{"id":10854,"date":"2015-07-02T00:57:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T04:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10854"},"modified":"2015-07-03T12:05:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T16:05:11","slug":"starting-in-space-settlement-small-and-building-from-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10854","title":{"rendered":"Starting in-space settlement small and building from there"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giant in-space colonies like those depicted\u00a0in these renderings<\/a>\u00a0by artist Don Davis<\/a> –<\/p>\n

\"Bernal<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AC75-1886f_md\"<\/p>\n

– look fantastic and would clearly be places where many\u00a0people would live if they\u00a0existed today. The problem, of course, is that they do not exist and it’s difficult to convince people that it’s possible to ever build such gigantic habitats. But there are in fact ways to get\u00a0from here to there.<\/p>\n

When I fly into a big city and look out the window as the plane descends, I’m always amazed at just how enormous such places are. How could mere mortals create such a\u00a0vast landscape of houses, buildings, skyscrapers, roads, bridges, harbors, and more? The answer, of course, is a\u00a0city starts as a small\u00a0settlement and over many decades the incremental efforts of thousands upon\u00a0tens of thousands of people and their\u00a0machines working in parallel day after day, year after year, create such massive metropolises.<\/p>\n

Such a process can create cities in space as well. New Rome in orbit doesn’t have to be built in a day. We just need to\u00a0get small “starter” settlements off the ground, so to speak.<\/p>\n

That’s easy to say but what about the high cost of getting to space?<\/p>\n

Fully reusable space transports like that being developed by SpaceX<\/a>, Blue Origin<\/a>, and other companies can bring down the \u00a0cost of getting to space by factors of\u00a010-100. The cost of propellants is a less than a half percent of the cost of an orbital rocket launch. The rest of, say, the $60M cost of Falcon 9 goes for the\u00a0vehicle, which currently is thrown away on each flight.<\/p>\n

What about\u00a0the detrimental effects of microgravity and radiation on human health?<\/p>\n

Rotation of a habitat can provide artificial gravity and bulk materials such as\u00a0water and structural metals can shield people in a habitat just as\u00a0the atmosphere shields people on earth.<\/p>\n

The toughest\u00a0question is how to get started. When giant\u00a0\u00a0habitats like those above were being designed in the 1970s, it was assumed that most of the material would be sent\u00a0from the Moon. All of this would be paid for by huge investments from governments who would appreciate the construction of in-space solar power stations feeding energy via microwave to the earth.<\/p>\n

Excavation activities on the Moon, space base solar power, and big government funding do not look likely to happen anytime soon, to say the least. Is there any other way to get\u00a0space settlement underway?<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u00a0can still happen if the process can\u00a0start small and pay its own way.\u00a0Al Globus<\/a>, who works as\u00a0a contractor\u00a0at NASA Ames<\/a> Research Center in Mountain View, California,\u00a0describes in a set of three documents listed below\u00a0a plan for \u00a0small affordable space habitats in low earth equatorial orbit that will provide 1\u00a0g gravity and enjoy sufficient radiation protection for residents to live a healthy life. Space tourism will be a\u00a0primary\u00a0industry similar to the way many island economies on earth rely on tourism.<\/p>\n

* Space Settlement the Easy Way<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, Al Globus and Stephen Covey, presentation at ISDC 2015, May 2015<\/em>.
\n“This presentation shows how the results of the next two papers — “Space Settlement Population Rotation Tolerance” and “Orbital Space Settlement Radiation Shielding” — when combined suggest that small space settlements in equatorial LEO with little or no radiation shielding may be viable. Hopefully, this will be turned into a paper in the not-too-distant-future.”<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Space Settlement Population Rotation Tolerance<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Al Globus and Theodore Hall, preprint, June 2015.<\/em>
\n“This paper reviews the literature to find that space settlement residents and visitors can tolerate at least four, and proabaly six, rotations per minute to achieve 1g of artificial gravity. This means settlements can be radically smaller, and thus easier to build, than previously believed. Combined with the next paper on radiation shielding, the first space settlements can be two orders of magnitude less massive and closer to Earth than previous designs making launch from Earth practical.”<\/p>\n

* Orbital Space Settlement Radiation Shielding<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, Al Globus and Joe Strout, preprint, May 2015.<\/em>
\n“The major result of this paper is that settlements in low (~500 km) Earth ***equatorial*** orbits may not require any radiation shielding at all based on a careful analysis of requirements and extensive simulation of radiation effects. This radically reduces system mass and has profound implications for space settlement as extraterrestrial mining and manufacturing are no longer on the critical path to the first settlements, although they will be essential in later stages. It also means the first settlements can evolve from space stations, hotels, and retirement communities in relatively small steps.”<\/p>\n

Globus answered questions about space settlements in a recent on line forum:\u00a0A NASA Expert Is Here To Answer Your Questions About Orbital Settlements – Gizmodo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giant in-space colonies like those depicted\u00a0in these renderings\u00a0by artist Don Davis – – look fantastic and would clearly be places where many\u00a0people would live if they\u00a0existed today. The problem, of course, is that they do not exist and it’s difficult to convince people that it’s possible to ever build such gigantic habitats. But there are … Continue reading Starting in-space settlement small and building from there<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-in-space","category-space-settlement","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2P4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6985,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=6985","url_meta":{"origin":10854,"position":0},"title":"The space settlement enabling test","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Space Frontier Foundation announces a tool to judge whether a space policy will encourage or delay space settlement: The Settlement Enabling Test\u00a0\u00a0 The Space Frontier Foundation Releases a New Metric for Crafting Space Policy Silicon Valley, CA\u00a0- The Space Frontier Foundation is pleased to announce the creation of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Activism"","block_context":{"text":"Activism","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1395,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=1395","url_meta":{"origin":10854,"position":1},"title":"NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement Art Contest","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Space Society is sponsoring a student art contest: NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement Student Art Contest \u00ab National Space Society Blog NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement Art Contest NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement Student Art Contest O\u2019Neill Cylinder space settlement by Rick Guidice [NASA] The National Space Society\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Contests and Games"","block_context":{"text":"Contests and Games","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=16"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2462,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2462","url_meta":{"origin":10854,"position":2},"title":"Space settlement: An interview with Al Globus + Settlements need kids","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Al Globus, who has the website Orbital Space Settlement, discusses the \"three paths to space settlement\" during an interview at the Space Access 2013 conference in Phoenix, Arizona last April:\u00a0 Al Globus - Space Settlement - Moonandback. === If having and raising healthy children in the low Mars gravity is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Space Settlement"","block_context":{"text":"Space Settlement","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9651,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9651","url_meta":{"origin":10854,"position":3},"title":"NSS 2015 Space Settlement Art Contest","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Space Society is once again hosting the\u00a0Roadmap to Space Settlement Art Contest. 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Submitted artwork should\u00a0REALISTICALLY\u00a0illustrate one of this year's two themes:\u00a0Asteroid Settlement\u00a0or\u00a0Building a Space Settlement. [...] All full-time students at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Activism"","block_context":{"text":"Activism","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bryan Versteeg, spacehabs.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nss.org\/settlement\/calendar\/versteeg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8281,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8281","url_meta":{"origin":10854,"position":5},"title":"Paths to space settlement + Mars One update","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A review of current thinking about how to achieve space settlement:\u00a0Living in Space 6: Beyond O\u2019Neill - Space Safety Magazine\u00a0- Going by the above, it may seem like the topic of Space Settlement is effectively dead. 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