Category Archives: Space Settlement

Pluto and beyond, Space Science, Space Settlement

Space science: New Horizon Pluto mission team does Q&A + Mars lander to test system to produce oxygen on Mars

Alan Stern and other members of the New Horizon mission to Pluto answer questions about the mission in this edited version of  an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit: Alan Stern · AMA Highlights.

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A group of retired spacecraft engineers and scientists are helping to design and build an experimental system to go on the Mars 2020 lander that will extract oxygen from the CO2 in the atmosphere : Elder statesmen of science unite for Mars mission – The Boston Globe

At an age when most are retired or thinking hard about it, they’ve put their minds together to help solve one of the great puzzles of human interplanetary travel. And NASA has awarded them $30 million to press on.

To be clear, these elder statesmen of science don’t plan to pay a visit themselves. They are building an oxygen-generating machine to ride aboard the unmanned Mars 2020 rover, an early version of a technology that could enable the next generation to breathe and burn fuel on Mars — and power their way home.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the abbreviated acronym for their instrument — the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resources Utilization Experiment — is MOXIE.

Mars-2020-NASA-MOXIE-Carbon-Oxygen-br2[1]

MOXIE would be the first real attempt by NASA to test a system necessary for “in situ” resource utilization, which is key to settlement of Mars and other sites in the solar system. Local resources must be used for long term residence in space rather than relying on supplies from earth.

Exoplanets, Space Settlement, The Moon

Video: New Universe Daily report on earth-like exoplanets and lunar mining

A report from New Universe Daily on earth-like exoplanets and on prospects for mining the Moon:

The report references the article One step from Earth – physicsworld.com (req. free registration).

Space Arts, Space Settlement

NSS 2015 Space Settlement Art Contest

The National Space Society is once again hosting the Roadmap to Space Settlement Art Contest.

The National Space Society (NSS) is looking for student artists to create ORIGINAL illustrations for the NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement. Submitted artwork should REALISTICALLY illustrate this year’s themes: People Living and Working in Space Settlements.

marte-650[1]Mars from a young perspective
by Javier Arizabalo [Milestone 17]

Students between the ages of 13 and 25 can submit their entries at Space Settlement Contest.

Space Settlement, Space Systems, The Moon

ESA Video: 3D printing a lunar building

Here’s a video from ESA and the architectural firm Foster & Partners showing how a lunar structure could be built with a robotic rover  using a 3D printing

See also this earlier item: ESA: Building a lunar base with 3D printing.

Mercury and Venus, Space Science, Space Settlement

Exploring Venus with an air ship

Over the years there have been those who have argued that Venus, not Mars, is the best place for humans to explore and even settle. They are not proposing that people go down into the poisonous atmosphere and onto the hellishly hot surface but instead to use habitats that float upon the dense atmosphere. The proverbial cloud cities of innumerable science fiction books and movies could eventually become feasible. Last summer I posted some links to such proposals: Colonies on the clouds of Venus.

A NASA group has released a study outlining an exploration program of Venus that is based on airships: NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Exploration: Should crewed exploration of Venus come before we try to go to Mars? – IEEE Spectrum.

This video shows the architecture of such an exploration program:

NASA Langley researchers want to get a better idea about conditions on our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, so they have come up with HAVOC or a High Altitude Venus Operational Concept – a lighter-than-air rocket ship that would help send two astronauts on a 30-day mission to explore the planet’s atmosphere. Exploration of Venus is a challenge not only because its smog-like sulfuric acid-laced atmosphere, but also its extremely hot surface temperature and extremely high air pressure on the surface.