Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Yesterday humanity marked a glorious milestone: SpaceX successfully relaunched and re-landed a Falcon 9 -- the first time in history a rocket has been reused.

Reusing rockets is a big deal. In his superb deep dive into all things Elon Musk, Wait But Why author Tim Urban provides a useful analogy: Imagine the current air travel industry with one key difference: an airplane works for one flight only. Each flight is on a brand new plane, and after the flight, passengers exit into the terminal and the plane is broken down into scrap metal and possibly-reusable parts that are sent off to be refurbished for use in a future plane.

An airplane costs around $300 million to build. So in this new model, in addition to paying for the crews time and fuel, airlines have to spend $300 million extra each flight to build a plane. How would that change things?

First, there would be very few flights availablethe schedule would be limited by the pace of plane production. Second, the price of a round-trip ticket between Chicago and San Francisco would now cost about $1.5 million per person. For economy.

$1.5 million per person round-trip to SFO sounds crazy, but its a surprisingly appropriate analogy. Space shuttle missions cost over $200 million per astronaut. What if they could reuse the rocket?

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musks projection is that reusable rockets could bring the cost of space travel down 100x. But the implications are way bigger than making it cheaper for communications companies to fling satellites into low earth orbit.

Weve just gotten a step closer to becoming a multiplanetary species.

Right now, theres lots of talk of getting to Mars. Even Donald Trump has gotten in on the action, signing an order for a human mission to Mars by 2033.

Going to Mars is one thing. Weve sent people to the moon; we will eventually send people to Mars. But staying on Mars is something else entirely. In order to stay there, we need to send lots of people. We need ways to get them back if necessary. In other words, we have to make the round-trip flight between planets cost closer to $350 than $1.5 million.

And why would we want to stay there? Simple: to enhance the chances of humanitys survival.

Right now, we live at risk of a single event wiping out all of humanity. Solar flares, supervolcanoes In A Short History Of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson describes two recent near-misses, when an asteroid passed within just 100,000 miles of earth. In cosmic terms, he said, this was the equivalent of a bullet passing through your sleeve without touching your arm.

Keeping the entire human species on one planet is a recipe for extinction.

And so the push to colonize other planets. A sustainable population on Mars means we double our chances of not being on the planet that gets hit by an asteroid.

But going to Mars also gives us a chance to create a new kind of society, without the baggage weve built up on earth.

On Mars, we could apply a new model of government. We could invent a new economic system. We could upend the legacy systems -- the historic racism, the systemic inequality, the ingrained poverty -- that make life on earth so painful for so many.

Idealistic fantasies? Sure. But possible. Right now, there are lots of people on earth trying to create systems that are fairer and more just, but they continually run up against the brick wall of civilizations inertia. The vacuum of space, however, has no such wall.

Time to get off this rock, methinks.

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The Colonization Of Mars - MediaPost Communications

Scientists find evidence that a 50-meter-deep pit on the Moon's surface could be a skylight opening to an intact lava tube tens of kilometers long.

Lunar colonization isnt mere science fiction anymore. Billionaires plan to send tourists on once-in-a-lifetime trips, and politicians say that they hope to colonize the Moon in the next few decades. There may even be ways for human colonists to harvest water from ice that may be permanently shadowed in certain caves.

But where could a human colony actually live? The Moon has no atmosphere or magnetic field to shield it from solar radiation and micrometeorites that constantly rain onto its surface. Thats no environment for our squishy, earthling bodies.

Scientists studying the Moons surface may have found the answer: shelter humans in lunar lava tubes. The Moon is covered in huge swaths of ancient basaltic lava flows. Earths volcanoes can also erupt similar flows, with basalt sometimes running as molten rivers. In these rivers, the outside cools faster than the inside, creating a hard shell. The remaining lava pours out, leaving a hollow space behind.

Do similar lava tubes exist on the Moon?

In a presentation on Wednesday at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in The Woodlands, Texas, Junichi Haruyama, a senior researcher at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), discussed one such lava tube that he suspects may be snaking underneath the Moons surface.

Could the pit be a skylight opening to an intact lava tubes long, narrow passage?In 2009, Haruyama and his team spotted evidence of a dark hole in the Moons Marius Hills region in data from the Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya (nicknamed SELENE, which stands for Selenological and Engineering Explorer). What the researchers didnt know was whether the pit led to something larger below. Two narrow surface depressions called sinuous rilles, which scientists think represent collapsed portions of lava tubes, stretch away from the pit. Could the pit be a skylight opening to an intact lava tubes long, narrow passage?

Ancient basaltic lava flows called lunar mare cover much of the Moon, similar to the much younger Columbia River basalts in the western United States. But because the Moons gravity is one sixth that of Earths, gravity doesnt impede lava flow as much, allowing lava to spread widely across the surface. Nonetheless, lunar lava tubes may have formed in an Earth-like way, Haruyama said.

