Exploring Space Near the Earth and Inner Planets

Near-Earth Space

Let us first define some the contemporary issues connected to near Earth exploration. India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 10:58 p.m. EST or 0358 GMT on Feb. 15, 2019 with three satellites from India and 101 smaller nano satellites or nanosats) from five other countries: the U.S., the Netherlands, Israel, Kazakhstan and Switzerland. This number surpasses the previous record of 37 satellites sent into orbit aboard a single Russian Dnepr rocket in June 2014. According to filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Elon Musk’s Space X plans to send 4,4425 super-fast Internet satellites into Near Earth space aboard Falcon 9 rockets in 2019. Satellite Internet technology and mining are only a couple of areas of planned development for Near Earth space which would expand public and private opportunities for space colonization and improve life on Earth.

Moon

The Moon is a colonization target due to its proximity and familiarity. Its low escape velocity permits easy exchange of goods and service. The Moon however has low levels of volatiles like hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon necessary for life. These elements could be found in water ice of polar craters of the Moon and the permanently shadowed southern pole craters are currently being explored as water supplies for trips to Mars. Hydrogen could be brought from near-Earth asteroids and combined with oxygen extracted from lunar rock. The Moon’s lack of atmosphere provides no protection from meteoroids or space radiation. Moon colonies may shelter in natural lunar lava tubes for protection. The two-week day to nite cycle makes solar power more challenging on the Moon. Nevertheless, NASA Administrator Jim Brindenstine says the Gateway project will provide a permanent command and service module in and around the Moon.

In 2019, the Israeli Beresheet (Hebrew for “in the beginning” attempted to become the fourth nation to land on the Moon but crashed. The Beresheet brought with it a 30-million-page library of knowledge to preserve human civilization from Earth. Space IL is a private Israeli commercial space company based in Tel Aviv which coordinated its joint mission with the Israeli government. China also landed on the dark side of the Moon in 2019 and made history as the first nation to grow plants in extra-terrestrial soil. China put more rockets into Earth’s orbit in 2018 than any other country.

Lagrange Points

The five (5) Earth-Moon Lagrange points are near-Earth and possible destinations for space colonies. L1 and L2 are reachable in a few days with current technology. Many points could provide almost continual solar power with brief and rare light eclipses of Sun. L4 and L5 collect dust and debris. L1 and L3 require active station keeping for stability so they are less suitable for space colonization than previously thought. The orbits of L2 and L5 take them outside the Earth’s magnetosphere 2/3 of the time resulting in health threats from cosmic ray exposure. It is not known if low surface gravity could maintain long term human health.

Inner Planets

We next look at exploration and possibilities for colonization of the inner planets.

Mercury

Like the Moon, Mercury, with wild temperature swings, has virtually no atmosphere and few volatile elements. Mercury’s surface gravity is lower than Earth’s. Geologist Stephen Gillett (1996) focuses his research om building and launching solar sail spacecraft. These space crafts would launch from mass drivers on Mercury as folded up packages and in space solar sails deploy. