Space community economies will probably be extensions of those of Earth for some time to come. There is, however, room to speculate as to how locational differences may enhance organizational differences. There is, for example, some evidence that the societies in the lands settled in recent periods have tended to display differences from those settled further in the past; for example, one can compare the U.S. society and economy to that of the British, or the economy and society of California with that of Massachusetts.
It may be that the shared circumstances of risk associated with early colonization will bring the earlier settlers into a close relationship. This, and the problems of access to Earth-produced products, may foster a sense of sharing and of cooperation, more characteristic of a frontier than of a mature Western society. With the increase of colony population, the impersonality characteristic of modern terrestrial societies would be expected to emerge.
Ownership and proprietary rights may be somewhat different from those found on Earth in part because the environment within space habitats will be largely man-made. The balance of privately-controlled vs. publicly-controlled space may be significantly influenced by these closely similar environmental experiences. On the other hand, the cultural inheritance of social forms from the Earth will serve to inhibit utopian impulses toward leaving the ills of human life behind. For example, it is unlikely that any serious development toward egalitarianism in the personal distribution of income will be found to arise in the colonies of the future.
That boundless energy may lead to boundless wealth is a belief which will doubtless be tested in such future developments. Successful exploitation of the extraterrestrial environment is expected to enhance the standard of living not only of the population in space but the population remaining on Earth as well.
With the advent of the era of extraterrestrial communities, mankind has reached the stage of civilization where it must think in terms of hitherto unknown cultural options. In the extraterrestrial communities, many of the constraints which restrict the life on the Earth are removed. Temperature, humidity, seasons, length of day, weather, artificial gravity and atmospheric pressure can be set at will, and new types of cultures, social organization and social philosophies become possible. The thinking required is far more than technological and economic. More basically it is cultural and philosophical.
This new vista, suddenly open, changes the entire outlook on the future, not only for those who eventually want to live in extraterrestrial communities but also for those who want to remain on the Earth. In the future, the Earth might be looked upon as an uncomfortable and inconvenient place to live as compared to the extraterrestrial communities. Since a considerable portion of humanity — even most of it — with ecologically needed animals and plants may be living outside the Earth, the meaning, the purpose, and the patterns of life on Earth will also be considerably altered. The Earth might be regarded as a historical museum, a biological preserve, a place which contains harsh climate and uncontrolled weather for those who love physical adventure, or a primitive and primeval place for tourism. This cultural transition may be comparable to the transitions in the biological evolution when the aquatic ancestors of mammals moved onto land or when Man's quadrupedal ancestors became bipedal and bimanual. The opportunity for human expansion into space is offered; it needs only to be grasped.
⇔ 8 ⇔ RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
In the course of the 10-week study, it became apparent that there are many aspects of the design of a space colonization project for which the necessary data are not available. Many are critical to the design so that, in the absence of firm data, conservative assumptions had to be made. This forced the overall design in a conservative direction with considerable weight, size and cost penalties compared with what might be an optimum design.
RECOMMENDATION FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CRITICAL SUBSYSTEMS
Before a detailed practical design of a space colony can be undertaken, the following subjects must be researched to fill in the gaps in current design-related data.
- Acceptable Radiation Dose. The 0.5 rem per yr radiation dose is achieved in this design study by accepting a considerable penalty in weight and system complexity. This dosage rate is the upper limit allowed for the general population in the United States and is chosen arbitrarily as a conservative measure. Extensive biological testing should be undertaken to establish a realistic dose limit taking into consideration the colony's population distribution and the scenarios for habitation of the colony. The effect of radiation on agricultural specimens also needs study to assure stable food supplies.
- Acceptable g Levels. The physiological effects of zero-g are serious for long-duration exposure in space. For this reason and since little is known about exposure at intermediate g levels, 1 g was chosen as the design standard. The 1-g choice has significant influence on the design and may be unnecessarily high. An examination of physiology under partial g is required in the Spacelab and subsequent space station missions to determine the minimum g value for which there are no serious long-term physiological effects upon humans.
