At SSI 50, the Space Settlement Enterprise conference sponsored by the Space Studies Institute, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jim Logan, a medical doctor with 22 years experience as a NASA Flight Surgeon where he served as Chief, Flight Medicine and Chief, Medical Operations. Dr. Logan along with former Flight Dynamics Officer Dan Adamo, developed a strong argument in 2014 for Deimos as the ideal destination for initial space outposts. Says Logan, “Deimos, for a number of VERY valid reasons, is the best choice by far for early settlement”. Their paper outlining this concept provides a convincing argument that Deimos is the most valuable piece of real estate in the solar system.
On the last day of the conference Dr. Logan presented an innovative concept for a string of O’Neill type settlements constructed in a tunnel bored straight through Deimos. The architecture addresses the problem of radiation protection and delivers Earth normal gravity while providing an easy to get to platform for telerobotic exploration of Mars. Videos of this presentation will be coming soon on the SSI YouTube Channel.
Logan and Adamo are co-founders of the Space Enterprise Institute, which provides evidence-based research inspiring expansion of human activity in space.