In the recent past, I have been frequently asked to make one of my talks on #MoonVillage available, so, finally here it is, including the subsequent Q&A:
Held on occasion of the IAF Spring Meetings in Paris, 23 March 2016.
P.S.: We have just launched this comprehensive web documentary on lunar exploration, don’t miss it: The Moon – ESA’s interactive guide
Discussion: 11 comments
It was really time for ESA and Europe to take the lead of a new, inspiring wave in space activities.
We heard speaking of exploration, inspiration, science, technology, human cooperation and even of beauty. And the Renaissance concept of Beauty can become a unifying paradigm in our profession and life:
“We define beauty as the harmony between all the parts, of which the whole is made of, based upon a precise law, so that you cannot add or subtract or change anything except for the worse”. (Leon Battista Alberti, “De Re Aedificatoria”).
To the extent it will be a well engineered system, even Moon Village might become a monument to Beauty.
Professor Wörner, I posted some criticisms of the Moon Village concept on my blog recently (https://www.astronist.co.uk/astro_ev/2016/ae123.shtml). In short, what you are proposing is a return to the Moon before the problem of economic access to low Earth orbit has been solved. The costs of Moon flights will therefore be too high for a sustainable programme, and if begun it will eventually be cancelled, just as was Apollo.
The conditions for sustainability, I suggest, are that passenger traffic to low Earth orbit should be at least an order of magnitude cheaper than today, it should be showing long-term growth, and it should generate wealth rather than consuming it. I would hope that ESA will encourage European companies to be active in developing markets in LEO, particularly for space tourism.
Stephen
Oxford, UK
I think the problem of reducing the transportation costs will be a key component for ALL the future space exploration projects. For instance The StarTram – a railgun-like long acceleration system – for high (not more than 10 to 30 g) acceleration for unmanned probes – would use for instance an acceleration distance of about 300 km and a final minimum height of about 7 km. The system would be capable of constantly delivering several tons a day into orbit or higher. For transportation of manned probes a much longer accelerator with much higher endpoint must be build (more than 1000 km in length and 22km in height (nearly 3 times higher than the Mt. Everest)). The system seems to be at this point somehow fantastical, but it can be realized with only a few more investments, than in todays rocket based systems, but this solution will last much longer and really brings expansive space exploration near to reality.
Mr Worner,
That’s an excellent idea, this moon village.
I really hope it will be a success !
With my best regards
Philippe, France
The moon village concept must be divided into several phases to be finally realized. The moon village construction is key to the project: My idea ist not heavily rely onto material that is around a landing/construction area. The village itself should be build onto a skeleton made up by materials brought from earth for instance in a powder form. The initial building phase starts by constructing not the village skeleton at frst but the neccessary tools – the builders – that constructs the skeleton. These tools will be set up by the initial small builder – consisting of several 3d printing devices and transportation subsystems. Simply printing is not enough – you also have to solve the problem to move the printed parts into the right position. or to connect the parts to the right builder. You need a database for constructing builders and skeleton parts. Perhaps the builders itself must print new structures therefore the knowledge base must be shareable between the components of the builders complex. After the skeleton has been finalized a further step can be started by moving sourrounding material onto the skeleton to build up protection against the environment.
Such a system should be tested on earth on different locations before a final moon-based project phase can be started.
I want to urgently inform all interested persons here that the opening of 27 April 2016 the sustainable quasi-satellite of Earth asteroid (469219) 2016 HO3 weighing not less than 8000 tonnes (possibly and 300 000 tonnes) is of great importance for the early realization of the “lunar village ‘. It is now the best of the heavenly bodies to start using mankind extraterrestrial space resources as a source of material for the manufacture of chemical elements in the right space structures and the propellant. This can be a thousand times more effective than missiles to carry materials to the Earth, to create a space infrastructure, reduce the cost of space hotels for space tourists and transport systems Earth-Moon to supply ‘lunar village’.
