Cutting-edge technology enabling settlement of the solar system and beyond – Art by Rick Guidice / NASA
Lunar bases, habitats and settlements
The Movave, CA company has just received a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I grant to develop an innovative method to mitigate damaged due to abrasion from high-velocity regolith ejected by lunar lander exhaust. Masten’s Flight Alumina Spray Technique (FAST) injects alumina particles into the rocket plume to create a coating over the regolith at the landing site.
The CLPS program participant has selected a landing site for their Nova-C lander to be launched 2021
NASA today announced that the Mojave, CA company was chosen for a sortie in 2022 to suss out the Moon’s South Pole utilizing its XL-1 lander. The mission will analyze the composition of the lunar surface, test precision landing techniques and investigate the radiation environment. The contract includes end-to-end services for delivery of eight payloads and operation for at least 12 days.
The document states that “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons. Accordingly, it shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law”
The agency has just published a plan for a permanent return to the Moon as a proving ground for pushing on to Mars and beyond
The University of Southern California’s Department of Astronautical Engineering has just published the final report of Dr. Madhu Thangavelu’s, course ASTE 527 Space Concepts Studio, the theme of which features the MAXIM architecture proposed for NASA’s Artemis program for return of humans to the moon. Be sure and watch the recorded presentation of the report which features the classic video “Wanderers” with commentary written and narrated by Carl Sagan. The class is held each fall and has an archive of each year’s reports, an excellent repository of creative concepts for space development.
A nostalgic view from 1991 brought to you by my old newsletter Space Colonization Progress. Ahhhh memories!
Update: all issues of SCP are now available on the Vintage page
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.
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.
Here’s how to triple the stay time on the lunar surface with no increase in cost