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The feasability of interstellar worldships

Artist’s impression of a fleet of worldships on an interstellar voyage. Credits: Michel LaMontage / Initiative for Interstellar Studies

In the August 2020 Issue of Principium, Richard Soilleux summarizes current research on the feasibility of interstellar voyages via multi-generation worldships. The starting point is assumed to be free flying orbital settlements as envisioned by Gerard K. O’Neill that will eventually be tooling around the solar system way before a trip to the stars would be possible. The baseline for the analysis was an orbital space settlement called Avalon, the result of a complex study by the British Interplanetary Society called the BIS Space Project which took a fresh look at O’Neill’s smallest habitat Island 1, a settlement that would house 10,000 inhabitants.

Artist’s impression of the Avalon orbital settlement. Credits: Mark Hempsell / Initiative for Interstellar Studies

Much of the technology needed for an interplanetary ship like Avalon could be leveraged for an interstellar craft, but there are several challenges for permanent occupation over many generations as would be needed for a trip to the stars. For example, the ships would obviously have to be much more robust and reliable. Design lifetimes of 1000 years, as what is estimated to be needed, would require rigorous maintenance and repair schedules. Major periodic replacement of damaged or worn components and obsolete parts would also be required.

Soilleux’s analysis breaks down the key features of the settlement in terms of technology readiness and extrapolates to the interstellar case. One key element of the design is the environmental control and life support system (ECLSS). Avalon’s ECLSS does not need to be fully closed when voyages are limited to within the solar system as there are plenty of resources to replace nutrients and materials that cannot be recycled. Interstellar voyages are another matter all together and the study found that the recycling rate needs to be better than 90% for at least 36% of a material to remain useable after 100 years. This ratio would have to be significantly higher for an interstellar journey, the duration of which could be an order of magnitude longer. Soilleux concludes that “Recycling must therefore be managed carefully, and a detailed inventory maintained of all materials and nutrients wherever they are in the system.”

ECLSS technology is clearly one of the gating items for space settlement in the solar system and for journeys beyond. More information and research can be found in the Life Support Section.

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Architectural design of living space within TESSERAE self-assembling space station

Artist’s rendering of the TESSERAE concept, showing self-assembling multi-module space station in orbit around Mars. Credits: TU Dortmund Fraunhofer Institute in collaboration with MIT Media Lab via AIAA

In a paper presented at the AIAA SciTech 2019 Forum, Ariel Ekblaw and Joseph Paradiso of the MIT Media Lab described a concept for a self assembling space station called TESSERAE, which stands for Tessellated Electromagnetic Space Structures for the Exploration of Reconfigurable, Adaptive Environments. The innovative design constructs buckminsterfullerene (“bucky ball”) modules from polyhedral tile sets that utilize a smart sensor network to detect bonds and actuate electromagnets to facilitate autonomous assembly. The resulting structure approximates a spherical shape thereby minimizing surface area (and launch cost) for a given livable space.

In collaboration with MIT Media Lab and as a visiting student, Anastasia Prosina, now the cofounder and CEO of the space architecture company Stellar Amenities, had 3 weeks to design the interior of the habitat to make the most efficient use of livable volume taking into account human factors and minimization of weight for a crew of 8 over a 3 month mission. The results of her work is showcased in the Stellar Amenities portfolio on the firm’s website. Of particular note is how the design borrowed from Japanese architectural concepts such as “Metabolism”, a post-war movement that blended ideas from architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. Using Human-Centered Design and a combination of skills in architecture, aerospace and art, the company creates functional yet pleasing environments for space habitats where mass and volume need to be minimized. There is even a meditation corridor for serene self reflection in space.

Layout showing the location of the Habitation Core within a TESSERAE module. Credits: Stellar Amenities
Meditation corridor within the TESSERAE habitat. Credits: Stellar Amenities

Update 24 April, 2022: Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission to the ISS tested prototypes of the TESSERAE tiles in space. From the Axiom Space press release: “The prototypes launching on the Ax-1 mission include an extensive suite of sensing and electro-permanent magnets that monitor diagnostics – provide insight into the quality of bonds between tiles – and drive conformations. This scaled demonstration will build on previous microgravity evaluations of the TESSERAE experiment to explore a new frontier for in-orbit construction of satellites and future space habitats.”

TESSERAE in the ISS cupola — photo taken during the Axiom-1 mission. Credits: Ax-1 crew/ISS

Dr. Ekblaw provides and update on the Ax-1 mission at about 3 minutes into this Axiom Space Video.

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EBIOS: toward closed-loop life support for space settlement

Artist rendering of EBIOS Experimental BIOregenerative Station. Credits: Interstellar Lab

Interstellar Lab has a mission to help build a future full of life on earth and beyond. To get started, the company plans modular villages on Earth designed as sealed facilities with environmental control and life support systems. EBIOS space-inspired communities will combine architecture, engineering, product design along with international collaboration in environmental science, agriculture, biochemistry, psychology and other disciplines. Each EBIOS will be a hospitality science center open to the public as well as scientists to facilitate awareness and needed research for self-sustaining space settlements. The company is developing methods and simulation software for integrated food production, water and waste systems to support human life in any environment.

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Mass value: metric for space settlement

Image credit: Richard Bizley, bizelyart.com / National Space Society

In a paper published in New Space last March, Peter Hague describes a figure of merit he developed to drive policy decisions to help accelerate space exploration and space settlement. The aim of the paper was to generate a single metric for every potential space mission on a common scale for comparison purposes. This ‘mass value’ is the amount of mass that would need to be placed in low Earth orbit (LEO) to perform the same mission using a baseline method. That method would use only storable propellants and Hohmann transfer orbits – no gravity assists, aerocapture, high energy propellants or ISRU.

