As reported in Space Daily, Orbion will deliver its Aurora Hall-effect thrusters to power Xplore’s space vehicle called Xcraft to explore the inner solar system.
Mining for ices in the solar system
George Sowers of the Colorado School of Mines has published the final report of his NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study: Thermal Mining of Ices on Cold Solar System Bodies.
Property rights and space settlement
Does the Outer Space Treaty allow the establishment of property rights for space settlement? Rand Simberg explains that through the use of multilateral agreements among like-minded nations, the accord may actually be more permissive then originally thought
Partial Ownership of Space Resources for the New Space Economy
This paper introduces the concept of Partial Ownership of Outer Space Resources while not conflicting with the Outer Space Treaty. The system allows competition for resource utilization, while preventing monopolies through open ownership and preserving the incentives for investment, thus benefiting all participating nations.
The Space Resource Report: 2020
The Space Resource has released their compendium of major developments in space resources in 2019, with an eye toward monitoring progress through 2020 and beyond. The Team aims to cover advances in the science, business, and technology development that will pave the way for humanity’s expansion into space
Living off the “land” in space
Building blocks for governance of space resource activities
The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group announces adoption of the Building Blocks of an International Framework on Space Resource activities
A definition of space settlement
Dale L. Skran of the National Space Society breaks down the term differentiating between individual permanent habitats and the general creation of a grander association of colonies:
“ ‘A space settlement’ refers to a habitation in space or on a celestial body where families live on a permanent basis, and that engages in commercial activity which enables the settlement to grow over time, with the goal of becoming economically and biologically self-sustaining as a part of a larger network of space settlements. ‘Space settlement’ refers to the creation of that larger network of space settlements.”
The Art of Bioneering
In a previous post I mentioned Dr. Jim Logan’s concept for space settlements in a cored out section of Deimos presented at the Bioneering Panel at SSI 50. A string of 10 Island One settlements would be placed in a 15km x 1/2km tunnel bored through the Martian moon. Videos of the Panel have been posted and details of the concept can be found at 1:47:23
EXPAT: Expandable Shielded Rotating Space Habitat
Anthony Longman of Skyframe Research presented his concept for a free space settlement built from Asteroid materials at the Space Studies Institute SSI 50 last September. The system uses a structural design concept called Tensegrity to start small from an 8.5m pressure hull and expand iteratively to progressively larger stages ending with a habitat large enough for 8000 people. The final structure contains 90 acres of managed woodland complete with outdoor mall space and over 5 floors of living quarters. Longman appeared recently on The Space Show to provide further details of the concept. His presentation can be found at timestamp 1:32 into the SSI 50: 01 Habitat Design Presentation.