Category Archives: Space Settlement

Living in Space, Mars, Space Settlement

Mars: Building a Martian house + A play about a Martian beekeeper + Curiosity’s scenic overlook of Gale Crater

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An overview of technologies and designs for Building on Mars: The Construction Industry Space Race:

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This March in Dublin, Niamh Shaw, “one of Ireland’s leading science communicators”, will present her theater work about a Mars base: Diary of a Martian Beekeeper – Niamh Shaw – Mar 2018

It’s now 2036.

Niamh is on Mars and a member of Crew 173, on a long duration mission to investigate new ways of growing food in this arid foreign land. As their 2 year mission comes to an end, one crucial experiment remains for Niamh. But will she overcome her personal struggles or put the whole crew and the mission in danger?

A highly visual exploration of future interplanetary human exploration, Shaw and her creative team create a new world order, reminding us of the power of the collective, the fragility of the solitary human and the united will behind all major breakthroughs. Because we may one day leave the cradle of Earth, but we will always be human.

The show about Niamh’s dream to go to Space has been inspired by Elon Musk’s grand design for a future interplanetary civilisation, testimonies of ESA employees, and Niamh’s personal space journey.

Created by Niamh Shaw & Sarah Baxter in collaboration with CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, ESERO Ireland, European Space Agency & ESA Astronaut Centre. Funded by Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme 2017.

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Check out this marvelous panorama taken by the Curiosity rover as it takes a break from the trek up Mount Sharp and looks back from “Vera Rubin Ridge” at the route it has taken since landing in Gale Crater in August of 2012:

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Activism, Space Settlement, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO Orbit 10.39 – Colonizing our solar system in one lifetime

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The latest TMRO.tv live webcast episode is now available in the archive: Colonizing our solar system in one lifetime – Orbit 10.39 – TMRO

We are joined by John Amabile author of, “Changing the Worlds” to talk about his plan to colonize the solar system in one lifetime. More than just colonization, also terraforming plants like Venus and Mars.

Launches and space news topics covered:

Atlas V Launches NROL-52
Huge Lunar Lavatube Found
Blue Origin Test Fires Largest Methane Rocket Engine
A New Round of Results From Cassini

TMRO is viewer supported:

TMRO:Space is a crowd funded show. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for information plus our all new goals and reward levels.

A couple of recent TMRO short video reports:

** SpacePod: 2 EVA’s in 5 days

US Astronauts at the International Space Station recently conducted 2 spacewalks within 5 days to perform repairs on the stations robotic arm and do several other maintenance tasks.

** SpacePod: We Found Some of the Missing Universe

Computer modeling we do of our Universe suggested that half of the visible matter in the Universe was “missing”, we couldn’t account for the discrepancy between what’s observed in our Universe and what’s modeled in computers using the laws of physics our Universe is governed by. Does that mean that our physics is incorrect, or were we just looking in all the wrong places? Turns out, we were looking in the wrong places.

 

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Mars, Rockets, Space Settlement

Video: SpaceX plans to build a huge new rocket vehicle for low cost space travel

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Elon Musk gave a talk today at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2017) in Adelaide, Australia in which he described the design of a new SpaceX rocket system, informally called the BFR (e.g. “Big Freaking Rocket”). The company will soon start building the BFR with the goal of uncrewed flights to Mars by 2022 and crewed flights in 2024. The system can also be used to launch satellites, take crews and cargo to the International Space Station, and carry out missions to the lunar surface. He even talked about using it for 30 minute passenger flights between any two points on earth.

Here is Elon’s talk, which he titled, “Making Life Multiplanetary“:

An artist’s view of a BFR spaceship module on the Moon:

Here is a video showing how the vehicle could be used for point-to-point commercial transport on earth.

“Fly to most places on Earth in under 30 mins and anywhere in under 60. Cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft. Forgot to mention that.” – Elon Musk

A brief clip showing a Mars base enabled by the BFR growing into a city:

SpaceX has credibility for such aspirations because the company has proven it can do things that were not considered feasible by many in the space industry even just a few years ago. Here, for example, is a compilation of clips showing the 16 successful landings so far of the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage boosters:

Update: Astronomer Scott Manley of the Kerbal Space Program rocket simulator gives his view of the BFR:

And here is the Everyday Astronaut‘s take on the plan:

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Activism, Mars, Space Settlement

Videos: Mars Society conference presentations

Videos of a dozen or so presentations at last week’s Mars Society conference are now available in the The Mars Society YouTube channel. (There are also videos with the complete daily live streams from the conference as in the earlier post.) Here is a sampling of the talks:

** Dr. Robert Zubrin – Opening Remarks:

** George Whitesides – CEO, Virgin Galactic:

** Loretta Hildalgo-Whitesides – Astrobiologist, space advocate, co-creator of Yuri’s Night, the World Space Party:

** Greg Benford – Legendary Sci-Fi Author:

** Vera Mulyani – CEO, Mars City Design:

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Activism, Mars, Space Settlement

Video: Live webcast of Mars Society Conference

The 20th Annual International Mars Society Conference is underway at the University of California, Irvine. Here is a live webcast:

https://youtu.be/eZdicY6ANY0

Conference info: