Illustration of three applications of chitosan derived Martian biolith cast into different geometries including a wrench, freeformed material or an additive manufactured habitat model. Credits: Ng Shiwei, Stylianos Dritsas, Javier G. Fernandez via PLOS ONE
Working with simple chemistry suitable for an early Martian settlement, a team of researchers in Singapore has demonstrated that Martian biolith using chitosan derived from shrimp, with minimal energy requirements, could be used for rapid manufacturing of objects ranging from basic tools to rigid shelters. Ng Shiwei, Stylianos Dritsas, and Javier G. Fernandez publish their results in a paper in PLOS ONE.
Chitosan is chemically derived from chitin, the organic matrix produced by biological organisms incorporating calcium carbonate into rigid structures. Chitin would be a byproduct of food production in a closed-loop life support system on Mars.
Chitosan can form transparent objects similar in appearance and mechanical properties to plastic, which would be lacking in early stage Mars settlements. When processed with Martian regolith, the resulting Chitosan biolith produces a material with good mechanical properties and general utility for manufacturing on Mars.
Illustration of the basic farm/home unit of the Athens settlement, a domestead. Credits: Peter Hague
Peter Hague, an astrophysicist located in the UK has published his entry in the Mars Society City State Design Competition for a settlement of 1 million people on Mars. Although not chosen for presentation at the Mars Society Conference last October, the paper describing the city called Athens is linked on Hague’s blog planetocracy.org.
The site selected for the Athens settlement is Hellas Planitia which is attractive because of its low elevation and therefore higher atmospheric pressure than other locales on Mars providing greater radiation protection. The location also has the added benefits of close proximity to subsurface ice deposits as well as an easier landing site.
The basic residential unit in the colony shown above is called a “domestead” consisting of a steel framed geodesic dome with a shielded habitat at its center. The structure will enclose a self sufficient family farm with sustainable heat and power which will produce a surplus of biological matter and other goods. Each dwelling will be connected to others via network of underground tunnels.
All aspects of the settlement such as city design, construction and materials, economics, IT and governance have been worked out for its settlers to prosper while continuing to expand, producing more with fewer inputs from Earth. Eventually the colony could become fully independent.
Hague concludes his paper with a positive vision: “The story of Athens does not stop at a million people. It is designed to produce surplus material and to continue attracting new settlers. It can grow as a city, or it can support the creation of other cities elsewhere on Mars. From such cities a nation can be built, and that nation will have a space program. Technically adept and burdened by much less gravity than any nation on Earth, the Martian nation can then spearhead the humanisation of the solar system and beyond.”
The Space Show – the nation’s first talk radio show focusing on increasing space commerce, advancing space science and economic development, facilitating our move to a space-faring economy which will benefit everyone on Earth – needs your help. The Space Show is hosted by Dr. David Livingston, who completed his doctoral dissertation in 2001 on the commercialization and expansion of space development. Take a moment to visit The Space Show website and read Dr. Livingston’s end of year message. Please give generously to ensure this valuable resource continues to promote, encourage, and support future global economic opportunities, scientific discoveries, and medical advances for all humankind through peaceful and cooperative ventures in outer space.
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.
From the Executive Summary: “Evolved lunar surface exploration and ultilisation scenarios reflect plans for a near-term series of robotic missions followed by humans returning to the Moon in this decade. Rather than looking at individual missions, the scenario depicts a stepwise development of an increasingly capable lunar transportation system to the lunar surface, traversing systems on the lunar surface, and infrastructure supporting them that will enable cooperative science and human exploration efforts leading toward a sustained presence on the lunar poles and incorporating lunar surface activities as analogues in preparation for human missions to Mars.”
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano loads microbes into the Kubik centrifuge facility on the International Space Station. Credits: ESA
A research team at the University of Edinburgh in the UK has just published an analysis of data from an experiment on the International Space Station that could lead to “biomining” on Mars or an asteroid. Published in Nature Communications on November 10, Cockell, C.S., Santomartino, R., Finster, K. et al.* present experimental results demonstrating microbiological leaching of rare Earth elements from basalt rock, an analogue for much of the regolith material on the Moon and Mars. Called BioRock, the ESA sponsored experiment examined three species of microorganisms under variable gravity conditions in the Kubik centrifuge facility located in Europe’s Columbus module on the ISS.
This technology is a significant breakthrough for in situ resource utilization. By “living off the land” on the Moon, Mars or an asteroid, space settlers could have an available source of valuable materials used in electronic devices and many other high-technology applications. These rare Earth elements and the traditional heavy mining equipment needed to extract them would not have to be launched from Earth, significantly reducing transportation and processing costs. Positive results were found under Earth gravity, Mars gravity and microgravity conditions. The authors conclude that the experiment “…shows the efficacy of microbe–mineral interactions for advancing the establishment of a self-sustaining permanent human presence beyond the Earth and the technical means to do that.”
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.
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.
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
Artist’s impression of an inflatable habitat on the Moon. Credits / NASA, Gary Kitmacher
Haym Benroya, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University and author of Turning Dust to Gold, Building a Future on the Moon and Mars gave a presentation recently at a workshop of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK. The event kicked of a project sponsored by the EPSRC called Designing for the Future: Optimizing the structural form of regolith-based monolithic vaults in low-gravity conditions. Benroya shared his presentation with me in which he discusses the design challenges and solutions to optimize a reliable and safe lunar habitat.
The design of space settlements on the Moon will have an array of engineering challenges including protection from radiation, meteoroids, temperature extremes and Moonquakes. In addition, human factors such as psychological and physiological aspects associated with isolation and the lower gravity conditions need to be taken into consideration. This presentation summarizes all the key design constraints, especially those surrounding the thermal and seismic conditions, laying the engineering groundwork for safe dwellings that will be erected when we return to the Moon, hopefully this time to stay and thrive.
For the technically inclined who want more information on lunar settlement design methodology be sure and check out Benroya’s excellent book Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements.
And don’t miss our appearance along with Dr. David Livingston of The Space Show and Moonwards‘ Kim Holder at the Icarus Interstellar 2017 Starship Congress.
