Luna 2076 – Page 5 – The Geopolitics of Lunar Colonization

DARPA Funds Nuclear Thrust Technology

September 20, 2020

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $14 million task order to Gryphon Technologies to support development of a rocket that can use nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) in Earth orbit, reports Space.com.

The rocket would use fission reactors to heat propellants to extreme temperatures and eject the gas through nozzles to create thrust. The technology would have a thrust-to-weight ratio about 10,000 times higher than that of electric propulsion systems and a specific impulse, or propellant efficiency, two to five times that of traditional chemical rockets, DARPA documents say.

NASA has lauded the potential of NTP technology as well, suggesting that nuclear-powered spacecraft could reach Mars in three to four months, half the time needed by chemical rockets.

Gryphon Technologies, based in Washington, D.C., bills itself as providing engineering and technical solutions to national security organizations.

Moon as Platform for Exploring the Universe’s “Dark Age”

September 20, 2020

Artist’s depiction of robots spooling out antennas on the far side of the Moon. Image credit: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Scientists at the Colorado University-Boulder have laid out a roadmap for a decade’s worth of scientific research on the Moon. As detailed by a CU publication, four university teams will participate in upcoming or proposed space missions using the Moon as a unique scientific laboratory for peering back to the dawn of the cosmos. The projects include:

An instrument called Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES), which is slated to land on the Moon in just over a year.
Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment (LuSee), which will collect similar data as ROLSES but on the far side of the Moon, where it will be shielded from interference produced by radio waves from Earth.
A proposed satellite known as the Dark Ages Polarimetry Pathfinder (DAPPER), which could be in orbit around the Moon by mid-decade. The suitcase-sized satellite will carry four wire antennas and a box-shaped “patch” antenna, to pick up incredibly subtle traces of the early universe’s hydrogen clouds.
Farside Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark Ages and Exoplanets, potentially by the end of the decade. FARSIDE will lay out more than 29 miles of wires on the moon’s surface in a spiral pattern to create a gigantic array for detecting cosmic signals.

more “Moon as Platform for Exploring the Universe’s “Dark Age””

Dynetics Unveils Full-Scale Mock-up of Artemis Lander

September 15, 2020

Dynetics, a Huntsville, Ala.-based developer of space systems and technologies, has developed a full-scale mock-up of the lander it hopes will carry astronauts to the Moon. The prototype includes a crew module, deployable solar arrays and propellant tanks for lunar descent and ascent.

“Our team is pleased to bring this system to life,” Kim Doering, Dynetics vice president of space systems, said in a statement. “Our reusable, sustainable approach is ready to support a safe and successful hardware delivery for NASA’s mission.”

Dynetics is one of three prime contractors selected to design an integrated lander system for NASA’s Artemis Human Landing System Program, which has set the goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2024.

The prototype will enable the development team to test crew activities within the module. Explains the company; “The flexible design is readily reconfigurable, allowing the human systems integration team and flight crew to review and provide feedback on early concept designs and executive quick-turn iterations.”

Moon Bricks from Bacteria, Beans and Regolith

August 15, 2020

Image credit: Indian Institute of Science

Indian scientists have developed what they claim is a sustainable process for making brick-like structures on the Moon. The Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation process would use bacteria to create a solid structure from lunar soil. The bricks, they suggest, could be used to assemble habitation structures on the lunar surface.

To create the brick, scientists with the Indian Institute of Science and Indian Space Research Organization mixed the Sporosarcina pasteurii bacteria, which produces calcium carbonate crystals, with a simulant of lunar soil. Next, reports Tech Explorist, they added urea and calcium along with gum extracted from guar beans. After a few days of incubation the resulting material was found to possess significant strength and machinability.

The material can be fabricated into any freeform shape using a lathe. “This is advantageous because this completely circumvents the need for specialized molds – a common problem when trying to make various shapes by casting,” says Koushik Viswanathan, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “This capability could also be exploited to make intricate interlocking structures for construction on the moon without additional fastening mechanisms.”

The next step in the development process is to make larger bricks with a more automated production process, and to test them under varied loading conditions like impacts and moonquakes.

Swineburne Team Grapples with Challenges of Working with Moon Materials

August 12, 2020

Geoff Brooks, head of the Swinburne University lunar habitation research team.

