Fwd: [SpaceRenaissance-1245] Sustainable Industrial Future - using off-world assets
Bryan Bishop
From: William Mook <mokme...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Subject: [SpaceRenaissance-1245] Sustainable Industrial Future - using
off-world assets
To: Space Renaissance Initiative <space-renaissa...@googlegroups.com>
Societies that ignore their frontiers fight over limited resources at
the center, and collapse in conflict. Societies that embrace their
frontiers enter a period of improved cooperation as all join together
to make use of the abundant resources of the frontier. For too long
we have ignored our common frontier and have told ourselves that it is
too difficult, too costly, too complex to contribute meaningfully to
our present situation. This attitude of neglect is the attitude of a
culture in decline. I have prepared a series of presentations in an
effort to change this attitude and inspire in those who view them the
idea that we can develop resources off-world to meaningfully improve
our conditions on Earth today.
We have the ability, and for the past fifty years have had the
ability, to do whatever we want in the solar system. The resources of
the entire solar system is available to us today. The resources of
many entire worlds are available to us today. With these resources
there is really no need to live with shortages of any sort.
Here is how we can proceed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I81ogcX3ONY&feature=PlayList&p=838BBE4ECC513CCB&index=0&playnext=1
1) communications - global wireless hotspot.
2) energy - power satellites
3) materiel - raw materials imported from asteroids to Earth orbit
4) manufacturing - orbiting solar powered tele-operated factories
5) diaspora - ultra-low-cost laser propulsion broadly available
6) space homes
7) interstellar commerce
The first steps use conventional chemical rockets configured for 2,000
to 3,000 uses at low recurring costs. Importing materiel from the
asteroid belt involves dispatching to the asteroids survey teams, and
the means to return the richest materials found. Manufacturing on
orbit involves sending up teleoperated solar powered factory elements
to process returned asteroids into useful products. Once a core
capability is on orbit it can grow in complexity and size with very
little support from Earth - other than teleoperation signals. At this
point materials and goods rain down from orbit directly to end users
everywhere on Earth. The development of laser propelled rockets,
supported by intense laser beams generated by solar pumped lasers on
orbit, allow the creation of very capable very safe and very low-cost
ballistic vehicles, both for travel between points on Earth in
minutes, and to orbit and back. Once low-cost access to orbit is as
common as automobiles in America in the present-day, space homes join
the growing industrial infrastructure on orbit. The development of
very powerful laser light sails allow us to easily and inexpensively
move individual space homes beyond Earth orbit, and even beyond the
solar system.
This could all be completed within the next 35 years.
This could have all been completed within the past 35 years.
There is no new technology required, only application of existing
techniques appropriate to the environment and task at hand.
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- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
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Paul D. Fernhout
I completely agree on the frontiers statement as a general concept.
But, I think the real reason to learn how to use space resources is to use
them in space (to make habitats), not return them to Earth. An example
comment by me on that:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1484498&cid=30511516
"""
If we brought lots of resources from space, the junk would pile up. We have
plenty of metal and other resources to make stuff on Earth. We just need to
recycle it. Right now, the auto industry is becoming a net producer of metal
as bigger cars are recycled to make more efficient ones with more plastics.
In a couple decades, landfills may be the next source of treasures, and we
could use essentially the same technology for space mining to mine
landfills. If you read the current thinking on space resources, all those
ideas of mining the asteroids to bring stuff back to Earth have been seen to
be fairly unneeded. What we need to do is design self-replicating space
habitats that can duplicate themselves from sunlight and asteroidal ore, but
we will never get there if all our money and all the attention goes to boat
rides in space instead of a serious consolidation of how to do manufacturing
on Earth and in Space. A paper I helped write in 2001 on how to do that
collectively, even without NASA's help:
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/oscomak/SSI_Fernhout2001_web.html
"""
The reason to go into space and build habitats is just because it is
worthwhile for its own sake.
But, back to the frontier point, I totally agree with the general issue. The
frontiers of advanced manufacturing, advanced robotics, advanced materials,
advanced medicine, advanced networking, and so on, could bring us all
abundance beyond belief (subject to issues of how living in abundance
changes our identity) if we cooperate in exploring them and sharing the
wealth from them. Or, if we pursue those frontiers in a spirit of
competition, using the tools of abundance to create artificial scarcity, the
same frontiers could bring us doom. The choice is ours as a society. There
are few things more ironic than nuclear missiles built to fight over oil fields.
--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
wulfdesign
just did a talk to our local H+ group about DIY Space (how and why we
need to be in orbit now)
-L
On Dec 30, 5:39 am, "Paul D. Fernhout" <pdfernh...@kurtz-fernhout.com>
wrote:
> Bryan Bishop wrote:
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: William Mook <mokmedi...@gmail.com>
> > Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 2:38 PM
> > Subject: [SpaceRenaissance-1245] Sustainable Industrial Future - using
> > off-world assets
> > To: Space Renaissance Initiative <space-renaissa...@googlegroups.com>
>
> > Societies that ignore their frontiers fight over limited resources at
> > the center, and collapse in conflict. Societies that embrace their
> > frontiers enter a period of improved cooperation as all join together
> > to make use of the abundant resources of the frontier. For too long
> > we have ignored our common frontier and have told ourselves that it is
> > too difficult, too costly, too complex to contribute meaningfully to
> > our present situation. This attitude of neglect is the attitude of a
> > culture in decline. I have prepared a series of presentations in an
> > effort to change this attitude and inspire in those who view them the
> > idea that we can develop resources off-world to meaningfully improve
> > our conditions on Earth today.
>
> > We have the ability, and for the past fifty years have had the
> > ability, to do whatever we want in the solar system. The resources of
> > the entire solar system is available to us today. The resources of
> > many entire worlds are available to us today. With these resources
> > there is really no need to live with shortages of any sort.
>
> > Here is how we can proceed
>
> >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I81ogcX3ONY&feature=PlayList&p=838BBE4...