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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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Self-replicating fungi radiation shielding for deep space settlements

Without adequate shielding, humans will be bombarded with lethal galactic cosmic radiation in deep space. Credits: NASA / scitechdaily.com

Galactic cosmic radiation poses a significant risk to humans in deep space. If a type of shielding could be found that could be “grown” through biotechnology starting from microscopic sources, significant savings in mass needed to be launched from Earth could be realized. It is already known that certain fungi can convert high-energy radiation into chemical energy through a process called radiosynthesis, analogous to photosynthesis in plants. Fungi have been found thriving in extremely radioactive environments such as the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and even on the exteriors of spacecraft in Earth orbit.

In a paper just uploaded to the preprint server for biology bioRxiv, results of a study carried out on the International Space Station have shown that a microbial lawn of the fungus C. sphaerospermum can be cultivated in microgravity and not only consumes and thrives on radiation, it provides shielding that if scaled up, could sufficiently protect humans in deep space settlements.

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Mitigation of the risks and challenges of lunar dust

Astronaut Gene Cernan covered in Lunar dust after an EVA during the Apollo 17 mission. Credits: NASA

Catch my presentation at the Moon Society’s Lunar Development Conference that took place on July 19 and 20 in which I describe the hazards posed by lunar dust and several solutions needed for space settlement. This is definitely on the critical path for large scale operations on the moon.

There were a couple of technical glitches in the presentation, one of which was playing a simplistic animation of deploying a dust-free landing pad beneath an initial lunar lander using telerobots. You can view the animation here. Hat tip to Doug Plata and the Space Development Network for the source material used in the presentation. Many of the conference presentations are available on the Moon Society’s YouTube Channel.

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U.S. Department of Energy seeks contractors to design nuclear reactors for the Moon

Credits: Idaho National Laboratory

Battelle Energy Alliance, which manages and operates the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory, just announced a Request for Information (RFI) on a fission surface power (FSP) source. The Laboratory, in collaboration with the DOE and NASA is seeking innovative technologies and approaches for preliminary designs of a FSP to test and validate operation on the Moon.

According to the RFT: “A reliable, durable energy source is a crucial element to enable the long-duration exploration of space and allow sustainable human presence in the harsh space environment.”

The operational goal is to: “Develop the FSP system with capability of operating autonomously, with the capability of autonomous or commanded on/off cycles. Develop the FSP system to be capable of surviving a single credible failure without reducing electric power capacity by more than 50%. This design objective flows from essential power needs on the Moon or Mars following a component failure. BEA [Battelle Energy Alliance] also encourages respondents to develop the FSP system for a minimum operational life of not less than 10 years at full electric power output.”

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The water economy of cislunar space

Illustration of an ice extraction concept for collection of water on the Moon. Credits: George Sowers / Colorado School of Mines

Mining the Moon changes everything. In an article in Air and Space, several prominent scientists we’ve been following discuss how in situ resource utilization (ISRU) can close the business case for companies that will build the infrastructure for a cislunar economy.

George Sowers of Colorado School of Mines and lead researcher on a recent study of ice mining in the solar system believes that water is “the oil of space” which can be used for all sorts of propulsion needs as well as supporting life. He believes that “…the economy of space will run off of water.”

Kevin Cannon, who has developed a treasure map for where the ice deposits are located at lunar poles based on satellite data to support ISRU, believes that we need to follow up with actual prospecting hardware to confirm how much water is actually present.

Joel Sercel, CEO of Trans Astronautica Corporation and recent recipient of a Phase II NIAC grant for a Lunar Polar Mining Outpost, has proposed calling a base located at the Moon’s north pole “New Mesopotamia” likening it to the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East on Earth.

Most of the experts agree that fuel depots on the moon are needed for a sustainable economy in cislunar space before we can push off to Mars and beyond.

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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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Artemis 8 – Dragon to the Moon

Artist depiction of SpaceX Crew Dragon in Lunar Orbit. Credits: Bruce Irving/Flickr

Robert Zubrin advocates for a quick decision by NASA and the National Space Council on a mission using SpaceX hardware to put a Dragon capsule in orbit around the Moon before the end of the year. In a letter to Jim Bridenstine and Scott Pace, he suggests lofting a crew to low Earth orbit in a Crew Dragon using a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. This would be followed up by launching a Falcon Heavy for rendezvous in LEO with its upper stage containing surplus propellant. The Falcon Heavy upper stage could then propel the Dragon to the Moon in an “Apollo 8” type mission ending with a splashdown of Dragon in the ocean.

Only slight modifications would need to be made to the Dragon to carry enough oxygen for a 6 day journey. The capsule is already designed for Earth capture from a Mars trajectory so return from the Moon should not be a problem. Zubrin’s proposal was sent in a memo to the NASA Administrator and the Executive Secretary of the National Space council on June 30, and reprinted in the Space Review July 6. Such a demonstration could inspire the nation and initiate validation of essential cislunar infrastructure toward settlement of the Moon.

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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.