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Book Review: Space is Open for Business by Robert Jacobson

Credits: Robert C. Jacobson

Space is Open for Business by Robert Jacobson is a must-read for all potential “astropreneurs” (entrepreneurs involved the NewSpace economy), space advocates, investors or anyone who wants to keep current on space commerce and its impact on the future of humanity. This book is a refreshingly positive view of our future in space, a welcome alternative outlook in stark contrast to many dystopian and negative predictions of where we’re headed in today’s media.

Jacobson covers all aspects of the nascent space economy which has already begun to grow in leaps and bounds, and is headed for explosive growth in the near future. No stone is left unturned by his deep research of all aspects of space commerce, with scores of interviews of executives from both established and small startup space companies.

I especially liked the Sci-Fi and Society chapter in which Jacobson talks about science fiction “illuminating the possibility of the space frontier”. Much of what is now happening in space was predicted in science fiction in the last century. Many CEOs and executives of NewSpace companies were inspired to pursue careers in science or engineering through science fiction books, televisions shows and movies.

Eventually, humanity will evolve to migrate off Earth and establish space settlements throughout the solar system and eventually among the stars. Development of the technologies and commercial activities for space settlement have the potential to create vast wealth, bring billions of people out of poverty and preserve Earth’s natural environment. Jacobson has provided a hopeful glimpse of how the space businesses supporting this effort will manifest this destiny.

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Nanoracks enters AgTech ecosystem through partnership with Abu Dhabi

Artist’s rendering of greenhouses inside a StarLab Outpost. Credits: Nanoracks / Mack Crawford

Nanoracks, a Houston based space logistics company along with Pure Harvest Smart Farms and FreshToHome, have been selected by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to collaborate on cutting-edge projects to boost the UAE’s agriculture technology (AgTech) infrastructure “across land, sea and space”. Nanoracks is initiating a commercial AgTech space research program in its Abu Dhabi based StarLab Space Farming Center. Starlab will be a commercial space research facility focused on advancing technology for food produced in space and in extreme climates on Earth. The space-based technology will have duel-use applications to not only advance desert agriculture addressing urgent food security challenges, but also be focused on long-term human space exploration and eventual settlement.

Nanoracks plans to leverage it’s “Outposts“, space stations created from salvaged upper stages of spent launch vehicles, to house the company’s greenhouses in low Earth orbit. Next year the company plans to launch a groundbreaking first in-space demonstration mission that will test robotic cutting of a second stage representative tank material. To successfully repurpose upper stages Nanoracks will need to be able to cut metal without producing any orbital debris.

Update 1 September 2021: Nanoracks announces the launch of a new Space AgTech company, StarLab Oasis.

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Eta Space snags $27 million Tipping Point award to study space based cryogenic propellant depot technologies

Artist rendering of LOXSAT 1, a demonstrator satellite for a cryogenic oxygen fluid management system. Credits: Eta Space

A small Florida Space Coast start up founded by NASA employees called Eta Space was just awarded a 2020 NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate “Tipping Point” contract to develop the first low Earth orbit cryogenic propellant depot. Management of cryogenic fuels is a key technology for storing propellent in space, which will be a component of a transportation infrastructure supported by in situ resource utilization such as ice mining on the moon for processing into rocket fuel. A key focus of the work by Eta Space will be standardization of equipment interfaces allowing multiple customers to tap into storage capability on orbit.

Eta Space’s LOXSAT 1 mission concept will test a range of cryogenic fuel management processes in space over 9 months specific to liquid oxygen management. LOX is a common oxidizer used across multiple propellant systems by several launch providers and is the heaviest cryogenic fluid needed by most customers.

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An interdisciplinary approach to shaping our space future

Artist’s rendering of settlements on the Moon. Credits: Taylor Herring/Samsung via Futurism.com

A melding of multiple disciplines is required for creating a positive human space future that will enable space settlement. In addition to aerospace engineering, architecture and the traditional physical sciences we associate with space exploration, the fields of sociology, philosophy, art, space law and may others will be needed. A method for integrating these fields and coordinating them across the private sector, universities and government has been developed in The Interplanetary Initiative, a pan-university venture created at Arizona State University. The innovative research model is described in a paper in the September 2020 issue of New Space. The program turns students into team leaders and collaborators, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to solve problems anticipated to be encountered as humans expand out into the solar system.

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What will it take to become a spacefaring civilization?

Artist’s concept of an O’Neill space colony. Credit: Rachel Silverman / Blue Origin

J. N. Nielsen has a theory…or four. Picking up where he left off in his previous Bound in the Shallows post on Centauri Dreams about the origins of a spacefaring civilization, Nielsen explores the possibility that the nuclear rocket or fusion power may be the indispensable transformative technology that will enable breakout of a spacefaring future. But even if we develop the capability of nuclear propulsion, it may not be sufficient. We need a “mythology” to enable humanity’s next central project. As Nielson defines it, a mythology “… is a kind of recapitulation in which the contributions of ages past—whether biological, psychological, social, or cultural—are each given their due, and these antecedents serve as a springboard to something authentically novel, something unprecedented that facilitates human beings to transcend their past and to accomplish something unprecedented.”