Last year, another team spotted gravity anomalies that suggested hollow, narrow spaces around the Marius Hills pit. These data came from NASAs Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which consists of two spacecraft orbiting the Moon. The orbiters can detect these anomalies by measuring how much the Moons gravity tugs on them. Areas of more mass tug on the spacecraft more, whereas hollow areas have less mass and so tug on GRAIL less.

To confirm GRAILs findings, Haruyama and his colleagues turned again to SELENEs data, looking closer at the sinuous rilles. They specifically looked at data from SELENEs Lunar Radar Sounder (LRS), which imaged the subsurface using low-frequency radio waves.

The LRS data revealed hollow space more than 100 meters deep in some places and tens of kilometers long underneath one of the rilles near the pit. The pit it self looked to be 50 kilometers deep. These data led researchers to believe that the pit could, indeed, be a collapsed portion of a lava tube roof. These data also match the gravity readings from GRAIL, Haruyama said.

If humans, via rover or their own two feet, ever got access to the tubes, the science would be amazing, said Brent Garry, a geophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The tubes interior tempts with pristine surfaces, absent of lunar soil or bombardment by micrometeorites, he said. These surfaces could offer answers to questions about the Moons origin and formation.

If humans ever got access to the tubes, the science would be amazing.In another LPSC presentation on Wednesday, Garry detailed a way to closely explore these tubes, using light detection and ranging, also known as lidar. On Earth, scientists use lidar scanners to map both land and the ocean floor. More recently, scientists have started employing lidar to map Earths vast network of caves.

Over the past 2 years, Garry and his team used a lidar scanner to map the inside of a lava tube at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho. The park is named for the otherworldly feel of its basaltic lava flows. Apollo astronauts even studied the geology of the park there before ever stepping on its namesake.

Lidar scanners work by pinging their surroundings with beams of laser light and measuring the time it takes for the light to bounce back. The scanners can take millions of data points every second, allowing for the creation of highly detailed 3-D maps. They also dont depend on sunlight, which could make them useful in a shadowy lunar pit. Garry suggests that lidar would be extremely useful in mapping centimeter- to millimeter-scale features, helping future explorers determine the structure of a lava tube.

How to get the scanner into a tube is another story, one that would involve transportation using a rover, Garry said.

Haruyama and Garry agree that lava tubes could, in theory, shield humans from the Suns unfiltered radiation and the wide surface temperature fluctuations experienced on the Moon: temperatures over one Moon day (27 Earth days) can range between 123C and 153C. In contrast, Earths average temperature is only about 16C.

Whats more, lunar lava tubes likely have flat floors like those on Earth, easing the way for vehicles or instruments, Haruyama said.

However, long-term human colonies on the Moon likely wont happen in the nearor even farfuture. Ben Bussey, chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA, explained during a NASA town hall meeting on Monday that NASAs deep-space habitability plans are currently focused on reaching Mars and that plans dont call for going onto the lunar surface before going to Mars.

But if those plans ever change, at least we know may have a place to crashfiguratively, at least.

JoAnna Wendel (@JoAnnaScience), Staff Writer

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Lunar Lava Tubes Could Offer Future Moon Explorers a Safe Haven - Eos

Software company 8i is leading the charge for volumetric human capture, a key technology that could have a lasting importance across virtual platforms. Digitally created characters are very detailed and can leave an impression in interactive and/or cinematic experiences but, when attempting to recreate real people, theres a level of realism that just isnt reached. 8is holograms are bringing real people into virtual experiences with a high image quality that doesnt break the immersion and they have the tech on display for their narrative experience Cycling Pathways To Mars at the 2017 South by Southwest show (SXSW).

Buzz Aldrin, one of the legendary astronauts from the worlds first moon landing, is the subject of 8is tech in Cycling Pathways To Mars. Aldrin and 8i previously collaborated on Message To Mars, a project that couldcombat mission isolation for astronauts, and this new experience is essentially an extension of that. Aldrin has had a complex theory for how the colonization of Mars would begin, but it was not something easily explained to those that dont share Aldrins level of expertise. The immersion of VR coupled with Aldrins knowledge made for a narrative experience where his words are brought to life and viewers, such as myself, come away with a much better understanding.

Cycling Pathways To Mars places you on a platform with a projection system on the floor that displays the virtual Buzz Aldrin as he theorizes the different steps needed to move toward Mars colonization. As he walks us through his ideas, the space around us unfolds to match what he describes. Were shown his original moon landing, the moon of the future, the proposed journey to Mars on massive ships called Cyclers and, finally, the Mars colony. The experience is running on an HTC Vive in roomscale, so youre able to walk around the platform and get a look at things from a different perspective.

Planets fly through you as youre surrounded by thesolar system and youll even fly through the Cycler and get a close look at its components. There was an interesting interaction I was making that I didnt realize until my host told me after the hands-on. Ben Stein, 8is General Manager, pointed out I gave Buzz Aldrins hologram a wide berth and those before me had done the same. I moved through the other digital assets with no problem, but I really felt like Aldrin was sharing the space with me. 8i has shared images of their volumetric projections before, but seeing one close up really reveals how impactful they can be.

