Cutting-edge technology enabling settlement of the solar system and beyond – Art by Rick Guidice / NASA
Eric Berger chronicles the ten year history of SpaceX’s flagship launch vehicle. The versatile, reusable workhorse has been the proving ground for the technology that will make Elon Musk’s vision of low cost interplanetary space travel a reality in the near future.
In an article in Live Encounters Magazine, Dr. Namrata Goswami articulates the legal challenges ahead as the major space powers race to capitalize on the potentially lucrative markets made possible by lunar resources. She argues that now is the time to establish the legal framework for enabling private ownership of resources and profitable businesses. The processes for how conflicts will be resolved over trillions of dollars worth of space resources among legal entities must be defined ahead of time. If international agreements are not developed she believes that there may be a “legal vacuum”, resulting in individual states taking matters into their own hands.
In a video message from Jan Wörner, Director General, ESA is asking for ideas on how the agency’s new lander can explore the Moon in the late 2020s. Of particular interest are suggestions for strategies on for the best approaches to science, space resources and technology.
Diagram depicting the timeline and process for idea selection. Image courtesy of ESA
As humans move off Earth and settle the solar system and beyond, we will eventually want to know if we are alone or if we will encounter alien life. Astrobiologists up until now have been basing their research on “life as we know it”. Now Stuart Bartlett and Michael L. Wong in a paper in the journal Life are proposing a new definition and vocabulary to describe a more general picture of what life is (or could be). This approach will more clearly define the questions steering the direction of research into the origins of life. The authors propose four processes of the living state: dissipation, autocatalysis, homeostasis, and learning. They suggest a new term for the combination of these four pillars: lyfe (pronounced “loif”). A Venn diagram of these processes would all intersect in the region of lyfe which would including the subset of life on Earth.
We take for granted many of the conveniences made possible by space technology. Agriculture, banking, navigation, environmental monitoring, weather, emergency services. The list goes on and on. The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy has just published a report called The Value of Space to quantify these benefits. Without realizing it, satellite services have become an integral part of our lives. This paper sheds a light on just how much Earth relies on space. This dependence will only increase as humanity settles the solar system.
The Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle which launched into orbit aboard a ULA Atlas V rocket on May 17 contains the first of its kind experiment to test a system for collection of sunlight and conversion to microwave energy for beaming power where it is needed. Space Settlement Progress reported on the possibility of this mission back in December of last year. Now the hardware, called a Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module or PRAM, has been launched. Its been a long time coming but finally some of the key elements of a solar power satellite system will get a shake down cruise in space. I’m old enough to have written a report on space solar power satellites in my high school physics class (1974). Assuming positive results, NRL plans a follow-on experiment to beam power down to Earth.
A concept for an innovative relativistic interstellar propulsion drive has just been described in the May 23 issue of Acta Astronautica. The propulsion system uses a pulsed laser to generate “antimatter-like” annihilation reactions in hydrogen fuel producing high velocity K meson elementary particles at relativistic speeds. The method is suitable for powering large starships and could be available within a decade. The authors claim the energy released is 100 times greater than fusion. Because hydrogen is readily available throughout the galaxy, fuel for the return trip does not need to be carried on the outbound journey.
A just released study published in the journal Plants documented the results of experiments to find the best ratio of compost to Martial soil simulant to effectively grow nutritious butter lettuce with the least amount of water while optimizing crop performance. Such findings will enable in situ resource utilization and reduce the mass of supplies needed to be transported to Mars to support farming in human settlements.
The California company is opening an autonomous factory in Long Beach which will use additive manufacturing to print both its Aeon engine and Terran 1 rocket. The unprecedented agile manufacturing process will slash production costs by reducing parts count and increasing throughput enabling a competitive advantage in this class of launchers (1250 Kg to LEO).
As reported in Wired, former Eagleworks leader Dr. Harold “Sonny” White has moved on to join the Limitless Space Institute, an organization fostering research into advanced space power and propulsion technologies that will enable interstellar travel. For more details tune into The Space Show on Tuesday June 16 at 7pm PST when Dr. White will be interviewed by Dr. David Livingston