Phylum Chordata
13-07-2005, 16:30
By colonize space I mean start a self supporting human community that doesn't need supplies from earth. Now this is easy if you have unlimited funds, but in real life that's not going to be the case. I would suggest the most cost effective way to colonize space would be to do the following.
1. Forget the moon and mars. They both have gravity wells to overcome. Go straight to the asteroids.
2. Send a set of mirrors into close solar orbit to reflect solar energy towards the asteroid colony. This will require much less launch mass than trying to collect the same amount of energy as far out as the asteroids.
3. Find a fairly massive, iron meteorite and use more mirrors to finely focus solar energy reflected from near the sun to cut or melt living space into it.
4. Find a smaller asteroid containing volitiles and move it closer to the first asteroid. This cold be done by using mirrors to focus solar energy on a point to vapourize a hole in it to create a simple reaction jet.
5. Concentrate different elements in the asteroid material. Possibly by vapourizing it using solar energy first. Making reliable machinery to do this will be tricky.
6. Start using machines and lifeforms to synthesize the chemicals humans will need for life support and manufacturing. We don't have these machines at the moment (certainly not in a form that can be lugged into space cheaply) and they'll need to be developed.
7. Start using machines that can create electronics, robots, space craft, etc. from asteroid resources. Unfortunately we are still a long way from making machines like this, but we're gradually getting there.
8. Send humans to live inside the asteroid. Since they are pretty much dead weight in space and will need expensive supplies from earth until the colony is self sustaining, there is no point in sending them earlier. Once they arrive they can improve their living quaters, direct robots to make better accomodations, construct space colonies and perhaps move them closer to earth, etc. Using resources from the asteroids they can then go on to colonise Mars, the moon or other places if they wish.
Can anyone improve on this or has any better ideas? I'm mainly interested in ideas that won't be too expensive and could even be within the reach of groups of private citizens in the future.
1. Forget the moon and mars. They both have gravity wells to overcome. Go straight to the asteroids.
2. Send a set of mirrors into close solar orbit to reflect solar energy towards the asteroid colony. This will require much less launch mass than trying to collect the same amount of energy as far out as the asteroids.
3. Find a fairly massive, iron meteorite and use more mirrors to finely focus solar energy reflected from near the sun to cut or melt living space into it.
4. Find a smaller asteroid containing volitiles and move it closer to the first asteroid. This cold be done by using mirrors to focus solar energy on a point to vapourize a hole in it to create a simple reaction jet.
5. Concentrate different elements in the asteroid material. Possibly by vapourizing it using solar energy first. Making reliable machinery to do this will be tricky.
6. Start using machines and lifeforms to synthesize the chemicals humans will need for life support and manufacturing. We don't have these machines at the moment (certainly not in a form that can be lugged into space cheaply) and they'll need to be developed.
7. Start using machines that can create electronics, robots, space craft, etc. from asteroid resources. Unfortunately we are still a long way from making machines like this, but we're gradually getting there.
8. Send humans to live inside the asteroid. Since they are pretty much dead weight in space and will need expensive supplies from earth until the colony is self sustaining, there is no point in sending them earlier. Once they arrive they can improve their living quaters, direct robots to make better accomodations, construct space colonies and perhaps move them closer to earth, etc. Using resources from the asteroids they can then go on to colonise Mars, the moon or other places if they wish.
Can anyone improve on this or has any better ideas? I'm mainly interested in ideas that won't be too expensive and could even be within the reach of groups of private citizens in the future.