Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Since Donald Trump became president in January there has been much speculation about his future space policy. Will he declare the moon his goal, and task NASA to take astronauts there? Or will he aim higher, doubling down on the push for Mars that NASA has been selling for the past six years? Or will he leave the exploration to private companies and citizens while squeezing NASAs budget into irrelevancy?

None of these choices are actually good ones. All repeat presidents failures since the 1960s to accomplish anything very striking in space. Since John F. Kennedy, subsequent presidents from Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama have all copied Kennedy, making a Kennedy-like space speech that committed the nation to some wonderful space goal by some significant date.

None of those commitments have been met. Some never even happened. Instead, all we have done since the Apollo program is go around in circles, spending gobs of taxpayer money without getting much of anything for it.

If Trump wants to truly lead the United States and world into the exploration and settlement of the solar system, he needs to do something different and game-changing. He also needs to shift the federal governments focus away from building spaceships and rockets and towards its much more basic legal responsibilities, especially when its citizens wish to establish their mark in new territories.

Trump should propose a system that would allow the nations of the world to claim territory in space. Only by doing that will colonization and settlement of the solar system be finally possible.

To do this will involve renegotiating or repealing the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, first passed in 1967. While that treaty has many good features, such as making nations liable for any damage caused by any object they launch, its fundamental purpose has been to forbid any nation from claiming sovereignty on any territory in space, a restriction that has been increasingly recognized as a fundamental obstacle to settling the solar system.

For example, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have all been recently reviewing their laws in an effort to promote the development of space. Some (Japan, Luxembourg, and the UK) have made proposals, but each has been limited by the restrictions of the Outer Space Treaty and have dealt only with Earthbound regulatory and liability issues.

Of these nations, Luxembourgone the worlds biggest investors in private enterprise in spacehas made the most effort to overcome the Outer Space Treaty. To encourage asteroid mining by private Luxembourg firms, they have proposed having their laws apply to the resources mined, not the territories themselves. As a result, the proposed law is very complex (thus raising development costs for private companies) while requiring a large bureaucracy. More importantly, it does nothing to legally protect the ownership of actual in situ space-mining operations. The Outer Space Treaty does not allow that.

These nations are actually late-comers to this issue. In the United States, Congress has been trying for decades to come up with a regulatory framework allowing for private development in space while still adhering to the Outer Space Treaty. All of these efforts have failed. Private enterprise in space is simply impossible under the UN treaty, since any private investment by individuals or companies remains exposed and unprotected legally.

Yet it is a governments fundamental job to establish an overall legal framework for its citizens. This is what the U.S. government did so well when the nation was forging westward and establishing new territories beyond the Mississippi River. Except for several relatively simple efforts like the Lewis and Clark expedition, the government never mounted a big government program to settle the west. Instead, it laid out the legal framework and territories under which the American population could do the settling, and then got out of the way.

So what should Trump do? At this moment he has a wonderful opportunity to put his stamp on the future, and steer the entire human race to the stars. Trump should propose a new Outer Space Treaty, superseding the old, that would let nations plant their flags in space. This new treaty should establish the rules by which individual nations can claim territory and establish their law and sovereignty on other worlds or asteroids.

The American homesteading acts of the 1800s could work as a good guide. Under those laws, if an American citizen staked a claim and maintained and developed it for five years, that claim and an accompanying amount of acreage would then become theirs.

In space, Trump could propose that in order for a nation to make a territorial claim, a nation or its citizens must establish a facility. If they occupy and use it for a minimum of five years, that nation can claim it, plus a reasonable amount of territory around it, and place it under that nations sovereignty.

Obviously this new Outer Space Treaty will require negotiation. For example, how much territory should each claim allow a nation to possess? One hundred square meters? A thousand? Ten thousand? Such a number must be determined by negotiation between the nations involved.

Similarly, what claims should the United States have on the landing sites it has already established on the moon and Mars? Does the United States already own the Apollo sites? Shall the United States claim all the territories its Martian rovers have travelled? Such questions will need discussion and negotiation.

Once such a system is in place, however, it will be possible for the United States, Luxembourg, Japan, the United Kingdom, and all other spacefaring countries to establish their legal systems on any territory in space they successfully claim. Private efforts by either individuals or companies within those territories will then have a framework under which they can protect their capital investments and property as they work to profit from their efforts.

Under this context, Trump should also push for a new American law that would apply to any American private effort in space. Once again, the homesteading acts can form a good framework. Under a new American homesteading act for space, American citizens could claim ownership of any real estate in space under U.S. jurisdiction, after they have established and maintained a claim on it for a period of years.

