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
EXPAT: Expandable Shielded Rotating Space Habitat
Anthony Longman of Skyframe Research presented his concept for a free space settlement built from Asteroid materials at the Space Studies Institute SSI 50 last September. The system uses a structural design concept called Tensegrity to start small from an 8.5m pressure hull and expand iteratively to progressively larger stages ending with a habitat large enough for 8000 people. The final structure contains 90 acres of managed woodland complete with outdoor mall space and over 5 floors of living quarters. Longman appeared recently on The Space Show to provide further details of the concept. His presentation can be found at timestamp 1:32 into the SSI 50: 01 Habitat Design Presentation.
Deep space mining made cheaper
University of Adelaide in cooperation with Space Tango are testing continuous-flow chemistry processes for economically viable extraction of precious metals from asteroids. Link here.
Two near-term research projects for mining the moon and asteroids
Skylight uses high-resolution images to create 3D models of craters to enable mapping and prospecting for resources.
Mini Bee is a proof-of-concept platform for optically focusing sunlight on asteroids to ablate surface material toward collection of water and minerals
https://www.space.com/nasa-moon-asteroid-mining-concepts-niac-2019.html