Geoff Brooks, a chemical engineer with Australia’s Swinburne University, has been giving considerable thought to the challenges of building structures under the extreme conditions of the Moon. Temperatures swing from -180° C to 120° as the Moon alternates between intense light and deep darkness. The surface is bombarded by solar and cosmic rays. Glass-like dust particles get everywhere. Even the chemical behavior of materials changes.

“If you think about the way bricks are made, a bit like pottery, imagine trying to make pottery on the moon, where the perfect vacuum changes the way materials heat up and the shape that they take,” Brooks tells Create, an Australian engineering publication. “These are the kinds of experiments we’re now building, to test not only how the materials will react on the moon but how we can work with those conditions to create a structure.”

Humans will need structures to shelter them from cosmic rays and moon dust. “We will need buildings with thick walls to protect space travelers,” he says. “However, on the moon we have only the rocks on the ground and the sun to work with. Everything else is difficult and expensive to get there.”

Other research priorities include finding ways to manage abrasive dust, and recycling space junk.

Brooks heads a team of approximately 15 academics and PhD students encompassing disciplines such as mechanical engineering, mechatronics, product design, and physics.

Italian Study Catalogs Lava Tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars

August 11, 2020

Potential lava tube entrance in Mare Tranquillitatus. Boulders can be seen on the floor of the 100-meter pit. Credit: NASA

Lava tubes are formed by lava flowing through a volcanic vent beneath a hardened surface. If the lava empties, it leaves behind a cave, typically in a long worm-like shape. These tubes have been spotted on Earth, on Mars and on the Moon. On Earth these structures range in diameter between 10 to 100 meters in diameter. Because there appears to be a strong correlation between gravity and tube-depth, Martian tubes are estimated to be 100 times wider, and lunar tubes 1,000 times wider.

In a new study, “Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: A review of their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology,” a team of researchers from Italian universities has assembled a database of tubes and potential tubes. Typically, they leave long, sinuous channels that can be spotted on the surface. Sometimes, they leave cave openings.

“We measured the size and gathered the morphology of lunar and Martian collapse chains (collapsed lava tubes), using digital terrain models, which we obtained through satellite stereoscopic images and laser altimetry taken by interplanetary probes,” said Riccardo Pozzobon, as reported by Universe Today. “We then compared these data to topographic studies about similar collapse chains on the Earth’s surface and to laser scans of the inside of lava tubes in Lanzarote and the Galapagos. These data allowed us to establish a … relationship between collapse chains and subsurface cavities that are still intact.”

Many scientists have suggested that lava tubes on the Moon may make favorable spots for human habitation because they would be protected from cosmic and solar radiation and they would experience less temperature variability between long lunar days and nights. A major concern, however, is how stable the structures are. Many orbital photographs show collapsed tubes. The Italians believe they are most likely stable, thanks to low gravity on the Moon. Collapses are likely due to meteor impacts.

NASA is working on plans for robotic exploration of the tubes. The proposed “Moon Diver” mission would use a rover tethered to a lander to explore the tubes. Thelander would land near a skylight, then a tethered rover would climb its way down to the tube floor.

Cislunar Space as Engine of Economic and Military Power

August 1, 2020

Officials within the U.S. military increasingly regard Earth-Moon space as the “high ground” in military power.

A July 2020 report based on a virtual workshop involving more than 150 thought leaders from industry, government and academia, “State of the Space Industrial Base 2020,” identifies a need to control critical “choke points” in cislunar space.

By 2060 space will be a “significant engine of national political, economic, and military power” and the United States must commit to having “a military force structure that can defend this international space order and defend US space interests, to include US space settlements and commerce.”

Lunar-derived resources — especially hydrogen and oxygen — are key to access asteroid resources and Mars. “Today’s race to the moon has little to do with flags and footprints. Strategically, it is a race to the great wealth of lunar resources which will fuel the greater space economy and enable future exploration and settlement in the solar system.”

At present the U.S is the civil, commercial and national-security leader in space. The U.S. is the first nation to demonstrate commercial orbital delivery, commercial heavy lift, commercial first-stage reusability, deployment of space-based mega-constellations for overhead sensing and internet broadband. The U.S. military maintains the most capable military constellation including the unique X-37B spaceplane.