The size of territory private citizens claim should reflect their needs, as did the homestead acts of the 1800s. In the west it was found that 160 acres was sufficient for farmland, but desert claims needed to be larger, 640 acres, for farmers to succeed on them.

In space we do not yet know the right size for a self-sufficient homestead claim. Too small, and the homestead will not be viable. Too large, and we leave no more room for later settlers. As a start we could begin with 250 hectares, which is comparable to 640 acres, and adjust later with experience. Other nations could do some variation of the same, following their own national and cultural dictates.

Such an international and national framework would serve many laudable purposes. It would encourage competition and exploration, as every nation and person in the world would have an incentive to get there first to stake their claim.

No need to use force to establish control. The law would do it for you.

More importantly, it would provide a peaceful framework for every nation to settle and gain territory in space. Military conflict would be made irrelevant. You get there and build your base or colony, and the territory would be recognized as yours, by every nation on Earth. No need to use force to establish control. The law would do it for you.

Finally, this framework would allow for nations that believe in freedom and private property to establish their laws in space. Freedom and the American Constitution will be given an outlet throughout the solar system. Based on the success that system had in building the United States, this can only lead to good things.

President Trump has an opportunity now to change the nature of space exploration. To do so he needs to act boldly, and make fundamental political changes to the way the international community has been exploring space for the past half century. Having the government try to build the ships and rockets has not worked. Instead, we need the government to do its real jobestablishing lawwhile leaving the shipbuilding and profit-making to the citizens themselves.

If Trump does this, the future will be bright and exciting. If he doesnt, space exploration will continue to drift.

Link:
How President Trump Could Jumpstart Space Settlements - The Federalist

First Posted: Apr 15, 2017 06:30 AM EDT

(Photo : GoingViral/YouTube screenshot)

A team of researchers has fashioned a new 3D-printing technique that can be used to make everything, from small equipment to large buildings. Now, here comes the really interesting part -- the raw material needed for creating all of these things will be extraterrestrial dust from Mars or the Moon! The cool technology will allow humans to go ahead with space colonization plans as colonies can be built on alien worlds with limited surrounding resources.

According to The Indian Expressreport, a research team from the U.S. Northwestern University has demonstrated the capability to 3D-print structures with lunar and Martian dust simulants. The researchers used an extension of a 3D-painting process that had been earlier used by them to print graphene and carbon nanotubes, hyperelastic bone, metals and alloys.

For places like other moons and planets, where resources are limited, people would need to use what is available on that planet in order to survive, said Ramille Shah, from Northwesterns McCormick School of Engineering. Our 3D paints really open up the ability to print different structural or functional objects to make habitats beyond Earth. The research has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Incidentally, the lunar and Martian dust simulants, which are NASA approved, have sizes, particle shapes and compositions similar to the dust found on the surface of the Moon and Mars. The researchers created the Martian and lunar 3D paints with the respective simulant dust, a series of simple solvents and biopolymer. After which, a simple extrusion process was used to 3D paint them. The structures made with the technique are more than 90 percent dust in weight.

Interestingly, in spite of being created with rigid micro-rocks, the 3D-painted material is tough yet elastic and flexible -- same as rubber. This is also the first example of soft and rubber-like material that has resulted from Martian and lunar simulant materials.

Furthermore, the materials created with the technology, using extraterrestrial dust simulants, can be folded, rolled, cut or shaped after being 3D-painted, if one wants to do so. The researchers feel that in 3D-painting technologys broader context, the development of the technique shows the potential of using a 3D printer on another world to make structures from various kinds of materials.

Tags3D-printing technique, Extraterrestrial Dust, Extraterrestrial Dust Simulant, 3D-painting, Mars colonization, Moon colonization

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New 3D-Printing Method That Uses Extraterrestrial Dust, Helpful For Future Colonization Of Mars Or Moon - Science World Report

Finding life or indeed living on other planets ourselves has always been a dream but, at the rate that were going, it might soon become a critical necessity. Much of our off-planet colonization fantasies have focused on planets outside our solar system but, as NASA scientists are finding out, we might not have to look that far. Two separate and rather old NASA missions are discovering clues that Enceladus, Saturns icy moon, and Europa, Jupiters equally icy moon, might have just the right elements to sustain life, either ours or someone elses.

