Space Settlements - A Design Study 1977

To effect this main goal, the following subsidiary goals must be met using existing technology and at minimum cost:

1. Design a habitat to meet all the physiological requirements of a permanent population and to foster a viable social community.
2. Obtain an adequate supply of raw materials and provide the capability to process them.
3. Provide an adequate transport system to carry people, raw materials, and items of trade.
4. Develop commercial activity sufficient to attract capital and to produce goods and services for trade with Earth.

Fortunately, the design study could draw on substantial earlier work. Active interest in space colonization as a practical possibility began in 1969 when Gerard O'Neill and students at Princeton University undertook a detailed assessment of space colonization. They aimed at a model to show the feasibility of a space colony rather than an optimum configuration and they selected as a test case a rotating habitat in satellite orbit around the Earth at the distance of the Moon, using solar energy to sustain a closed ecological system. They proposed a habitat constructed of processed lunar ore delivered by an electromagnetic accelerator and located at either the Lagrangian point L4 or L5 in order to make delivery of the ore as simple as possible. (The Lagrangian points are described in ch. 2.) The habitat was configured as a 1-km long cylinder with hemispherical end-caps. It was to have an Earth-like internal environment on the inner surface and be supplied with sunlight reflected from mirrors (ref. 1).

Subsequently, the Princeton group suggested that the L5 colony could construct solar power stations from lunar material. They concluded that this would improve the economics of both the satellite solar power stations and the colony itself (ref. 2).

The concept of satellite solar power stations has received increasing attention since its introduction by Peter Glaser in 1968 (ref. 3).

These ideas were further considered and developed by a conference "Space Manufacturing Facilities" which took place at Princeton University on May 7-9, 1975 and focused more attention on O'Neill's test case.

This report presents a rationale for the design choices of the Ames-Stanford study group and it details how the various parts of the system interrelate and support each other. The next three chapters discuss successively how the properties of space specify the criteria that a successful design must satisfy, what human needs must be met if people are to live in space, and the characteristics of various alternative components of the design. Some readers may wish to skip directly to chapter 5 where the details of the operation of the system are described. Chapter 6 provides a detailed analysis of the sequence of events needed for the colony to be built. Timetables, manpower requirements, and levels of funding are presented for the construction of the main parts of the overall system. This chapter also looks at long-term benefits from solar power stations in space and some possible ways to structure economics so as to initiate the establishment and growth of many colonies over the long term. Chapter 7 looks at the future development of colonization of space, and finally chapter 8 discusses why space colonization may be desirable and provides some conclusions and recommendations for further activities and research.

THE HISTORY OF AN IDEA

The history of the idea of space colonization extends back into myths and legends of ancient times, but the first account of an actual space colony appeared in 1869 when Edward Everett Hale's novel, Brick Moon, described how a colony in space happened by accident.

A brick sphere, intended for guiding maritime navigators, was to be catapulted into Earth orbit by rotating wheels. When it rolled onto the catapult too soon, still containing many workers inside, the first space colony was launched. Fortunately, the workers had ample food and supplies (even a few hens), and they decided to live the good life permanently in space, maintaining contact with the Earth only by a Morse code signalled by making small and large jumps from the external surface of their tiny spherical brick colony (ref. 4).

The following quotation on the history of the idea of space colonization is taken with permission directly from "Space Colonization Now?" by Robert Salkeld, Astronautics and Aeronautics, September, 1975.

"Precursors of the notion of small self-contained worlds in space appeared in novels by Jules Verne in 1878 and Kurd Lasswitz in 1897 (refs. 5,6).

"In 1895 the space-station concept was noted from a more technical viewpoint in a science-fiction story by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (ref. 7). In 1903 Tsiolkovsky expanded his description of the manned space station to include rotation for artificial gravity, use of solar energy, and even a space 'greenhouse' with a closed ecological system (ref. 8). Thus, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the idea of the space habitat was defined in terms of some of its basic elements.