- Maximum Acceptable Rate of Habitat Rotation. The rate of rotation required to achieve the desired pseudogravity has substantial impact on the design. Since the g-level and rate of rotation determine colony dimensions to a large extent (and thus the weight) determination of an acceptable rate of rotation is important. While it is difficult to test human vestibular functions in a realistic way on Earth, it is critical that a better understanding of the subject be obtained by studies both on Earth and in space.
- Closure of the Life Support System. The critical role of agriculture in providing food and regenerating the atmosphere in the colony requires that it be undertaken with utmost confidence and understanding. The components of the agricultural system require study to determine their detailed characteristics and their suitability. While possible in theory, large living systems have never been operated in a closed loop. First on a small scale, and finally on a large scale, complete closure of a demonstration life support system should be accomplished before colonization begins. The requirements for microbial ecology need to be studied.
- Intensive Agriculture. The support of the colony's inhabitants on the agricultural output from 150 acres is based on highly intensive photosynthetic production, beyond that realized to date. The exact enhancement of yields from lighting, increased carbon dioxide, and regular irrigation needs to be determined, and actual prototype farming needs to be conducted prior to closed life support system tests.
- Methods of Radiation Shielding. The requirement for 10 million tonnes of passive shielding resulted from uncertainty in the effectiveness and the complications of active shielding techniques. In particular, it is recommended that studies be undertaken with the plasma shield to achieve the acceptable dose with a workable system.
- Productivity in Space. The size, cost, and schedule for colony (and SSPS) construction are critically dependent upon the number of workers and their productivity. Terrestrial examples of worker productivity may be unrealistic for colony construction. Significantly greater definition of worker productivity is required for the colony design and should be accompanied by actual experimentation in space to derive realistic quantitative data.
- Processing of Lunar Surface Material. The aluminum and titanium extraction and refining processes suggested by this study are novel and largely unstudied because of the unusual nature of the lunar ores compared to terrestrial ores. The need to develop these processes in the laboratory, the terrestrial pilot plant, and eventually the space pilot plant is critical to the success of the program. Efficient production of glass from lunar rock is also required under the limitation of minimal additives. Physical and optical properties of the resulting glass also need to be determined.
- Lunar Mass Launcher. The efficient transfer of lunar ore to a space processing facility is essential to the success of the space colonization concept. Alternative methods (such as the gas gun) need further study so that a careful design analysis can be made of the entire subsystem. A scaled prototype should be tested. More detailed engineering analysis of the baseline system is required.
- Mass Catcher. The location and operational principle of the mass catcher are critical to space colonization and weakly substantiated in this study. The entire subsystem needs much greater study and eventually testing in space.
- Minimum Acceptable Partial Pressure of Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Space Colony Atmosphere. To minimize the quantity of nitrogen brought from Earth, the problems resulting from oxygen-rich atmospheres need detailed study to determine the minimum amount of nitrogen required in the atmosphere.
- Satellite Solar Power Station Design. This study did not focus on the details of the SSPS design. The method of energy conversion (photoelectric vs. thermalmechanical) needs to be selected on the basis of detailed comparative study and perhaps on the basis of fly-off testing on small-scale prototypes. The methods of construction need careful examination from the viewpoint of efficient material and manpower utilization.
- Transportation System. In addition to the main transportation elements (the HLLV, the mass launcher, and mass catcher), the rotary pellet launcher and the ferrying ion engines require research and development. While the HLLV is proposed within the current baseline, even more advanced vehicles with larger payloads and lower launch costs would be of enormous benefit to the space colonization program at any time in the program.
- Environmental Impacts. The frequency of launches needed and the products from rocket combustion need to be studied to determine the impact upon the Earth. The high power microwave beam from the SSPS may have effects on certain biota in or near the beam, and rf interference with communications, terrestrial navigation and guidance systems, and radio astronomy should be examined.