Although Cassini mission launched way back 1997, it wasnt until 2004 that it entered Saturns orbit. It took another 10 years, in 2014, for the orbiter to start reporting in some rather interesting findings coming from Saturns moon, Enceladus. According to a paper by Cassini mission researchers, the moon is ejecting plumes of what turned out to be 98% water, 1% hydrogen, and other gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and amonia. As it turns out, these are exactly some of the ingredients necessary to sustain life as we know it here on Earth.

Among the chemical ingredients of organic life, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen have already been observed on Enceladus. The other two, phospor and sulfur, have yet to be discovered, but scientists are confident that the elements are there, since Enceladus is believed to have a core similar to that of meteorites that have those two in abundance.

As for Jupiters moon Europa, the observation is less definitive and more remote, coming from the Hubble Space Telescope. Back in 2014, scientists observed what they thought was a one time plume, similar to the phenomenon on Enceladus. But just last year, they observed yet another, higher plume, and in the exact same location as the 2014 plume. Comparing it with thermal map that NASAs Galileo mission gathered in the 1990s, Hubble scientists discovered that the location corresponds to a thermal anomaly on Europa, a warm region on the otherwise frozen moon.

Considering the similarities, scientists are only too excited to theorize that the Europa plumes could also be composed mainly of water being ejected out of the moons icy crust and is warming up the region. It could, very well, also have the same life-sustaining elements as Enceladus. Hubble, unfortunately, is just too far to make further investigations, but the discovery is definitely getting NASA even more stoked about its 2020 Europa Clipper mission.

SOURCE: NASA

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Saturn's and Jupiter's moons might be able to sustain life - SlashGear

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The Cassini space probe detected hydrogen coming from Saturns moon, Enceladus, which suggests alien life could develop there, according to NASA.

NASA said Enceladus has almost all of the ingredients needed to support life as we know it on Earth, but admitted they found no living organisms. Hydrogen is an excellent source of chemical energy that supports life near deep sea hydrothermal vents on Earth. Scientists think this kind of chemical reaction could have been the origin of life on Earth.

NASA also announcedsimilar activity may be occurring on Jupiters moon, Europa. The Hubble Space Telescope spotted plumes on Europa, suggesting powerful thermal sources on the moons surface.

Enceladus and Europa are protected by an ice shell which maintains a liquid water ocean. Both of these moons are fairly similar and arejudged as the two of the most likely places in our solar system to find alien life. Life on Earth may have emerged from similar deep-ocean hydrothermal vents.

Here on Earth there are a number of things that protect life. With this research, we are making a big step forward towards answering the question, Is there life out there?' associate administratorof NASAs Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen said during the NASA press conference announcing the discovery.

Enceladus and Europa probably have watery and salty oceans similar to those of Earths below the ice, likely kept warm by complex gravitational interactions and the planets core.

The search for life beyond Earth has enthralled humans for ages, Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 directs NASA to continue to search for life and advance the science of astronomy, astrophysics and astrobiology. NASAs effort to search for life on ocean worlds is an important step in these efforts.

The Europa Clipper is a NASA robotic probe intended to launch sometime in the early 2020s. The probewill investigate the icy moons potential for human colonization and alien life.

Geologists announced in September that earthquakes on Earth can produce hydrogen. They concluded that the same kind of Marsquakes could also produce hydrogen on Mars, removing a major barrier to life.The Red Planets atmosphere is rich in oxygen, so an ample supply of hydrogen may indicate that water is more common on Mars than generally believed.

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NASA Find Ingredients For Life On Two Ocean Worlds Beyond Earth - Daily Caller

ANA SOFIA GUERREIRINHO | PHOTO COURTESY The moon, where Elon Musk is planning his temple of doom.

SpaceXshoots for the stars once again. Well, in this case, its actually our very own moon.

Yep, Luna is getting a facelift as Tesla CEO and SpaceX pioneer Elon Musk plans to build a community on the moon. Construction is planned to begin by 2030 with the help of NASA and a plea for government funding.

Musk has already begun preparation for travel to the moon. Late next year, he plans to take two people on a flyaround the moon through a Gatorade promotional campaign.

Tourism plays a large part in the future of human colonization, Musk said Wednesday afternoon.

While efforts will be made to make space exploration more affordable, estimates for the trip to the moon alone are nearing $1.7 million. Which is far less than his proposed attempt to colonize a mysterious city called Detroit, Michigan. Which only costs $29.

