Participation in control of rovers on
the surface of the Moon and even Mars has often been
suggested as a way to bring space exploration directly
to the public. This could involve students or paying
participants who would drive the rover.
Here we list some rover projects that
include ublic participation.
LunarCorp
Moon Rover This project failed to get funding and was shut
down a few years ago but it is still an interesting
concept that could eventually be revived. The collaboration
included the Robotics
Institute of Carnegie Mellan University, which helped
to develop a lunar lander and rover design. This first
mission was intended to look for water
ice at the Moon's north pole.
To pay for the mission, they hoped both to get NASA
to pay for delivery of lunar data and also to get commercial
sponsors and to carry time capsules with personal
messages and art. A sponsor will also have an opportunity
to drive the rover.
In the Spring of 2000 it was announced that Radio Shack
would become the first sponsor for LunarCorps rover
project. Although the company would not fund the entire
project, it would contribute substantially and give
the project greater credibility.
Follow on missions included the Apollo
Grand Tour. These will use long range rovers to
several of the Apollo and unmanned lunar probe landing
sites. The rovers
"... will be designed to beam back high-definition
television signals, and visitors to science
centers and theme parks will be able to drive
them directly from Earth. The rovers will be intelligent
and aware of their surroundings so they can protect
themselves from unsafe Earth commands."
LAPIS
Student Mission This project is organized by JPL and involves
high school teams to test prototypes of the Mars rovers
for missions in 2003 & 2005. Teams of students
remote contol the FIDO
rovers on missions that simulate the actual Mars situations.
Webcams send realtime video while other instruments
send various measurement data.
Red
Rover Goes to Mars
The Planetary Society
is developing this student project that will involve
teams controlling Mars rovers in missions in the next
few years.
A few grams of moon dust reportedly were
sold for $42,000 at an auction in the US in 1993.
Later a carat of moon rock returned by an unmanned Soviet
lunar mission in the 1970s sold for $442,000.(ref)
An auction of Space Memoribilia at Christies
on Sept. 18, 1999 included a nametag from Jim Irwin's
spacesuit that he wore on the Moon during Apollo 15.
The tag was impregnated with a small amount of moondust.
It was bought for $310,500. (See SpaceViews
Article: Memorabilia Auction Fetches Sky-High Prices
- Sep.21.99)
Clearly, there is a market for samples
of the Moon, Mars and other heavenly bodies. Questions
always arise: How big is the market? Could the payoff
from this alone be big enough to pay for the trip with
some profit leftover? How to authenticate the samples?
The answer to the last question is the
easiest. Composition and isotopic analysis can
clearly tell Moon and Mars rocks apart from earth rocks
and from each other as well. The famous Mars meteorites,
that may contain traces of early Mars bacteria, were
identified this way. Similarly, meteorites from the
Moon were also identified this way and later confirmed
by the Apollo samples.
When the European explorers of the late
Middle Ages and Renaissance set out on their long, dangerous
voyages to the Far East, they were not seeking iron
or machines or other industrial goods. They were going
after fine ceramics, silks and spices.
These were high value goods that were
sold as luxuries to the royalty and the growing middle
class.
Much of the current microgravity
research is aimed at developing industrial
type products such as ultra-pure semiconductor crystals
for electronics. This is important work and should continue
but perhaps there will be other, more exquisite products
from microgravity.
I previously lived in Sweden where fine
crystals and beautiful blown glass artworks provide
a big business. It has made me wonder what a skilled
glass blower could come up with if he or she worked
on the International Space Station for a month. Perhaps
amazingly beautiful objects could be created in a craftshop
where gravity did not pull things apart before they
cooled.
Also, without gravity to separate the
components by weight, strange alloys might emerge with
wonderful and bizarre properties - perfect for a talented
craftsman to transform into beautiful objets d'art to
sell to appreciative earthlings.
It will require artisans actually in space
with the time and materials to experiment over a prolonged
period to find out what marvels can be created there.
Nevertheless, one can still speculate. For example,
Highly reflective small metallic particles or
dust, perhaps of silver and gold, could be mixed
with a transparent material such as glass or plastic
while it was molten. On earth the metal particles
would percipitate to the bottom but in space they
would remain dispersed. This might result in a material
with unusual and beautiful optical qualities.
Similarly, if iron particles were used, the artisan
might be able to manipulate the distribution of
particles with a magnet.
If the materials for these artworks came
from the Moon, then the objects would be doubly unusual
and valuable...
He has experimented, for example, with paints created
from materials similar to those on the Moon: Lunar
Painting Experiment
Aerogel:
Space art glass?
Aerogels are among the most unusual materials ever created.
These ultra-low density transparent substance are often
referred to as "frozen smoke". They are transparent
and 1000 times less dense than glass and with
a much lower index of refraction.
Though the lightest known solid, an aerogel can still
be quite strong - "A block the size of a human
weighs less than a pound, but is able to support
the weight of a subcompact car or about half a ton."
An aerogel is created by drying a gel in a manner that
removes the liquid without collapsing the structure.
