If you like Space Settlement, go see Elysium!

I saw the new sci-fi movie Elysium with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster a couple nights ago. First, it's a good movie, not a great movie, but a good movie that held my interest, made me care about the characters, had a good message, and included a goodly bit of drama, humor, and excitement. Three days later I'm still seeing scenes in my head, a good sign.

Elysium is set in a world with an over-populated, dirt-poor Earth and a wealthy, beautiful, wonderful and extremely large free-space settlement in Low Earth Orbit called, you guessed it, Elysium. The movie answers one of the great questions of space settlement: why would anyone want to live in space? Because it can be a really great place to live. There's another important pro-space settlement message but I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't tell you what it is.

Some in the space movement have criticized Elysium because, among other things, it is a haves vs. have nots movie and they don't like such things. To me, that's like complaining that dogs bark. It's a movie, and this is one of the standard stories of the entertainment business (going back, at least, to Cinderella). Other's complain about technical inaccuracies, of which there are plenty. To which I say, it's a movie, folks, not an engineering project!

So if you want to see a beautiful depiction of exactly how great living in space could be, and have a good two hours of entertainment to boot, go see Elysium!

A Gutsy Asteroid Move!

"NASA's fiscal 2014 budget request will include $100 million for a new mission to find a small asteroid, capture it with a robotic spacecraft, and bring it into range of human explorers somewhere in the vicinity of the Moon," according to Aviation Week and Space Technology. For more detail on the concept behind this mission see A Comparison of Astronaut Near-Earth Object Missions by the Asteroid Mining Group (including yours truly) and/or the more detailed Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study by the Keck Institute at JPL.

If successful, I believe this is a game-changing mission. There would be roughly 500 tons of asteroid safely stored in a convenient, easy-to-get-to orbit. It is reasonable to expect that the government would lease mining rights, which is done all the time with federal lands on Earth, at little or no cost. Thus, one of the hardest parts of space mining would be accomplished, the first delivery of large amounts of extra-terrestrial material much closer to potential customers (i.e., people on Earth and the satellite industry). The asteroid mining industry would get a huge lift not only from the materials delivered, but the fact that a second (or third or ...) delivery would cost much less.

Furthermore, put enough of these missions together and you have the materials to build the first space settlement in Earth orbit! Admittedly, this would requie a lot of missions and/or returning larger asteroids. Still, this mission would be a significant step on one of the Paths to Space Settlement, my vision of the most effective approach to space settlement.

If you think this mission has merit, consider contacting your elected representatives.

A Small Step Toward Space Hotels

On January 11, NASA announced a $17.8 million contract with Bigelow Aerospace to provide an inflatable BEAM module to attach to the ISS in 2015.

The eighth ISS SpaceX Dragon flight is expected to deliver the module in 2015, and it should stay at least two years before being released and sent to burn up in the atmosphere. Interior pressure, temperature and radiation levels will be monitored and compared to conventional rigid modules. Folded up, the BEAM can ride within the “trunk” section behind the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The BEAM is 4m long and 3.2m in diameter when inflated. That’s slightly shorter and a somewhat wider than the two Genesis modules currently in orbit.

This is a nice step on the way to a private space hotel!

BTW: current prices for Bigelow's to their in-work Alpha station, consisting of two BA-330 modules are:

Astronaut flights: $26.25 million/seat via Dragon/Falcon 9

Leasing volume: 1/3 of a BA-330 (110 cubic meters) for $25 million for 60 days, which works out to $150 million for the whole facility.

This would work nicely for a Space Olympics! See a space olympics educational proposal

Space hotels are, of course, part of one of the Paths to Space Settlement.

We Just Got a Warning Shot, More Coming

This morning a small asteroid streaked through the Russian sky and exploded, breaking windows, damaging buildings, and injuring about 1,000 people, 40-50 of whom needed hospitalization. See the New York Times article. There have been at least three other hits like this in the past few years.

Here's some of my favorite videos of today's hit:

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3

There is a truth that needs to be told: there are thousands of much larger asteroids out there that will hit us, we just don't know when. Before the next big one hits, we need to find it and deflect it. Finding and deflecting asteroids is not particularly expensive as space projects go, but the current NASA funding is pathetic, about $5 million/year (in a $17,000 million budget). We have to find these killers some day, why wait and risk disaster? Why not do it now?

If you want to help, consider donating to the B612 Foundation Sentinel Space Telescope. If successful this project will find 100 times more potentially dangerous asteroids than we have found so far (about 10,000). Once we find the next good sized incoming asteroid, funding for a deflection mission should be easy to come by :-)

To see how this relates to space settlement, see Paths to Space Settlement, Al Globus, NSS Space Settlement Journal November 2012.

Best Way to Honor Neil Armstrong

"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."  -- Armstrong's family

Space Tourism, Space Solar Power, and ITAR Development

Some good space news has surfaced in the last fews days.

First, the International Astronautical Associated released a report on Space Solar Power. The first news report talks about ten years and millions of jobs. Also, see the full report.

Second, a breathtaking video of the Earth from Space was created from pictures take by ISS (international Space Station) astronauts. Do not miss this!

Finally, in a little inside but very important news, A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that seeks ITAR reform relative to "commercial satellites and related components" (HR3288). The bill is called the "Safeguarding United States Satellite Leadership and Security Act of 2011", and is being co-sponsored by a bi-partisan group of Congressmen. This is important because current law severely restricts the ability of American companies to export satellites and satellite components, even to close allies.

A Big, Big Step Towards Space Settlement Soon?

The key to space settlement is inexpensive, reliable launch from Earth to orbit. The least expensive, and IMHO most exciting, vehicle today is the SpaceX Falcon. The Falcon 9 has flown a couple of times and is priced at about $5,000/kg, which is well below other launch vehicles. The Falcon Heavy is in development and promises to lower costs even more, to as little as $1,500/kg. The Falcon 9 and Heavy are expendable launchers, meaning the vehicle does not survive the launch and a new vehicle must be built for the next payload. If it were possible to use these vehicles over and over, without too much refurbishment between launches, costs could be dramatically lowered.

I just listened to a talk by Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX. He says that analysis and simulation suggest that they can fly the Falcon 9 first stage back to the launch pad and, with a heat shield and aerodynamic exterior, get the upper stage back as well. He also says that it will be difficult and they may fail, but they intend to try. He estimates the reduction in cost at about 100x. That means SpaceX thinks they can get costs down to around $60/kg.

They could easily be wrong, but if they are even in the ballpark this is revolutionary -- and the 1,500 employees at SpaceX are going to try.

Wow.

Is there something you can do to help? If you are a US voter, yes. Contact your congressional representatives and ask them to insist that the air force buy launch services with a free and open competition.

Background: The air force launches many satellites into orbit. They are proposing a sole source, non-competitive contract with a consortium of Lockheed and Boeing to buy all of their launches through 2018. If this contract goes through, SpaceX, or any other company, would not be allowed to bid. This is in spite of the fact that SpaceX is cheaper and the Falcon vehicles are built entirely in the U.S. whereas one of the vehicles in the sole source contract, the Atlas V, has a Russian-built main engine! In other words, the air force is insisting on buying Russian engines rather than American products!