher bandwidth for a wide range of NASA, DoD [Department of Defense] and commercial space missions. • Objects built in space can be sleeker and simpler than ones launched from the ground, since they don't need to survive the rigors of launch. • That should lead to reductions in design complexity and system mass at significant cost savings,. Case studies This issue is online at: www.moonsociety.org/international/ttsiq/ and at: www.nss.org/tothestars/miwcepts TTSIQ #12 page 5 JULY 2015 • SpiderFab has received two rounds of funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program,to encourage the development of potentially game-changing space technologies. • Case-study analyses under the Phase 1 NIAC award indicated that SpiderFab could achieve order-of- magnitude performance improvements in "bigger is better" systems: solar arrays and telescope parts. • An example is the proposed New Worlds Observer (NWO) space telescope which would use a huge "starshade" to block out most of the light of a star, allowing exoplanets to be imaged directly. • The largest conventionally built starshade would be about 62 m (203 ft) wide,. Employing on-orbit manufacturing with the same amount of mass would increase that diameter to 124 m) (406 ft), allow- ing NWO to peer twice as close to target stars — and thus observe more planets.