- Human Physical, Psychological, Social, and Cultural Requirements for Space Community Design. The diversity of options and the uncertainty of absolute requirements for various human factors require considerable study, elaboration, and agreement. Factors governing design include habitat configuration, efficient utilization of area, methods and diversity of construction, visual sensations, and colonist activities. All need to be thoroughly evaluated.
- Political, Institutional, Legal, and Financial Aspects of Space Colonization. The space colonization effort is of such magnitude that it requires careful analysis with respect to organization and financing. For this analysis competent, realistic, and thorough study is needed. National versus international, and governmental versus private or quasi-governmental organization, requires study and evaluation. The operational organization for space colony implementation is of sufficient magnitude to merit this study being made very early in consideration of a program to establish human habitats in space.
- Economic Analysis of Space Colonization Benefits. A more sophisticated analysis is needed to determine whether the benefits of space colonization do or even should justify the costs. In particular, studies are needed which compare space colonization and SSPS production with alternative methods of producing electricity.
- Additional Topics for Later Study. Space colonization in general covers such a wide spectrum of diverse topics as to allow many fruitful studies with varying depths of analysis. Examples of subjects that need to be investigated are: a. Method of immigrant selection. b. Effect of “deterrestrialization” of colonists. c. Effects of large-scale operations on the lunar, cislunar, and terrestrial environment, and effects on the solar wind. d. Disposal of nuclear waste on the lunar surface. e. Alternate colony locations (such as lunar orbit, L2, LEO inside Van Allen belt, free orbit, near asteroids, Jupiter orbit). f. Detailed metabolic requirements (input and output data) for plants and animals. g. Suitability of condensed humidity for human consumption, for fish, and for crop irrigation. h. Recycling of minerals from waste processing. i. Production of useful products from plant and animal processing byproducts. j. Characterization of trajectories from lunar surface to the various loci of potential activity. k. Analysis of the potential foreign market for electric power. l. Quantitative analysis of nonelectrical space benefits, for example, benefits from production of communication satellites in space. m. Development of alternative mission profiles which increase emphasis on SSPS production or on colony production. n. Effect of an established space colony on future space missions, their feasibility and cost. o. Application of learning curves to space colonization. p. Ecological balance within the colony, microbial and insect ecologies (including role of nitrogen fixation). q. Chemical processing with nonaqueous or even gaseous techniques. r. Determination of the proper safety margins for various systems. s. Detailed design of windows and their optical properties. t. Dynamics of atmospheres in rotating structures. u. Tools and techniques for working in zero g. v. Rendezvous with asteroids. w. Remote assembly of large structures. x. Halo orbits. y. Description of everyday phenomena in a rotating environment. z. Fire protection. aa. Synthetic soils. bb. Space manufacturing. cc. Extension of economic geography to space. dd. Adaptable and evolutionary aspects of habitat design. ee. Atmospheric leakage rates and gaskets. ff. A zero-g colony. gg. Studies of work organization in remote locations. hh. Studies of social and economic interdependence among communities in remote locations with respect to transportation. ii. Studies of functional division of labor within human communities. jj. Study of methods for transporting and storing gaseous materials such as hydrogen and nitrogen in various chemical forms such as ammonia, ammonium salts, or other compounds. kk. Space viticulture and enological techniques. ll. Heterogeneity as a desired or required characteristic. mm. Rotation of habitat within the shield. nn. Colony governance. oo. Requirements for interior illumination. Is sunlight really needed in living and even agricultural areas? pp. A detailed list of colonist activities and the land area usage dictated by analysis of interior illumination needs. qq. Composite material fabrication techniques in space. rr. Construction of lunar mass launcher from lunar materials using bootstrapped pilot plants. ss. Detailed study and list of materials to be imported from Earth to support the everyday needs of the colony. tt. Extrusion techniques for space. uu. Alternative diet components. vv. An acceptable name for the first colony.