Elon Musk has several projects already in the works on Earth, which he hopes will contribute to his lunar paradise. The most important are arguably the solar powered roofs designed by Tesla Solar. Musk already hopes to make them more affordable than tile roofs and may yet use them to power his moon community.

He also is pushing forunderground tunnels to relieve traffic, which may work towards a tunnel system across the moon. His TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) has already dug a test trench in LA and will continue to improve tunneling efficiency.

Hoping to maintain an initial population of 1,200, Musk will be making an effort to select who can and cannot travel to the moon to live and work. Everyone must be screened and trained to live in space. As not to let in the wrong clientele, the idea of a wall was briefly tinkered with.

Unfortunately, the vacuum of space was considered too easy to tunnel through. No, Musk will be creating startup programs with the cooperation of NASA that will mass produce space-worthy candidates. Think of it like an astronaut puppy mill. Again, NASA will beg for funding.

I know the idea of moving to the final frontier may be scary at first, but at least Elon Musk is man enough brave the cold. Not to mention the undeniable tactical advantage of launching solar-powered nuclear missiles from the surface of the moon towards definitely not Russia. Tesla is a nuclear superpower thanks to Moon Emperor Musk.

I think we should all face the future with the same sense of adventure and determination. Also, we need more funding.

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Shooting for the Stars, with a Moon Base - NDSU The Spectrum

Team Original Gravity from the University of California is looking to take everyones favorite fermented yeast drink to new heights. File photo

Ever since space exploration has become a possibility for mankind, multiple innovative yet somehow crazy ideas have sprouted in recent years.

Ingenious plans like human colonization, and growing potatoes and greens in space all sound great, but another new idea definitely takes the cake.

A team of college students from the University of California in San Diego, United States, are looking totake drinking to a whole new spectrum, as they plan to brew fermented yeast on the moon.

Self-dubbed as Team Original Gravity, the students are finalists in the Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge, Business Insider reports.

We want to become the first people to ferment yeast on the moon,Neeki Ashari, one of the members,told the news outlet.

The team is looking to brew the concoction through the use of an automated 3D-printed device which holds separate compartments of sugary liquid and yeast.

The projected gadgetwhich is about the size of a soda canwill be managed through electronic controllers and will be able to log data about the fermentation process.

Once a space rover equipped with the device lands on the moon, a valve will automatically open the compartments, the report said. The yeast will then eat the liquids sugars and produce carbon dioxide to create beer.

Although their plans seem like a light-hearted science project at first, Ashari assures the public that it would soon play a pivotal role in human colonization.

Thisexperiment would far exceed brewing applications and would actually servea vital purpose, she explained. If we can understand this, it can play a role inconsumptive and clinical applications for the future of colonization inspace exploration.

Meanwhile, Googles esteemed competition aims to come up with low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.

If Team Original Gravity wins, they will receive a $20 millionfund and have their device launched in a lunar lander and rover to the moon in December 2017. One of the members will depart with the mission as well. Khristian Ibarrola/JB

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College students planning to brew beer on the moon - Inquirer.net

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NASA scheduled amajor press conference Thursday that may announce the discovery of alien life on an ocean world in our solar system.

The press conference willunveil new data about ocean worlds exploration including NASAs upcoming Europa Clipper mission planned for launch in the 2020s and the broader search for life beyond Earth.

The press statement indicated it will almost certainly be aboutJupiters moon Europa and could include Saturns moon Enceladus. Both of these moons are fairly similar and are two of the most likely places in our solar system to find alien life.

The Europa Clipper is a NASA robotic probe intended to launch a sometime in the early 2020s. The probewill investigate the icy moons potential for human colonization and alien life.

Europa and Enceladus probably have watery and salty oceans similar to those of Earths below the ice, likely kept warm by complex gravitational interactions and the planets core. Life could exist in theice-covered ocean perhaps in an environment similar to the deep-ocean hydrothermal vents where life on Earth may have emerged.

This isnt the first time time NASA has called a mysterious press conference about Europa.The space agency put out an unusually cryptic press release last Septemberclaiming it found surprising activity on Jupiters moon Europa, which many in the media suspected may have been signs of life on the moon.NASA called a similar emergency press conference when they announced the discovery of flowing water on Mars last September.

NASA previously used the Hubble Space Telescope to find evidence for water ice plumes jetting offEuropa, leading the agency to suspect the moon has an icy shell on top of an ocean of liquid water.NASA has alsofoundevidence of clay-like minerals associated with organic matteron the icy crust of Europa.