If youre at SXSW, you owe it to yourself to check out Cycling Pathways To Mars. It is being hosted at the Marriott in downtown Austin until Thursday March 16. On Friday, it will be available through TIME Inc so others can experience it as well.

Tagged with: 8i, buzz aldrin, SXSW

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SXSW 2017: Buzz Aldrin Shows Us The Pathway To Mars ... - UploadVR

Old English mona, from Proto-Germanic *menon- (cf. Old Saxon and Old High German mano, Old Frisian mona, Old Norse mani, Danish maane, Dutch maan, German Mond, Gothic mena "moon"), from PIE *me(n)ses- "moon, month" (cf. Sanskrit masah "moon, month;" Avestan ma, Persian mah, Armenian mis "month;" Greek mene "moon," men "month;" Latin mensis "month;" Old Church Slavonic meseci, Lithuanian menesis "moon, month;" Old Irish mi, Welsh mis, Breton miz "month"), probably from root *me- "to measure," in reference to the moon's phases as the measure of time.

A masculine noun in Old English. In Greek, Italic, Celtic, Armenian the cognate words now mean only "month." Greek selene (Lesbian selanna) is from selas "light, brightness (of heavenly bodies)." Old Norse also had tungl "moon," ("replacing mani in prose" - Buck), evidently an older Germanic word for "heavenly body," cognate with Gothic tuggl, Old English tungol "heavenly body, constellation," of unknown origin or connection. Hence Old Norse tunglfylling "lunation," tunglrr "lunatic" (adj.).

Extended 1665 to satellites of other planets. To shoot the moon "leave without paying rent" is British slang from c.1823; card-playing sense perhaps influenced by gambler's shoot the works (1922) "go for broke" in shooting dice. The moon race and the U.S. space program of the 1960s inspired a number of coinages, including, from those skeptical of the benefits to be gained, moondoggle (cf. boondoggle). The man in the moon is mentioned since early 14c.; he carries a bundle of thorn-twigs and is accompanied by a dog. Some Japanese, however, see a rice-cake-making rabbit in the moon.

c.1600, "to expose to moonlight;" later "idle about" (1836), "move listlessly" (1848), probably on notion of being moonstruck. The meaning "to flash the buttocks" is first recorded 1968, U.S. student slang, from moon (n.) "buttocks" (1756), "probably from the idea of pale circularity" [Ayto]. See moon (n.). Related: Mooned; mooning.

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Moon | Define Moon at Dictionary.com

Commercial space missions, colonies on Mars and finding a way for the tourists of the future to book round-trip flights to the Moon were among the out-of-this-world ideas being discussed by brainiacs yesterday at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology forum aimed at helping private companies get a foothold in what could be a budding multibillion dollar economy.

The universitys second annual New Space Age Conference focused on getting out in front of the space race of the new millennium, which is being fueled by private companies looking to create and expand a brand new commercial market for space travel.

Aside from making space travel affordable for the public, one of the hot topics at yesterdays forum was the ongoing effort to land astronauts on Mars and the technology that would be required before a human could set foot on the Red Planet.

Among the challenges facing future Mars-bound astronauts will be dealing with radiation exposure, developing better propulsion systems that will allow them to complete the journey, which would currently take eight months, and creating equipment reliable enough to withstand the journey.

If we had all these things, we can just do it, said Jeffrey Hoffman, a former NASA astronaut and MIT professor. Theres a lot of challenges ahead.

Hoffman, who serves as the deputy principal investigator of an experiment aiming to produce oxygen from extraterrestrial material for NASAs Mars 2020 mission, said finding a way to get there is one thing but finding a way to create a self-sustainable colony will be exponentially more difficult.

The level of skills well need will be much broader, Hoffman said. Well need a lot of MacGyvers up there.

Keegan Kirkpatrick, an aerospace engineer and founder of RedWorks, said in order for humans to truly become interplanetary, future astronauts will have to cut the cord completely.

Mars has to operate independently from Earth, he said. Colonization is a question of high value and low cost. You have to have a lot of people to support a large diverse economy. Mars has to achieve resource independence. This was key to the colonization of the Americas.

And when it comes to funding such an ambitious expedition, scientists gathered yesterday agreed its going to take a partnership between government and private companies.

It would be prohibitively expensive, Hoffman said, noting the $20 billion Apollo 11 mission that sent man to the moon in 1969 would cost $150 billion today.

If the government is sponsoring an expedition and something goes wrong, they get holed up in the halls of Congress. If a private company gets into an accident, they answer to shareholders, Hoffman said. Its going to take a public-private partnership.

The university will host another daylong seminar today, titled Beyond the Cradle: Envisioning a New Space Age, which will focus on how to adapt our culture for people that may never call Earth home and how to develop the habitats, spacecraft and innovations of the future.

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Travel to the Red Planet is the next big biz (ad)venture - Boston Herald

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After The Washington Post obtained a copy of the confidential white paper that Bezos space company Blue Origin is passing on to Trumps transition team, the company verified its authenticity. And while Elon Musks SpaceX rushes to beat Trumps own lunar ambitions, Bezos is focused on the logistics of something a little more permanent than private sightseeing excursions.

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Blue Origin want to deliver cargo to the moon, paving the way for sustained human colonization of our natural satellite. Theyve even picked a spot for this potential real estate a cheery little crater near the moons south pole, with access to water via ice hidden in the craters shadows, and enough consistent sunlight to make use of solar energy.

The thought of lunar expansion hasmanaged to whet the appetites of several companies, who are already offering their own ideas for involvement. One such example is Bigelow Aerospace. Its founder, Robert Bigelow, wants to adapt the design of their BEAM habitat, currently docked with the International Space Station. He wants to create an orbital depot to house supplies and medical facilities.

According to Bigelow, venturing toward Mars is premature. As for the moon? Bigelow asserts that We have the technology. We have the ability, and the potential for a terrific business case. For his part, Bezos believes that if you go to the moon first, and make the moon your home, then you can get to Mars more easily.

Bezos says that this projectonly be done in partnership with NASA, and believes that [Blue Origins] liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission. He is personally excited about this, to the point of investing his own money alongside NASA,to make sure they get there.

Blue Moon is all about cost-effective delivery of mass to the surface of the Moon, according to the Amazon boss. Any credible first lunar settlement will require that capability But all of this is just the beginning of Blue Origins ambitions. Their first proposed mission hopes to be just the first in a series of increasingly capable missions.

Well have to wait to see whether President Trump and his advisors are as excited about the possibilities as Bezos himself.

Follow Nate Church @Get2Church on Twitter for the latest news in gaming and technology, and snarky opinions on both.

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Jeff Bezos Wants to Improve Amazon Delivery Service... to the Moon ... - Breitbart News

It seems like the world has caught a case of moon fever.

On February 27, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that two unnamed people are paying his rocket company, SpaceX, to send them on an auto-piloted trip around the moon in 2018. Later The Washington Post revealed that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos and his own rocket company, Blue Origin, had circulated a 2020 moon colonization plan around Capitol Hill.

But its not just a gaggle of billionaires whove set their sights on Luna. On Tuesday, Congress passed its first big NASA budget in nearly 7 years. The bill calls on NASA to reach the moon by 2021.

To bring everything back to Earth a little, we called up Jim Lovell: an astronaut who visited the moon twice, once during Apollo 8 (the first crewed lunar mission) and again on Apollo 13 (which required a storied effort to rescue from disaster).

During a wide-ranging interview, we asked Lovell if there was a moment on Apollo 8 that he wished he spoke more about and his response floored us.

But first, a little setup.

Apollo 8, which launched aboard a gigantic Saturn V rocket on December 21, 1968, took off during what Lovell called a hilarious time for the planet.

There was the Vietnam War going on, it was not a popular war, especially with the younger people, Lovell told Business Insider. There were riots, there were two assassinations of prominent people during that period, and so things were looking kind of bad in this country.

And yet at the end of the year, he said, NASA was working toward its commitment, made in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, to send people to the moon before the end of that decade.

And it happened. So in the last few weeks or days of 1968 we accomplished something that we set out to do that was favourable and approved by just about every body in this country, he said.

However, Lovell said that he and his two crewmates, Frank Borman and Bill Anders, soon realised it was more than just a spaceflight.

You have to remember we brought back a picture of the Earth as it is 240,000 miles away. And the fact is, it gives you a different perspective of the Earth when you see it as three-dimensional between the sun and the moon, and you begin to realise how small and how significant the body is, he said. When I put my thumb up to the window I could completely hide it, and then I realised that behind my thumb that Im hiding this Earth, and there are about 6 billion people that are all striving to live there.

Lovell said this moment was a seed being planted, and one that would germinate into full blossom once he was back on Earth.

You have to really kind of think about our own existence here in the universe. You realise that people often say, I hope to go to heaven when I die,' he said. In reality, if you think about it, you go to heaven when youre born.

By this Lovell meant the remarkable situation we find ourselves in: floating on a cosy rock that is drifting through the seemingly endless void of space.

You arrive on a planet that has the proper mass, has the gravity to contain water and an atmosphere, which are the very essentials for life, he said. And you arrive on this planet thats orbiting a star just at the right distance not too far to be too cold, or too close to be too hot and just at the right distance to absorb that stars energy and then, with that energy, cause life to evolve here in the first place.

In reality, you know, God has really given us a stage, just looking at where we were around the moon, a stage on which we perform. And how that play turns out is up to us, I guess, he said.

Trapped on a cosmic stage together, and at a time when the US is again painfully divided, Lovells words are ones we could all take to heart.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post and is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

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Apollo astronaut: 'You go to heaven when you are born' - Business Insider Australia

March 10, 2017 by Matt Williams, Universe Today Artist's concept of a terraformed Mars (left) and an O'Neill Cylinder. Credit: Ittiz/Wikimedia Commons (left)/Rick Guidice/NASA Ames Research Center (right)

The idea of terraforming Mars aka "Earth's Twin" is a fascinating idea. Between melting the polar ice caps, slowly creating an atmosphere, and then engineering the environment to have foliage, rivers, and standing bodies of water, there's enough there to inspire just about anyone! But just how long would such an endeavor take, what would it cost us, and is it really an effective use of our time and energy?

Such were the questions dealt with by two papers presented at NASA's "Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop" last week (Mon. Feb. 27th Wed. Mar. 1st). The first, titled "The Terraforming Timeline", presents an abstract plan for turning the Red Planet into something green and habitable. The second, titled "Mars Terraforming the Wrong Way", rejects the idea of terraforming altogether and presents an alternative.

The former paper was produced by Aaron Berliner from the University of California, Berkeley, and Chris McKay from the Space Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center. In their paper, the two researchers present a timeline for the terraforming of Mars that includes a Warming Phase and an Oxygenation Phase, as well as all the necessary steps that would precede and follow.

As they state in their paper's Introduction:

"Terraforming Mars can be divided into two phases. The first phase is warming the planet from the present average surface temperature of -60 C to a value close to Earth's average temperature to +15 C, and recreating a thick CO atmosphere. This warming phase is relatively easy and quick, and could take ~100 years. The second phase is producing levels of O in the atmosphere that would allow humans and other large mammals to breath normally. This oxygenation phase is relatively difficult and would take 100,000 years or more, unless one postulates a technological breakthrough."

Before these can begin, Berliner and McKay acknowledge that certain "pre-terraforming" steps need to be taken. These include investigating Mars' environment to determine the levels of water on the surface, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in ice form in the polar regions, and the amount of nitrates in Martian soil. As they explain, all of these are key to the practicality of making a biosphere on Mars.

So far, the available evidence points towards all three elements existing in abundance on Mars. While most of Mars water is currently in the form of ice in the polar regions and polar caps, there is enough there to support a water cycle complete with clouds, rain, rivers and lakes. Meanwhile, some estimates claim that there is enough CO in ice form in the polar regions to create an atmosphere equal to the sea level pressure on Earth.

Nitrogen is a also fundamental requirement for life and necessary constituent of a breathable atmosphere, and recent data by the Curiosity Rover indicate that nitrates account for ~0.03% by mass of the soil on Mars, which is encouraging for terraforming. On top of that, scientists will need to tackle certain ethical questions related to how terraforming could impact Mars.

For instance, if there is currently any life on Mars (or life that could be revived), this would present an undeniable ethical dilemma for human colonists especially if this life is related to life on Earth. As they explain:

"If Martian life is related to Earth life possibly due to meteorite exchange then the situation is familiar, and issues of what other types of Earth life to introduce and when must be addressed. However, if Martian life in unrelated to Earth life and clearly represents a second genesis of life, then significant technical and ethical issues are raised."

To break Phase One "The Warming Phase" down succinctly, the authors address an issue familiar to us today. Essentially, we are altering our own climate here on Earth by introducing CO and "super greenhouse gases" to the atmosphere, which is increasing Earth's average temperature at a rate of many degrees centigrade per century. And whereas this has been unintentional on Earth, on Mars it could be re-purposed to deliberately warm the environment.

"The timescale for warming Mars after a focused effort of super greenhouse gas production is short, only 100 years or so," they claim. "If all the solar incident on Mars were to be captured with 100% efficiency, then Mars would warm to Earth-like temperatures in about 10 years. However, the efficiency of the greenhouse effect is plausibly about 10%, thus the time it would take to warm Mars would be ~100 years."

Once this thick atmosphere has been created, the next step involves converting it into something breathable for humans where O levels would be the equivalent of about 13% of sea level air pressure here on Earth and CO levels would be less than 1%. This phase, known as the "Oxygenation Phase", would take considerably longer. Once again, they turn towards a terrestrial example to show how such a process could work.

Here on Earth, they claim, the high levels of oxygen gas (O) and low levels of CO are due to photosynthesis. These reactions rely on the sun's energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into biomass which is represented by the equation HO + CO = CHO + O. As they illustrate, this process would take between 100,000 and 170,000 years:

"If all the sunlight incident on Mars was harnessed with 100% efficiency to perform this chemical transformation it would take only 17 years to produce high levels of O. However, the likely efficiency of any process that can transform HO and CO into biomass and O is much less than 100%. The only example we have of a process that can globally alter the CO and O of an entire plant is global biology. On Earth the efficiency of the global biosphere in using sunlight to produced biomass and O2 is 0.01%. Thus the timescale for producing an O rich atmosphere on Mars is 10,000 x 17 years, or ~ 170,000 years."