As happens every time, whenever I dig into Nielson’s rich writings I loose myself in a beautiful philosophical landscape of culture. Give yourself some time to ponder and absorb these insightful hypotheses on what is needed to settle the solar system and beyond…and visit his Grand Strategy: View from Oregon site for more politics, economics, warfare, religion, and philosophy with a focus on civilization which often leads to consideration of the future and space exploration.

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Rapid bootstrapping for faster ignition of off-Earth industry development

Artist’s concept of an O’Neill space colony. Credits: Blue Origin

In a thread on Twitter Philip Metzger, a planetary physicist at the University of Central Florida, updates his bootstrapping vision from a few years back in which he and colleagues at NASA published a paper on how robotics, 3D printing and in situ resource utilization could be leveraged to accelerate a solar system civilization. In a series of 9 Tweets, Metzger makes the case for his “Rapid Bootstrapping Scenario” as the preferred course out of three possible alternatives to get us there faster.

Many space enthusiasts, including Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, advocate for what Metzger calls a solar system “Civilization Fully Revolutionized”. This is a future where most industrial manufacturing is done sustainably in space and Earth is preserved as a beautiful natural environment.

If we continue on the current path, down what Metzger calls “The Slow Growth Scenario”, space agencies like NASA will continue paving the technological highway for private entities to slowly develop their profitable enterprises. But because space exploration and development is difficult, a different approach is needed to prime the pump. Metzger suggests the preferred course of action is intentional pre-economic bootstrapping in which “…visionary individuals with means, citizen-led movements, or governments that see the long-term benefit of getting beyond our planetary limit…create a coalition of likeminded citizen movements and enlightened governments committed to a good future so we reach the ‘ignition’ point first by being fast”.

Source: Philip Metzger/UCF. @DrPhiltill. www.philipmetzger.com
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When will the first human be born off Earth?

Space baby. Credits: scienceabc.com

One of the biggest challenges of space settlement facing humanity is procreation off world. We simply don’t know if its possible for a baby to be carried to term in less then one gravity. There are obvious ethical considerations of simply going there and trying it out. NASA is studying the problem but until we have a variable gravity centrifuge facility in space that will enable us to determine the “gravity prescription”, it will be a while before we have an answer.

In an article in The Space Review, Fred Nadis discusses some of the medical challenges of human reproduction in space and why one company, SpaceLife Origin, who’s mission was to enable human reproduction in space decided to suspend its planned missions for “Serious ethical, safety and medical concerns …”

These medical unknowns about reproduction in any gravitational field less then 1g is the obvious attraction of O’Neill type free space settlements which provide Earth normal gravity. But the huge scale and investment necessary to build such large scale settlements puts this approach far in the future. Al Globus thinks a better way might be to start with smaller spinning habitats in low earth orbit.

Asgardia’s has a key scientific goal of facilitating the first human childbirth in space which they believe is a crucial step on humanity’s “path to immortality as a species”. In preparation for that goal, the organization is creating the first sovereign nation in space. A good introduction to their plans can be found in an interview with Dr. Lena De Winne, the Head of Administration to the Head of Nation of Asgardia, who appeared on the Space Show recently.

Artist’s impression of the first human born in space. Credits: Asgardia
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A map of the future of space enterprise

The Pathfinders’ Guide to the Space Enterprise. Credits: The Aerospace Corporation.

The Aerospace Corporation has created a visually stunning chart called “Pathfinders’ Guide to the Space Enterprise” in which they provide a glimpse into the nascent space economy based on hundreds of ideas from over 70 world-class space experts condensed into seven core themes about how the future could unfold. The analysis, which is both deep and thought provoking, identified two critical uncertainties shaping the the future of space development:

1. The degree in which space will be “commercialized.”
How much will space exploration and exploitation be designed to seed the commercial ecosystem?

2. The evolution and potential transformation of global power states.
What space-based leverage points could change the terrestrial power balance?

Their hope is to “…inspire your internal adventurer to think about how space can and will play a role in the future and how we get there.”

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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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Life in space

Artists rendering of the LIFE™ Habitat. Credits: Sierra Nevada Corporation

In a press release on August 10, Sierra Nevada Corporation announced it is continuing to advance it’s Large Inflatable Fabric Environment (LIFE) habitat under Phase 3 of NASA’s Next Step-2 public-private partnership to further commercial development of deep space exploration capabilities.

The company’s CEO, Fatih Ozmen, said “Our habitat design is so unlike any other that it truly demonstrates SNC’s technology ingenuity and innovation. We are excited to continue our support of human exploration in low-Earth orbit, for the Artemis lunar missions, and eventually missions to Mars, making space accessible and affordable.”