The result is a foam-like material but with extremely
small "pores".
Ideally it should be almost perfectly transparent,
but when made on the ground it has a bluish haze. Tests
in microgravity indicate that the material is much
more transparent than that made on the ground. Supposedly
this is because the pores are more uniformly produced
without the effect of gravity.
The prime industrial applications of aerogel involve
its insulation properties, which are superior to any
other material.
For the space artisan, aerogel, or more likely the
easier to handle xerogel,
might be an ideal material:
Extremely light - obviously important with
respect to launch costs. Only small amounts of raw
material would be required to provide plenty of samples
with which to experiment.
Highly Transparent - this would make it a
nice base material within which to add other objects
or dispersed materials, e.g. an object inside a block
of aerogel sitting on a stand would appear to be floating
in the air.
One could imagine the artisan manipulating the material
in many ways such as coloring some sections and casting
it into different shapes just as is done with glass.
It reports on the work of Univ. of Missouri scientist
Delbert
E. Day:
"If, as the initial results indicate and Day
is convinced, glass melted in zero gravity resists
crystallization, then setting up shop in space --
either as a full-force factory or even as an occasional
testing ground -- could forever transform glassmaking,
scientists said."
As I noted above, it is quite possible that artistic
glassmaking could take advantage of the different properties
of glass made in micro-g.
Since there is no sedimentation in mico-g, it may also
be possible to get interesting effects by mixing heavy
substances into the glass that would fall the bottom
if done on earth.
IsadoraModule.org - Richard
Seabra proposed this project to add an arts
module to the International Space Station. Visual
artists, dancers, filmmakers, artisans, and other
creative people would visit the station to experience
Space and communicate their impressions to the world
in their own unique way.
Space
Art- Paintings and illustrations
of Space themes have developed into a popular art
subculture. The creation of art actually in
Space, however, is still in development. Nevertheless,
a few sculpures and paintings have flown on Mir and
the shuttles.
A famous short story by Arthur C. Clarke, Wind
from the Sun, describes the drama of a solar
sail race. Serious development of the solar sail
concept began in the 1980s by JPL and others (see the
solar
sail links). Unfortunately, no craft has
yet to fly despite advantages such as the elimination
of fuel.
Development of such propulsion could help amateur spacecraft
to explore the solar system. As discussed in the section
on Satellite Building,
many amateur and student satellites have been built and
launched with the low cost piggyback technique. However,
no amateur craft has yet to escape from earth orbit (e.g.
see the discussion in the Activism
section about the history
of the Lunar Prospector.)
If solar sail propulsion can be developed
as a low cost alternative to chemical or ion propulsion,
it may send the first amateur space probes into deep
space.
Solar
Sail - Planetary Society & Cosmos Studios
The Planetary Society and the Cosmos Studios is funding
this project to launch a solar sail in late 2001. The
sail will be built by a Russian institute and launched
on a converted Russian submarine missile.
The sail will be a relatively small test vehicle meant
only to demonstrate the inflatable sail deployment and
to achieve some level of positive thrust from the Sun.
Space
Regatta
To commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus arriving
in the Americas, there was an effort in the late 1980's
to organize a competition among several privately funded
unmanned solar sail crafts in the US and with participation
of the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, sufficient funding was not obtained.
However, such efforts will certainly continue. The Russian
effort, in fact, continued as shown by this site
The recent Russian Space Mirror (which unfortunately
failed to deploy properly) project was carried out by
members of this Russian Regatta consortium. Similar
thin foil materials are needed for both the mirrors
and solar sails. An earlier
mirror in Feb, 1993 did in fact deploy.
Science fiction has long speculated on the various
fun activities people could experience in space. Zero-g
and low gravity offer many possibilities. For example,
the long held human dream to fly simply by flapping
a set of artificial wings could actually be accomplished
on the moon if your lunar station had a large enclosed
airspace. One can also easily imagine transforming various
ballgames from 2D to 3D.
Gerard O'Neill's
giant spinning
space colonies could provide the whole range of
recreational activities. The centrifugal force provides
simulated gravity along the inner rim so the usual earth
sports are possible (although with interesting Coriolis
effects on ball trajectories!) As one moves inwards
towards the axis, human powered flight becomes possible
until eventually the microgravity at the axis would
allow for all sorts of 3D games.
As space tourism
matures from the simple quick jaunt into orbit to longer
excursions, space hotels will be developed. The first
ones will probably not provide for such artificial gravity.
Thus even for short stays of a week or so it will be
important to exercise to avoid loss of muscle mass and
bone density. However, I would bet that this exercise
will be disguised as various strenuous games and sports
activities.
Space
Champions
This reality style program will involve athletes competing
in a US football inspired game within a weightlessness
environment provided initially by parabolic flights
and later in an orbital facility. The company IPX
Entertainment began casting for participants in
early 2006. The company ZERO
Gravity will provide the parabolic flights.
Microgravity
Experiences
Various companies are offering rides on airplanes that
follow parabolic trajectories that give periods of a few
minutes of microgravity on the downward slopes. These
are the types of aircraft that astronauts and cosmonauts
have long trained on.
