Luna 2076 – Page 10 – The Geopolitics of Lunar Colonization

Parker Probe Plumbs Secrets of Solar Wind

December 7, 2019

The Parker Solar Probe has yielded considerable insight into the formation and structure of solar winds, providing scientists that hopefully will help them better predict when mammoth ejections of solar material will occur. Coronal mass ejections can disable communications and defense satellites and can harm astronauts outside of Earth’s protective electromagnetic field.

Launched in August 2018, the probe has passed closer to the sun than at any previous spacecraft in history. The vessel is equipped with a suite of high-tech instruments engineered to withstand the sun’s blistering heat — it will pass within 15 million miles of the sun, compared to the 36 million miles of Mercury’s orbit. Instruments include five antennas, an image maker, and devices that measure the energies of different particles.

The mission’s goal is to “understand the sources and structure of the solar wind up close right as it leaves the sun,” said physicist Stuart Bale of the University of California-Berkeley, in the press conference reported by Popular Mechanics. “What Parker has done has got us closer than ever to the Sun and now we can really see a lot of structure and we can see in this case we can clearly see a source of the wind.”

Among the key findings so far: more “Parker Probe Plumbs Secrets of Solar Wind”

Moon As Proving Ground for Deep-Space Exploration

December 5, 2019

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Assembly. Photo credit: NASA

Dr. Michael Hawes, vice president and Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, sees the settlement of the Moon as a proving ground for the ultimate goal of reaching Mars and conducting other deep-space explorations.

The first destination is the Moon, he said at a luncheon hosted by the Webster Business alliance Wednesday, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. “NASA talks about the space around the moon as being the proving ground.” But the ultimate goal is Mars. Said Hawes:

“That’s the horizon goal of deep space exploration. We want to get to Mars but we have to learn how to do a lot of things along the way, Just as we built capability from Mercury through Gemini to Apollo to demonstrate the a lunar landing, we have to do a lot of demonstration of a much broader sense than we did back then to get to Mars. We’re going to do that building from the moon out.”

“We may build a small station on the far side of the moon. We could do science from there. We can actually see the sun and the earth so we could still get power and communications. We’ll go out and look at asteroids. NASA has an asteroid re-direct mission that they’re looking to define that would take a robotics spacecraft to go get a large boulder off an asteroid and bring it back into orbit around the moon. Then, Orion would take the crew out to do the research on the asteroid on that mission.”

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is NASA’s first spacecraft designed for deep space exploration.

Coming up: Artificial Shooting Stars

December 4, 2019

Lena Okajima, founder of Japanese startup ALE, dreams about creating manmade shooting stars as a form of mass entertainment and scientific research, reports Japan Brandvoice in Forbes.

Okajima, who earned a PhD in astronomy at the University of Tokyo and worked at Goldman Sachs for a year, began researching the idea in 2009 after witnessing the Leonids meteor shower. Today ALE has about 30 staff and has raised some $26 million from Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures and other investors.

ALE has developed microsatellites that will release 1-centimeter particles that will ignite as they move through the atmosphere. Up to 20 particles will burn in different colors, and the display will be visible on the ground within an area measuring 200 kilometers across — much large than the typical 10 kilometers for fireworks. The shooting stars can be deployed anywhere in the world.

“Our shooting stars can last longer than natural ones because they may be slower,” says Okajima. “It will be entertainment on an unprecedented scale.”

ALE is preparing for its first near-space testing with a rocket launch from New Zealand. In the meantime, ALE is developing another business — gathering information about the mesosphere (which lies between the thermosphere and the stratosphere) — and working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a satellite tether system to mitigate the growing problem of space debris.

Among the clients ALE hopes to work with: theme parks, cruise lines, and large-scale event organizers.

Made in Space to Test 3D Printing in Earth Orbit

December 4, 2019

Made in Space, developer of technologies for manufacturing in space, will test its Archinaut One spacecraft with the help of $73.7 million in NASA funding. The craft will 3D print two 32-foot-long beams in Earth orbit, one on either side of the spacecraft, which will then unfurl solar arrays that can generate five times more power than traditional panels used by similar-sized spacecraft.

As NASA anticipates putting humans on the Moon by 2024, the agency hopes to develop a manufacturing capability on the lunar surface, according to Space.com. “This is how we see in-space manufacturing moving forward,” said Raymond Clinton, NASA associate director of science and technology. “And as the agency has said, we are going to the surface of the moon to demonstrate the technologies we will need when we go to Mars. That is the next step.”

Missions will help astronauts “live off of the land” on the Moon by exploiting lunar resources, including the extraction of water from the regolith. more “Made in Space to Test 3D Printing in Earth Orbit”

NASA Proposes Drones to Explore Lava Tubes

November 28, 2019

Lave tube where the entrance caved in. Source: Daily Mail

NASA engineers have proposed sending autonomous drones to the Moon to explore the potential of using lava tubes and caves for human habitation. It is theorized that ancient lava flows from volcanoes left miles of lava tubes up to 30 feet across, reports the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, researchers at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisc., are developing camera technology to explore the tubes from an orbiting satellite.

States project leader Andreas Velten:

Geologists are interested because they would provide access to subsurface geology without actually having to dig, which would be very difficult. What’s interesting for space travel is you can’t have people on the surface for long periods because of the temperature extremes, and because of radiation. But in these caves, people could survive for a long time with consistent temperatures and no radiation. Some of these may actually be quite deep, under 50-60 metres of rock.