However, they make allowances for synthetic biology and other biotechnologies, which they claim could increase the efficiency and reduce the timescale to a solid 100,000 years. In addition, if human beings could utilize natural photosynthesis (which has a comparatively high efficiency of 5%) over the entire planet i.e. planting foliage all over Mars then the timescale could be reduced to even a few centuries.

Finally, they outline the steps that need to be taken to get the ball rolling. These steps include adapting current and future robotic missions to assess Martian resources, mathematical and computer models that could examine the processes involved, an initiative to create synthetic organisms for Mars, a means to test terraforming techniques in a limited environment, and a planetary agreement that would establish restrictions and protections.

Quoting Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Red Mars Trilogy, (the seminal work of science fiction about terraforming Mars) they issue a call to action. Addressing how long the process of terraforming Mars will take, they assert that we "might as well start now".

To this, Valeriy Yakovlev an astrophysicist and hydrogeologist from Laboratory of Water Quality in Kharkov, Ukraine offers a dissenting view. In his paper, "Mars Terraforming the Wrong Way", he makes the case for the creation of space biospheres in Low Earth Orbit that would rely on artificial gravity (like an O'Neill Cylinder) to allow humans to grow accustomed to life in space.

Looking to one of the biggest challenges of space colonization, Yakovlev points to how life on bodies like the Moon or Mars could be dangerous for human settlers. In addition to being vulnerable to solar and cosmic radiation, colonists would have to deal with substantially lower gravity. In the case of the Moon, this would be roughly 0.165 times that which humans experience here on Earth (aka. 1 g), whereas on Mars it would be roughly 0.376 times.

The long-term effects of this are not known, but it is clear it would include muscle degeneration and bone loss. Looking farther, it is entirely unclear what the effects would be for those children who were born in either environment. Addressing the ways in which these could be mitigated (which include medicine and centrifuges), Yakovlev points out how they would most likely be ineffective:

"The hope for the medicine development will not cancel the physical degradation of the muscles, bones and the whole organism. The rehabilitation in centrifuges is less expedient solution compared with the ship-biosphere where it is possible to provide a substantially constant imitation of the normal gravity and the protection complex from any harmful influences of the space environment. If the path of space exploration is to create a colony on Mars and furthermore the subsequent attempts to terraform the planet, it will lead to the unjustified loss of time and money and increase the known risks of human civilization."

In addition, he points to the challenges of creating the ideal environment for individuals living in space. Beyond simply creating better vehicles and developing the means to procure the necessary resources, there is also the need to create the ideal space environment for families. Essentially, this requires the development of housing that is optimal in terms of size, stability, and comfort.

In light of this, Yakolev presents what he considers to be the most likely prospects for humanity's exit to space between now and 2030. This will include the creation of the first space biospheres with artificial gravity, which will lead to key developments in terms of materials technology, life support-systems, and the robotic systems and infrastructure needed to install and service habitats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

These habitats could be serviced thanks to the creation of robotic spacecraft that could harvest resources from nearby bodies such as the Moon and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). This concept would not only remove the need for planetary protections i.e. worries about contaminating Mars' biosphere (assuming the presence of bacterial life), it would also allow human beings to become accustomed to space more gradually.

As Yakovlev told Universe Today via email, the advantages to space habitats can be broken down into four points:

"1. This is a universal way of mastering the infinite spaces of the Cosmos, both in the Solar System and outside it. We do not need surfaces for installing houses, but resources that robots will deliver from planets and satellites. 2. The possibility of creating a habitat as close as possible to the earth's cradle allows one to escape from the inevitable physical degradation under a different gravity. It is easier to create a protective magnetic field.

"3. The transfer between worlds and sources of resources will not be a dangerous expedition, but a normal life. Is it good for sailors without their families? 4. The probability of death or degradation of mankind as a result of the global catastrophe is significantly reduced, as the colonization of the planets includes reconnaissance, delivery of goods, shuttle transport of people and this is much longer than the construction of the biosphere in the Moon's orbit. Dr. Stephen William Hawking is right, a person does not have much time."

And with space habitats in place, some very crucial research could begin, including medical and biologic research which would involve the first children born in space. It would also facilitate the development of reliable space shuttles and resource extraction technologies, which will come in handy for the settlement of other bodies like the Moon, Mars, and even exoplanets.

Ultimately, Yakolev thinks that space biospheres could also be accomplished within a reasonable timeframe i.e. between 2030 and 2050 which is simply not possible with terraforming. Citing the growing presence and power of the commercial space sector, Yakolev also believed a lot of the infrastructure that is necessary is already in place (or under development).

"After we overcome the inertia of thinking +20 years, the experimental biosphere (like the settlement in Antarctica with watches), in 50 years the first generation of children born in the Cosmos will grow and the Earth will decrease, because it will enter the legends as a whole As a result, terraforming will be canceled. And the subsequent conference will open the way for real exploration of the Cosmos. I'm proud to be on the same planet as Elon Reeve Musk. His missiles will be useful to lift designs for the first biosphere from the lunar factories. This is a close and direct way to conquer the Cosmos."