"The idea progressed slowly over the next fifty years, then accelerated. In 1923 Hermann Oberth elaborated on potential uses of space stations, noting that they could serve as platforms for scientific research, astronomical observations, and Earth-watch (ref. 9). In 1928 Guido von Pirquet considered a system of three stations, one in a near orbit, one more distant, and a transit station in an intermediate elliptical orbit to link the other two; he suggested that they might serve as refueling depots for deep space flights (ref. 10). The concept of a rotating wheel-shaped station was introduced in 1929 by Potocnik, writing as Hermann Noordung. He called his 30-m-diam station 'Wohnrad' (living wheel)¹ and suggested that it be placed in geosynchronous² orbit (ref. 11). During World War II, space stations received some military study in Germany (ref. 12), and after the war the idea surfaced again in technical circles as a geosynchronous rotating-boom concept³ proposed by H. E. Ross in 1949 (ref. 13).

"The space-station idea was popularized in the United States by Wernher von Braun. In 1952 he updated Noordung's wheel, increased the diameter to 76 m, and suggested a 1730-km orbit (ref. 14). At about the same time, Arthur C. Clarke published 'Islands in the Sky,' a novel involving larger stations (ref. 15), and in 1961 Clarke (in another novel) suggested placing large stations at the Lagrangian libration points where they would maintain a fixed position relative to both the Earth and the Moon (ref. 16). In 1956 Darrell Romick advanced a more ambitious proposal — for a cylinder 1 km long and 300 m in diameter with hemispherical end-caps having a 500-m-diam rotating disc at one end to be inhabited by 20,000 people (ref. 17).

"The companion idea of a nuclear-propelled space ark carrying civilization from a dying solar system toward another star for a new beginning was envisioned in 1918 by Robert Goddard. Possibly concerned about professional criticism, he placed his manuscript in a sealed envelope for posterity and it did not see print for over half a century (ref. 18). In 1929 the concepts of artificial planets and self-contained worlds appeared in the works of J. D. Bernal and Olaf Stapledon, and by 1941 the interstellar ark concept had been fully expanded by Robert A. Heinlein and others, many appearing in the science-fiction publications of Hugo Gernsback and others (refs. 19-24). In 1952 the concept was outlined in more technical detail by L. R. Shepherd (ref. 25), who envisioned a nuclear-propelled million-ton interstellar colony shaped as an oblate spheroid, which he called a 'Noah's Ark.'

"In 1948 Fritz Zwicky suggested use of extraterrestrial resources to reconstruct the entire universe, beginning with making the planets, satellites, and asteroids habitable by changing them intrinsically and changing their positions relative to the Sun (ref. 27). A scheme to make Venus habitable by injecting colonies of algae to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration was proposed in 1961 by Carl Sagan (ref. 28). In 1963 Dandridge Cole suggested hollowing out an ellipsoidal asteroid about 30 km long, rotating it about the major axis to simulate gravity, reflecting sunlight inside with mirrors, and creating on the inner shell a pastoral setting as a permanent habitat for a colony (ref. 29).

"In 1960 Freeman Dyson suggested an ultimate result of such planetary engineering (ref. 30); processing the materials of uninhabited planets and satellites to fashion many habitats in heliocentric orbits. A shell-like accumulation of myriads of such habitats in their orbits has been called a Dyson sphere."

"A related idea, the use of extraterrestrial resources to manufacture propellants and structure, was suggested by Goddard in 1920. It became a common theme in science fiction and reappeared in technical literature after World War II. In 1950 A. C. Clarke noted the possibility of mining the Moon and of launching lunar material to space by an electromagnetic accelerator along a track on its surface (ref. 26).

On July 20, 1969 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., walked on the Moon. In the context of history just reviewed the ". . . one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" appears quite natural and unsurprising. And if the first step is to be followed by others, space colonization may well be those succeeding steps. Perhaps mankind will make the purpose of the next century in space what Hermann Oberth proposed several decades ago:

"To make available for life every place where life is possible. To make inhabitable all worlds as yet uninhabitable, and all life purposeful."

¹ Noordung's concept was of a three unit space colony: the living wheel (Wohnrad), the machine station (Maschinenhaus), and the observatory (Observatorium): Ed. ² A satellite in geosynchronous orbit revolves around the Earth in the same period that Earth rotates on its axis: Ed. ³ Actually a rotating living section with a nonrotating boom for linkage to space shuttle craft: Ed.

REFERENCES

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