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NASA May Have Found Alien Life On Ocean World - Daily Caller

Throughout March, we published articles about the new space race as part of our ongoing project Futurography, which introduces readers to a new technological or scientific topic each month. Weve covered a range of issues, but were also interested in what you have to say, so weve written up the results of our survey on the topic. Meanwhile, Futurography continues with our April course on the synthetic biology.

There was no universal agreement between readers on the question of what space projects are most exciting. Many enthused about the prospect of getting humans to Mars, while others were more intrigued by sending a lander to Europaand perhaps even searching for life there. Some emphasized targets that are a little closer to home, such as setting up a colony on the surface of the moon. And though most readers took the question seriously, one joked (we hope!) that Sex with green women was the real goal.

Regardless of where were headedor what were trying to do when we get theremost thought that some combination of robotic and crewed missions would be ideal. The robotic exploration of the solar system is an absolute triumph, as is the Hubble. But human travel to space is going to happen, and we should be doing it, one wrote. A few, though, were skeptical, offering opinions such as, What added value do humans in space bring? Humans in space is a circus sideshow. Or, as another put it, we should hold off on human exploration until were ready for serious extra-planetary colonization efforts, since, Just sending people up to orbit the Earth does nothing.

That said, most agreed that efforts like landing a human on Mars had potentially important political ramifications. The first humans on Mars will either be American or Chinese. The political impacts could be large, one proposed. Others suggested that the public enthusiasm drilled up by a major space mission might be the most important element: Without public involvement, the political capital required for an effective space program will evaporate in favor of more immediate terrestrial concerns. But some were concerned that it might be dangerous to let nationalist interests drive efforts in space. One such respondent wrote, Id like to think it could be done apolitically. No one owns the moon; no one should own mars.

Many readers seemed convinced that more economically driven endeavors such as asteroid mining could yield real results. Indeed, one optimistically predicted, Asteroid miners will be the first trillionaires. Others were skeptical, suggesting that it would be decades before we see any real results. Another mused, With the tremendous cost of sending things into deep space, I dont see how we could get a decent return on our investment. And a few worried about the potential risks, asking, for example, What happens if there is a glut of asteroid minerals that crashes the base metals markets to the point that it's no longer profitable to launch rockets to mine asteroids?

Readers were less divided on the question of new countries joining the space race, tending on the whole toward cautious optimism. While a few wrote that it was too early to say which efforts would be most successful, many singled out for praise projects underway in India and the United Arab Emirates. And others argued that it was good for any nation to give it a shot, since new technology is always good for any country. These are very long gestation projects, so returns will take longer, one wrote, and another suggested that they might be most effective as incubators for high-tech engineering knowhow and carriers of national pride. Even some of those who were unsure suggested that it might have merit, as did one who wrote, [I]ts a good thing to get everyone into the picture. Maybe that would be a first step towards a United Earth.

Some of those who felt that less powerful nations shouldnt be investing in space felt that these nations should instead be ceding the field to private companies. Indeed, many wrote that even NASA might need to take a backseat to commercial initiatives, though by-and-large they seemed to think that the future would entail a balance of public and private. Governments have an important role to play in the future of space exploration, but it is a delicate role, one said. Developing on a similar line of reasoning, another argued, In particular, government space programs will provide the framework around which private space companies can build. And as one more reader wrote, [A]ll collaborative efforts are exciting including returning to the moon, going to Mars, and further studying the climatology of the home planet.

This article is part of the new space race installment of Futurography, a series in which Future Tense introduces readers to the technologies that will define tomorrow. Each month, well choose a new technology and break it down. Future Tense is a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate.

Link:
What Slate Readers Think About the New Space Race - Slate Magazine (blog)

People are starting to dream about the colonization of #Space again. Elon Musk, the visionary CEO of SpaceX, has already weighed in on a settlement on Mars. Now an Austrian architect and engineer named Werner Grandl has published his own thoughts on how we might colonize space with a plan that does not mention #Mars but rather focuses on the moon and Earth-approaching asteroids.

The first step would be to establish a #Lunar Base and use it to mine the moon for its resources, metals ranging from iron to platinum group metals, helium 3 for future fusion power plants, and water for rocket fuel. The lunar base could consist of a series of modules on the lunar surface or located underground, in a lava tube, protected from radiation and meteor strikes.

The next step would be to go to Earth-approaching asteroids, attach modules to them, and start mining them. If an asteroid happened to be 400 meters in diameter or greater, it could be hollowed out, a colony for about 2,000 people built inside, and then rotated to produce artificial gravity.