With NASA scientists and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Bas Landorp looking to colonize Mars in the near future, and other commercial aerospace companies developing LEO, the size and shape of humanity's future in space is difficult to predict. Perhaps we will jointly decide on a path that takes us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Perhaps we will see our best efforts directed into near-Earth space.

Or perhaps we will see ourselves going off in multiple directions at once. Whereas some groups will advocate creating space habitats in LEO (and later, elsewhere in the Solar System) that rely on artificial gravity and robotic spaceships mining asteroids for materials, others will focus on establishing outposts on planetary bodies, with the goal of turning them into "new Earths".

Between them, we can expect that humans will begin developing a degree of "space expertise" in this century, which will certainly come in handy when we start pushing the boundaries of exploration and colonization even further.

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We're more likely to resort on space habitats. Not that Mars isn't tempting, but it would ask too much time, ressources and close to no disasters for it to be another place to live in. And, of course, there could be more on it that we need to discover before doing anything we would regret. What's more, we'll need to relocate our growing population. Being able to control it by creating new homes with little risks of destroying anything in the process isn't bad at all. But again, we'll still need time and ressources for this. And in the long, long term, we'll need other worlds anyway. Space habitats are cool and all, but planets (habitable ones, that is) are less likely to explode due to some flying rocks not paying attention to red lights....that and other things.

The Glitter Band - ring of human habitats orbiting a planet. The planet is where you go for a vacation, not to live.

100,000? Forget it. What the authors are saying is that, with current or foreseeable technology, this is an impossible project. If within the next 300 years we have not learned how to terraform Mars in, at worst, a few decades, we will never do it.

The initial exploration & colonization 'of space' probably will be things like asteroid mining and solar powersats for Earth. That will naturally entail space stations & hollowed-out asteroid colonies, and will be driven by business. However, terraforming will happen too. And people who migrate in large #s to the newly opened planets can simply modify themselves via genetic engineering to adapt to the different gravity, etc. After all, that'll be old tech by the time they're ready.

Underground living offers protection from radiation and impactors, ready access to resources rather than mining distant bodies, and airtight enclosures. Water reservoirs in liquid form, skylights for natural light, no need for artificial gravity,

The advantages are clear.

Lot of literature about space living. One of those O'Niell cylinders would make a really good system ship with proper propulsion, like Dr Lerner's Focus Fusion system which makes a fusion thruster and an electromagnetodynamic generator for power to the ship. Lots of resources among bodies in this system. Free of planetary dominance and most politics, a free roaming (NO low earth orbit limitations, atmospheric frag, orbit degradation,etc) and entirely self sufficient ship with one 'gee' living and working conditions would be able to live near if not 'inside' the asteroid belt where its supplies would last....forever. It could export the mined materials to earth for it's international sponsors, and also could travel to the vicinity of the Moon for its shuttles to mine lunar regolith for new colony ship (may as well say colony ship....it is a colony and it lives on a really big ship) construction. Fuel..our system is running over with boron and hydrogen and water everywhere.

I've read terraforming Mars suggestions for twenty years, and they all start with the same nonsense claim that humans are doing a great job warming Earth. They ignore that it's taken 9 billion humans 200 years to warm Earth by 0.9 C. Where do these kooks get this idea that Earth is warming at "a rate of many degrees centigrade per century," or that we could see such results on Mars? Even if we could do it, though, it would be a waste of resources to do so. We see what equilibrium Mars is like. Moving from that requires continuous effort and materials, much of which fizzles into space, lost.

"an underground nuclear detonation created large quantities of heat as well as radioisotopes, but most would quickly become trapped in the molten rock and become unusable as the rock resolidifed." https://en.wikipe...ct_Gnome

-And what makes you think that explosives couldnt be designed to minimize residual radiation or that it couldnt be mitigated?

I think that the plowshare tests were conducted when the need for self-sustaining underground refuges in light of NBC threats became obvious during the cold war.

While Mars may be a far more hospitable place to develop technologies for terraforming, if we are talking about investing tens of thousands of years, and the goal is to create earth's twin, then Venus is the obvious candidate. Not only would the gravity be very similar, but the chances of creating a stable earth like environment would be much better.

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The future of space colonization terraforming or space habitats? - Phys.Org

March 10, 2017

Unlocking humanitys future as an interplanetary species is no simple feat.

But students at Arizona State University and the Central University of Tamil Nadu in India are up for the challenge. The international collaboration is vying for a chance to induce photosynthesis on the moon.

Photosynthesis is the basis of all life, said Jonathon Barkl, a physics and economics major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. If it can happen on another planet, were one step closer to proving humanity can eventually do the same.