According to my calculations prikidochnym necessary speed to throw this asteroid for the delivery of parcels of cargo to Earth to bring her into orbit the satellite is less than 750 m / s. In fact, this figure could be 2 times less! I can not now be calculated according to the asteroid’s orbit minimum distance between the spatial trajectories of the asteroid and the Earth. It is known that the minimum distance between the asteroid and the Earth 14.5 million km, but between the orbits may be less! Number of 750 m / s is obtained on the assumption that the distance between the orbits is approximately 15 million km but there may only some 5? Who can tell me astronomers reliable figures? Please use the data of the asteroid’s orbit:
Speed reaching is the raw material cargo parcels from the asteroid to Earth will be 12 km / s. To catch the sending into orbit PPE is necessary to slow down the package by about 1.3 km / s in the upper atmosphere, and the apogee (about 400 000 km) to add about 5 m / s speed, not to fall again into the Earth’s atmosphere. Then gravity assist around the Moon can be set to any desired orbital inclination i for the use of the mass sending to the space station with the chemical industry. And if the package temporarily make a companion moon, you can also freely choose and the plane of the orbit, which will be delivered parcel.
Chemical processing of the masses of matter quasi-satellite in orbit satellites, for example, for the production of oxygen, metals and silicon – a tempting prospect for cheaper housing and transport space tourists with time a thousand times, but there are faster ways to effectively use these masses. It is the creation of the conveyor Earth-Moon, and simple raw weight of goods sent from the quasi-satellite should be used first of all as exchange satellites of equal mass at intermediate orbits the Earth-Moon type CONVEYOR transport system. This will increase the capacity of the assembly line, which supplies the construction of “lunar village” periodically every 27.32 days, in proportion to the number of mass exchange on intermediate orbits. If the sum of the masses of exchange on each of the orbits is equal to 5 200 tons (of 1,000 tons), we can deliver on a monthly basis on the moon 200 tons of cargo for the “lunar village ‘. At the same time the way of the Earth-Moon from LEO to the Moon’s surface propellants require only small orbit correction, rather than on acceleration and braking. Orbit correction we need for accurate aiming of satellites equal masses at the ends of the rotating “Space tether” small mass. Because These satellites will be with light (200-1000 kg) and the rotational speed of all the rotating “Space tether” of about 840 m / s, it needs mass “Space tether” with the exchange goods at the end will not exceed 5 tonnes. To create a conveyor Earth Earth-Moon space will have to withdraw only a 5-8 such “cosmic umbilical cord” and one or two of them are installed on the poles of the Moon with the promotion in a horizontal plane on the tower. It will be unwound from the carousel at stop ends, with which the shoot will be delivered from Earth quantized loads and loads to go back Ballast, such as moon rocks or sand in bags made of basalt fiber, melted there on the moon. Thus, the pipeline “Space tether” Earth-Moon will work on the law of conservation of energy: how much cargo is delivered to the moon, the same ton of lunar rocks returned to the original DOE. We only need to run on a monthly basis from the equator one or more severe PH with materials for “lunar village ‘of 200 tons per month. So the forecast for the development of the Moon in 10 years is favorable.
PARAMETERS asteroid here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/(469219)_2016_HO3
Seems overly complicated. Better and easier solution is to inflate a habitat in a suitable crater (possibly improved or graded), then back fill over it with regolith (approximately 10 meters). The backfill provides multiple functions.
1. It provides weight to counterbalance the air pressure in the habitat.
2. It provides shielding against radiation and micrometerorites
3. It provides thermal insulation and thermal ballast.
Reinforce the interior at your leisure.
Back filling is trivial compared to 3-D printing.
A moon village sounds like something the scientists would enjoy, whereas a trip to Mars is more for the Explorers.
Why can’t we do both?
I want to create an International group here on FB for the design exchange orbits slings and exchange of satellites and check my suggestions and calculations.
I made these calculations simply in Excel. For example, for near-Earth part of the conveyor Earth-Moon, the multiplicity of treatment on the orbits of periods for the exchange of satellites: 1/3/6/220, and for treatment periods of metabolic sling: 1,5 / 4/13 or 14/220.
The total number of the multiplicity of treatment periods: 1 / 1,5 / 3/4/6/13 or 14/220,
hours and these periods are:
1.490: 2.24: 4.47: 5.96: 8.94: 19.37 or 20.86: 327.84 hours = 13.66 days = 1/2 of the lunar month.
Thus the entire transport system works like cogwheels in a clockwork, but with a total period equal to the lunar month of 27.32 days.
Here it is described only near-Earth part of the whole transport system …
Follow calculations publications on my FB page and in the next group.
You want my project to create the Earth-Moon exchange road?
Exchange satellites orbits on a sling – the future of humanity, a way to present his spacewalk mass transfer through the construction of the road to the moon: how many goods we send to the moon, the same lunar tons of sand in the payment we will send energy to the Earth. This facilitates the delivery of cargo to the moon 10 times!