Mining and gravity are the keys. The moon and Mars have one drawback in that they have much lower gravity than Earth. People who live on these worlds will grow up accustomed to one-sixth and one-third gravity respectively and will be restricted in where else they can go. A native born Martian or Lunarian may not be able to visit Earth without a great deal of medical intervention and conditioning.

The idea of free-floating asteroid colonies is a variant on an idea first developed in the late 1960s and then popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by the late Dr. Gerard K. ONeill. The idea was that instead of setting down roots on another world with a hostile environment, build space-based colonies in which the environment can be controlled. Using space resources, the number of such flying settlements would be virtually unlimited. The idea somewhat fell out of favor toward the end of the 20th Century, however. But with more efforts being directed to asteroid and lunar mining, the vision of colonies in space may be due for a revival.

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To colonize space, go back to the moon and then mine the asteroids - Blasting News

PORTLAND In studying to become an aerospace engineer, Evan Peacos ultimate goal is to push space exploration beyond what were capable of now, including sending humans to Mars.

Peaco is a 2014 graduate of Portland High School and recently received the prestigious Dr. Robert H. Goddard memorial scholarship, worth $10,000, from the National Space Club.

Peaco,who topped 7,000 other applicants for the honor, was the keynote speaker at the clubs annual scholarship dinner, which was held in early March in Washington, D.C.

At the dinner, Peaco had the chance to meet legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was the lunar module pilot during the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, and the second man to walk on the moon.

In announcing Peaco as the winner of the Goodard scholarship, the National Space Club said he rose to the top of the competition with his strong academic record and experience in aerospace.

The process of becoming the Goodard scholar is a tough one, and includes first completing an online application and then submitting a video on why the applicant is inspired by space. Six finalists are chosen to undergo an interview process.

Peaco is a junior at the University of Maryland in College Park, where hes on the space systems track. He plans to earn at least a masters degree, but said this week hes not sure about also pursuing a Ph.D.

Members of the Portland School Board recognized Peaco for his achievement during their March 21 meeting, when Superintendent Xavier Botana said, We encourage (our) students to reach for the stars, and that is what Evan is doing, quite literally.

Peaco told the School Board that his time at Portland High School prepared him well and said many of his teachers were exceptionally able to engage students in the material they were teaching, and also cared about the success of every student individually.

As a student, Peaco said, he didnt participate solely on the math team and the robotics club, but also appreciated the opportunities he was given to take part in civic engagement, the arts and sports.

In particular, Peaco said he would like to recognize Daniel Deniso, who teaches AP calculus at Portland High, as well as Ileen DaPonte, who teaches 10th grade math and who also led the math team when Peaco was a student.

Id also like to recognize (Rosalee) Lamm, who I had for geometry and physics and who organized the schools Robotics Team, he said, adding, in general Id like to recognize all the teachers I had at Portland High School and King Middle School, (because) each of them helped me to reach where I am today.

In his keynote address to the National Space Club, Peaco said hes always loved gazing at the moon and the planets and its his hope that hell witness the first humans setting foot on Mars within his lifetime.

But, he said, such progress will only be possible if the people of the world work together to make it happen.

As an aerospace engineering undergraduate, Peaco said most of his classes are math, science, and engineering-based. So, for example, Ive taken classes covering aerodynamics, electricity and magnetism, special relativity, quantum mechanics (and) thermodynamics, among others.

Currently, he said, Im taking classes on control theory, spaceflight dynamics and aerospace structures. I havent taken any astronomy classes at university, but Ive kept it up as a hobby.

Peaco said he looks forward to the commercialization of space.

That means more opportunities for space tourism colonization (and) asteroid mining, he said. In the more distant future, I hope people will be able to easily travel to destinations like the moon and Mars, (which would) pave the way for permanent colonization of these places.

With government funding of NASA significantly reduced, Peaco said there are areas where the private sector can make real progress in space exploration.

Right now, he said, we are seeing private companies creating technologies that will drastically reduce the cost of reaching low-Earth orbit, which will greatly accelerate the commercialization of space.

However, the government still needs to play a leading role in space exploration, Peaco added. As its the only entity with the potential to fund grand achievements like a Mars mission.

Evan Peaco, a Portland High School graduate and winner of the National Space Clubs Goodard scholarship, touring theNASA Goddard Space Flight Center with the James Webb Space Telescope in the background.

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Portland High School grad reaches for the stars - The Forecaster