The quest to help build sustainable life on the moon started with TeamIndus, the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The $30 million international competition inspires innovators to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration and be the first privately funded team to land spacecraft on the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit high-definition video and images back to Earth.

TeamIndus has officially secured a launch contract with Indias Space Research Organization to send a lander to the moon in December 2017. As part of their mission to catalyze humankind as a multi-planetary species, TeamIndus created the Lab2Moon challenge to fly one youth experiment aboard their spacecraft to the moon.

We have this amazing opportunity to send a payload to the lunar surface and conduct science that could impact the future of human exploration, said Barkl, a member of the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team. It blows my mind every time I think about it.

During phase one of the challenge, TeamIndus received 3,000 entries from across the globe explaining a range of experiments to catalyze the evolution of humankind from growing plants on the moon to investigating the lunar subsurface.

Twenty-five teams were shortlisted in the competition to build prototypes of their concept, including the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team who are eager to determine if photosynthesis can take place on the moon with its very hostile conditions.

The premise of our mission is taking cyanobacteria a really robust and primitive life form and placing it on the lunar surface to see how it affects the photosynthesis process, Barkl said. If cyanobacteria can photosynthesize and thrive on this surface, we can use it as a means of potentially producing energy, food or even possibly terraforming another planet.

The ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team has been developing a strategy for putting their mission on the moon, from outlining power requirements to maintaining a safe environment for the bacteria. As they start to develop a full-on prototype of their project, they have to meet TeamIndus three criteria: be the size of a regular soda can, weigh less than 250 grams and connect to the spacecrafts on-board computer.

Its a unique challenge to coordinate between the two universities, Barkl said. Were halfway around the world and our colleagues are 12.5 hours ahead. Well message them while theyre trying to sleep or theyll message us when were in class. The time coordination is hard, but its going well.

During the development stage, the team has broken down responsibilities for the members at each university. Santosh and Sukanya Roychowdhury from CUTN will be developing the space capsule and testing it for space-grade readiness, structural integrity and its ability to withstand pressure and temperature. Barkl, Aidan McGirr and Autumn Conner from ASU will determine how to configure the electronics with the on-board computer, prepare the cyanobacteria and test the capsules sensors.

Our mission is very heavy in science and data because were going to have about nine sensors whereas several other teams have only two or three, Barkl said. We have two main groups of sensors: one for maintaining a relatively friendly environment for the cyanobacteria and one for measuring the output of photosynthesis as the function of radiation on the lunar surface.

Members of the Arizona State University and the Central University of Tamil Nadu Lab2Moon team (from left) Autumn Conner, Jonathon Barkl and Aidan McGirr along with Rakshith Dekshidar (right), a graduate student in electrical engineering, who has been helping the team configure the space capsule's sensors and electronics systems.

After their second design review with TeamIndus, the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon team was invited to the final stage of the competition. The team will showcase their prototype to an international team of judges in Bangalore, India, on March 13, where theyll find out who gets to fly with TeamIndus to the moon this year.

We see professors from the School of Earth and Space Exploration all the time getting research grants from NASA and winning different missions. Its inspiring to think, Wow, I can go to space too, Barkl said. ASU has never had a student mission of this caliber. We want to prove that not only are the faculty doing amazing science, but so are the students.

Although Barkl is a student in the Department of Physics, he considers himself an honoree member of the School of Earth and Space Exploration. The research being conducted in the school was the reason he decided to attend the university and what inspired him to pursue this competition.

The ASU community has really been a huge support for us, Barkl said. Its a humbling experience to work with so many inspiring researchers who are so supportive and answer all our questions. If we had three years to research these questions, we could probably figure them out on our own. But with such a short turnaround time, they have really helped us make this project possible.

The teams mentors include Lindy Elkins-Tanton, planetary scientist and director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration; Philip Christensen, geologist and geophysicist; Scott Parazynski, retired NASA astronaut and current professor of practice; Ferran Garcia-Pichel, dean of natural sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Mark Jacobs, dean of Barrett, The Honors College and professor in the School of Life Sciences; Mark Naufel, director of strategic projects at the university; and Scott Smas, program manager of ASUs Space Technology and Science Initiative.

ASU has provided us with funding, supplies, facilities and mentorship, Barkl said. Having access to all these resources has pretty much changed the game for us.

Barkl and McGirr, an astrophysics major, want to use the Lab2Moon project to kick off a miniature space agency and private, student-run organization at ASU where students can take what they are learning in the classroom and apply it in a meaningful way to advance space technologies.

What I look forward to most is being able to say Ive contributed to the goal of human colonization on other planets, Barkl said. And we want to prove that students can do meaningful work in the space sector too.

To learn more about the ASU/CUTN Lab2Moon mission, visit the teams website and Facebook page.

Top photo: The moon photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team at ASU. Photo by NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

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ASU students compete for a journey to the moon - Arizona State University

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Mars, Tomb of Futurism: The Hopes of Success Are Dependent on Cyborg Humans - Futurism