Space
Sports at Space Future
As part of its large section devoted to Space
Tourism, the
Space Future site discusses possible sports that could
be played in space. These include zero-g ball games and
3-D water sports. A detailed description of a Zero-g
Gymnasium is given. See also the section on other
activities in zero-g.
Sports
in Space Science Challenge Richard
Garriott, the Challenger Center and former pro football
player Ken Harvey worked together on this educational
project in which they will compare the same sports actions
on the ground versus in-space during Garriott's trip
to the ISS.
Founders Peter Diamandis and Granger Whitelaw first
announced the formation of the Rocket
Racing League on October 3rd, 2005.
"Rocket races will operate much like auto races,
with the exception that the "track" is up in the sky.
Courses are expected to be approximately two miles
long, one mile wide, and about 5,000 feet high, running
perpendicularly to spectators. The rocket planes,
called X-Racers, will take off from a runway both
in a staggered fashion and side-by side and fly a
course based on the design of a Grand Prix competition,
with long straight-aways, vertical ascents, and deep
banks. Each pilot will follow his or her own virtual
"tunnel" or "track" of space through which to fly,
safely separated from their competitors by a few hundred
feet."
EZ-Rocket
piloted by Dick Rutan.
The modified EZ-Long kit plane is powered by two 400
lb
thrust XCOR Aerospace engines. The rocket racers will
use XCOR
engines but another type of airframe. XCOR
Photo.
Ed Wright of X-Rocket
(Experimental Rocket Racing Organization) presented
a proposal for rocket racing at the Space
Frontier Conference 9 in October 2000. He thought
it could follow the example set by the airplane racing
events in the pre-WW II era that had a big impact on
advancing aviation technology.
The events would consist of suborbital manned rocket
vehicles that would perhaps compete in vertical drag
races. However, the events would probably not consist
of two craft flying simultaneously against each other
but rather one at a time against the clock.
The development and successful series of tests flights
of XCOR's EZ-Rocket
made the possibility of rocket powered vehicle events
more plausible. The vehicle was a modified version of
the EZ-Long kit plane but instead of a propeller engine,
it's kicked along by two 400lb thrust engines. The vehicle
was intended as a testbed to develop safe, reusable,
and low cost rocket technology and has now more or less
completed its mission.
X- Rocket, the Experimental Rocket Racing Association,
released a press
release in July 28, 2001 declaring that the
EZ-Rocket would tour the airshow circuit in 2002. However,
such a tour didn't take place for financial and regulatory
hangups.
At
the Space
Access Society April 2003 Meeting, Ed
Wright presented plans for a Rocket Academy, where
participants would go through a two week training regime
and then ride an Archangel vehicle to 50km in altitude.
Aerospace
Racing paper - discusses the history of air
shows and air racing and draws parallels with
the possible development of rocket racing.
The EZ-Rocket
from XCOR began
flying in 2001. After completing a series of tests,
it was "retired" for a couple of years but
returned to the skies in 2005 for an exhibition at
the X PRIZE Cup Expo on October 9, 2005. The Rocket
Racing League (see above) will use a version of the
EX Rocket as its standard vehicle for all competitors.
Here are some
other speculations and resources on possible new space
related hobbies and activities.
Deep Space Amateur Spacecraft
So far, the AMSAT
Phase 3 satellites, which travel in highly elliptical
Molyna orbits, have achieved the highest altitudes for
amateur satellites. No amateur satellites have reached
geostationary orbit, much less escape velocity.
The sophistication of the AMSAT satellites, however,
indicate that a deep space vehicle is well within the
capabilities of an AMSAT group. A amateur probe to the
Moon is quite feasible and even to Mars.
A nanosat, e.g. a Cubesat,
with a modest kick engine should be able to hitch a
ride on an Ariane 5 and achieve sufficient velocities
to escape earth.
Communication over such distances would be a challenge
for amateurs but not an insurmountable one, especially
to the moon. For example, amateur
radio astronomers and SETI
enthusiasts know how to pick up weak signals. Perhaps
even the proposed fields
of cheap home satellite TV dishes proposed for SETI
could be borrowed for a Mars amsat.
Space
Robotics Hobbies
Hobby robotics is a growing hobby with amateurs and
students building increasingly sophisticated devices.
These include robots built from scratch but also commercial
robots intended for consumer use that allow for upgrades
and easy modifications.
The Robotics
section in the Tech Links section lists a
number of such projects and products.
As access to space and near
space becomes cheaper we will see hobbyists
and students using robotics and AI techniques to increase
the capabilities of high altitude payloads (e.g. see
this glider
project) and amateur satellites.
The Space
Robotics section includes some university
projects. As more such projects appear, a dedicated
space hobby robotics section will be warranted.
[This topic was suggested by HobbySpace
reader Kaido Kert.]
More resources
Extreme
Space - The Space Studies Institute sponsored
a grant competition "for radical new ideas that
blow away the panel of judges" at the Space
Frontier Conference 9 in Oct.2000.