Earlier these year, says the Daily Mail, NASA announced its Periscope Project, with the goal of mapping the tubes by peering into the 200 or so “skylights” that have been discovered so far.

Researchers Test Drones Controlled by Hand Signals

November 5, 2019

Collins Aerospace and Ntention, a Norwegian startup. are developing “smart gloves” that hopefully will allow astronauts to direct the movements of drones on the Moon and Mars.The collaborators recently conducted their first field test of the gloves at the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station in Canada’s high Arctic, reports Forbes.

The smart glove, embedded with a microcontroller and sensors, allows the the drone to respond to small motions of the fingers, hands, and head.

The vision behind the research project is to equip human explorers on the Moon with machines that can explore, scout, inspect, sample and fetch, reaching lunar caves, flying over mountains, or traversing terrain too tricky for humans to navigate.The robots might be equipped with appendages to do delicate work or bulk up to take on heavy lifting. more “Researchers Test Drones Controlled by Hand Signals”

Spacebit Touts Legged Rovers for Moon Exploration

November 4, 2019

Spacebit has announced plans to launch the United Kingdom’s first privately build Moon rover in 2021.

The company has designed robots with legs capable of delving into cracks and crevices inaccessible to flying rovers. The mission design, reports Space.com, calls for a rover to bring as many as eight robots to a drop-off point. Guided by artificial intelligence, the robots leave the “mother ship” in a swarm and explore the environs, including lunar caves.

“We don’t have wheels. We have four legs instead of the wheels, which is a very neat design,” said Spacebit CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk at the International Aeronautical Congress in October.

Costing an estimated $3 million each, the rovers are expected to take six to 12 months to build. “We could have multiple rovers exploring the moon and [its] lava tubes, and even going beyond in the future,” Tanasyuk said.

By using standardized equipment and off-the-shelf components, space exploration will become more affordable, which will stimulate more lunar exploration. “After 50 years’ absence of humans on the moon,” Tanasyuk said, “I believe that robotic missions will play a very major role in our comeback.”

Offworld’s Vision for Smart Robots in Space Settlement

November 3, 2019

California-based Offworld, a company developing smart robots to aid in the human settlement of space, has begun deploying its robots in mines, construction sites, tunnels and other infrastructure projects on Earth to provide insight into how the hardware operates in different environments, CEO Jim Keravala has told Space.com.

It is too early to say when Offworld’s robots will be ready to leave the planet, Keravala said, but he would be pleased if the company’s robots could assist NASA’s astronauts when they land on the surface of the Moon, a mission scheduled for 2024. “At some point in time — I hope it’s before we have our first woman and man on the surface — we will be deploying our lunar variants to the lunar surface.”

Offworld’s “Master Plan” describes the use of smart robots, capable of machine learning, to do the heavy work of readying settlements for humans.

The first thing on Offworld’s agenda is to extract water ice for applications from producing drinking water for humans to making rocket fuel.“They operate in swarms, collaborating together, making decisions on their own,” Keravala said. “They can sense where the minerals and ore exist …. and act accordingly.” more “Offworld’s Vision for Smart Robots in Space Settlement”

Moon Village Plans Moon Olympics Event

November 2, 2019

The Moon Village Association (MVA), dedicated to the peaceful exploration and settlement of the Moon, is proposing a symbolic event on the Moon to coincide with the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, either in 2024 in Paris or 2026 in Milan/Cortina.

“Showcasing Olympic Games on the Moon will be for the public a concrete example of the implementation of the Moon Village, and a demonstrative pilot case of Earth-based activities that can be carried over onto the Moon in an innovative new manner,” said Giuseppe Reibaldi, MVA president in a press release.

“These symbolic Olympic Games on the Moon will signal a new auspicious landmark for humanity and stimulate public inspiration; whilst at the same time attracting the interest and bringing in the involvement of industries that have never been involved before on Moon and Space related activities.”

Details are expected to be announced at the 3rd Moon Village Workshop and Symposium in Japan this December.

China Envisions $10 Trillion Earth-Moon Economic Zone

November 1, 2019

A model of China’s robotic lunar probe Chang’e-4.

While Americans fixate on the Moon as a launchpad for scientific research and exploration, the Chinese have begun thinking of the orb as an integral part of an Earth-Moon economic zone. Bao Weimin, director of the Science and Technology Commission of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, shared his thoughts on the Moon’s economic potential at a seminar on space economy Wednesday.

Bao pledged to complete basic research and make a breakthrough on key technologies before 2030, and establish a transportation system by 2040, according to Global Times. The publication quote “insiders” as saying the zone could generate $10 billion a year in economic activity.

Writes Global Times:

“In May 2018, China launched a relay satellite to set up a communications link between the Earth and the then planned Chang’e-4 lunar probe, which accomplished the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon in January. Chinese scientists and engineers hope the Queqiao satellite will form a communications bridge between controllers on Earth and the far side of the moon.

“Aerospace fans predicted that the plan will accelerate many important projects, including the Long March-5 carrier rocket, China’s largest launch vehicle, which is expected to be used to send the Chang’e-5 probe in 2020 to bring moon samples back to Earth, and China’s heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-9, which is expected to make its first flight around 2030 and will support manned lunar exploration, deep space exploration and construction of a space-based solar power plant.”

The article made no mention of what industries would be capable of generating $10 trillion of economic activity.