This approach puts a price on all the add-ons which expand the mission beyond the baseline. One can then use a single normalized scale to calculate how much mass to LEO you would save by making propellant on Mars for example, or by taking advantage of a certain launch window to get a gravity assist.

A hands-off government entity could subsidize space expenditures at a flat rate per kg of mass value, confident they are promoting space development without having legislators involved in engineering decisions.

Aggregating all the missions by a nation, company, or other entity could be used to calculate an analogue of GDP for a space civilization. While this does not measure everything we care about – scientific merit, human occupation, etc – neither does GDP. It does capture the overall capability to move around the solar system; and as such, is as useful for charting our journey to becoming a Type II civilization on the Kardashev Scale as it is for analyzing individual missions.

Thanks to Peter Hague for the material in this post. We’ve heard a rumor that there may be a book forthcoming on the subject. Looking forward to it!

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The current state of the U.S. space industrial base

Credits: USSF-DIU-AFRL

The U.S. Space Force, Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Innovation Unit just completed a workshop on the state of the U.S. space industry. The virtual event, hosted by New Space New Mexico, brought together more than 120 representatives across the federal government, industry, and academia to access the current health of the America’s space industry and to provide recommendations for strengthening that industrial base. The resulting report called “State of the Space Industrial Base 2020” has just been released this month.

The workshop focused on 6 key areas thought to be the locus of future space industry activities:

  • Space policy and finance tools
  • Space information services
  • Space transportation and logistics to, in and from cislunar space and beyond.
  • Human presence in space for exploration, space tourism, space manufacturing and resource extraction
  • Power for space systems to enable the full range of emerging space applications
  • Space manufacturing and resource extraction

Recommendations included:

  1. Industry should aggressively pursue partnerships with the US government to develop and operate joint commercial, civil and defense space capabilities. These partnerships should jointly fund developing capabilities that benefit from but are not heavily reliant on US government investment and revenue for their commercial viability.
  2. Entrepreneurs with innovative and potentially dual-use technologies must improve the protection of their intellectual property from unintended foreign assimilation, including protecting their networks from cyber exfiltration attempts, and avoiding exit strategies that transfer intellectual property to foreign control hostile to US interests.
  3. Businesses should engage across the US educational system to guide and develop the future STEM workforce to fuel the future space economy, to include funding for undergraduate scholarships/loans for STEM students, internships and providing space professionals to support instruction in space subjects.
  4. Industry should improve ties and partnerships with domestic and allied parts, subcomponent and subsystem manufacturers to strengthen trust and resilience in space supply chains.
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Going up? Space elevators getting ready for prime time

Artist’s impression of a space elevator. Credits: Steve Bowers / orionsarm.com

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) has just published a position paper on the technology readiness of this alternative to launch vehicles subject to the constraints of the rocket equation. Recent advances in material science of single crystal graphene and other alternatives show potential for fabrication of tethers long enough and with the required strength to enable space elevators by the late 2030s. The authors present a case that the demand for launching enough mass to support ESA’s Moon Village, space based solar power and Elon Musk’s vision for Mars colonies far exceeds projected conventional rocket capabilities. Space elevators could fill this need while being better for the environment.

Diagram of a space elevator system. Credits: ISEC
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Cathedrals as analogs for planning generation starships

The Nauvoo generation starship from the SF thriller The Expanse. Credits: expanse.wikia.com

Generation starships have been proposed for eventual settlement of the galaxy. How will such a long term project be planned and carried out? What will be the mechanisms for financing the venture. How will stakeholders be organized and managed? Large scale multi-decade (or century) historical building projects such as cathedrals can be studied as an analog for lessons learned to inform future interstellar missions. Andreas M. Hein of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies has explored this topic in a paper recently posted on the arXiv preprint server, with interesting conclusions on modular architecture, minimum viable product and recommendations on long term financial stability.

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The logistics of dining off Earth

Artist concept of dining in space. Credits: Disney/Eater

In a recent Twitter thread Kevin Cannon shares his thoughts on the logistics of feeding an expanding population as humans settle other worlds. His “food quality” model compares different food preparation venues in an effort to highlight the challenges of feeding folks in in remote locations such as space settlements (and no, there likely won’t be food trucks in space).

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Rough index of “food quality”. Credits: Kevin Cannon / Twitter

The obvious goal is sustainable, high frequency food replenishment utilizing in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Cannon recently published a paper in which he modeled the calorie needs and land requirements for a martian settlement that reaches a population of one million people becoming self-sufficient within a hundred years. A wealth of research relevant to space settlement can be found at his website kevin.cannon.rocks.

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Beyond Earth Institute publishes policy recommendations to accelerate space settlement

Illustration of an early space settlement. Credits: Beyond Earth Institute, Inc.

The newly formed nonprofit just issued their June 2020 BE Report outlining what steps need to be taken by government and industry in the areas of export controls, best practices and multilateral agreements to foster a future where millions of people will be living and working in space, while in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty.

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Space settlement through private enterprise

Artist rendition of Starship exploring Saturn. Image credit SpaceX/Flickr

In an interview by Stuart Clark in BBC Science Focus Magazine, Vice President for North American operations for the International Space University Gary Martin answers questions on how private enterprise is changing space exploration. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, through their own initiatives and public/private partnerships are opening up the final frontier, paving the way for space settlement.