While the U.S. has first-mover advantages, the nation faces significant challenges. more “Cislunar Space as Engine of Economic and Military Power”

Mining for Water on the Moon

August 1, 2020

View of Shackleton Crater, measuring 2.5 miles deep, using color to depict elevation measurements. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found possible evidence of ice deposits. Credit: NASA

Scientists are increasingly confident that there is a significant amount of water on the Moon, but there is still uncertainty as to how much. Moon-orbiting satellites that rely upon ultraviolet, visible of near-infrared light to identify ice deposits can sense only a slice of the lunar surface measurable in a few millimeters.

“You really don’t know if it’s just a very thin frost or if it extends deeper,” says Kevin Cannon, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Central Florida, who has written a paper for non-academics, “Ice Prospecting: Your Guide to Getting Rich on the Moon.” Orbiting instruments that potentially could detect ice deposits beneath the surface — such as radar and neutron spectroscopy — have much much lower spatial resolutions.”

To get better data, NASA has begun planning a mission to send a rover to the Moon with mining instruments, hopefully by late 2023. The golf cart-sized rover will survey and map ice deposits in the lunar south pole. One of the instruments is a one-meter drill called TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain), reports Air & Space. Building a drill capable of penetrating the Moon’s surface in subzero temperatures is fraught with challenges. Lunar regolith, highly impacted over billions of years of bombardments, is dense. Add ice, and the soil could be harder than concrete. more “Mining for Water on the Moon”

Moon Dust Allergies

July 18, 2020

The last man to walk on the Moon, astronaut Harrison Schmitt, suffered from an allergic reaction to Moon dust. Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Zurich Switzerland, he described his experience as part of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The dust stuck to Schmitt’s suits, boots and tools, and was transported back to the lunar module, reports Newsweek. When he took his helmet off, he became congested. Describing his experience of inhaling the dust, he said, “First time I smelled the dust I had an allergic reaction, the inside of my nose became swollen, you could hear it in my voice. But that gradually went away for me, and by the fourth time I inhaled lunar dust I didn’t notice that.”

When the crew splashed down, a flight surgeon taking the suits out of the Apollo 17 command value “had such a reaction that he had to stop what he was doing.”

Schmitt sees controlling the finely pulverized mineral as mainly an engineering problem. However, speaking in a 2005 interview he said, “Dust is the No. 1 environmental problem on the Moon. We need to understand what the [biological] effects are because there’s always the possibility that engineering might fail.”

Writing in GeoHealth, scientists studying Moon dust found that long-term exposure to the minerals can cause cell death and DNA damage to lung cells. Stated the article:

Clearly, avoidance of lunar dust inhalation will be important for future explorers, but with increased human activity on the Moon it is likely that adventitious exposure will occur, particularly for individuals spending long periods of time on that body. A detailed understanding of the health effects of lunar dust exposure is thus important, and further defining the cellular and biological impact of materials from various parts of the lunar surface is warranted.

Air Force Cadets Ponder the Future of the Military in Space

July 15, 2020

Image credit: Department of the Air Force

Nearly 90 of this year’s roughly 1,000 Air Force Academy graduates will become commissioned officers in the newly created Space Force. Some are members of an academy group, the Institute for Applied Space Policy and Strategy (IASPS), which features weekly speakers and formal research projects. The group, according to Science, is dedicated to gaming out the policies and philosophies that could guide military space activity.

One big question cadets ask is if the Space Force might someday have a military presence on the Moon. Such a thought might conflict with the pacifist worldview of many scientists, who regard cislunar space as a place for commerce and scientific inquiry, but in a world driven by geopolitical competition, someone needs to be thinking about it. In an interview with Science, IASPS President J.P. Byrne, who will graduate in 2021, offered a number of insights in the realm of “astropolitics.”

How can the United States, he asks, best mitigate the problem of space debris through space situational awareness and space traffic management.

Will mining be realistic, and if so when?

Will deterrence in space reflect deterrence on Earth? If something happens to a satellite in space, does that warrant a space response or an Earth response?

Will it be necessary, or even possible, for the military to sustain a presence on the Moon?

“The group was really interested in finding out what future role Space Force might have on the military-on-the-Moon concept 20 years or so down the line,” says Byrne. “Intergovernmental agency cooperation is paramount to having some future lunar base. Maybe [in this scenario], Space Force would select astronaut candidates who would complete training through NASA.”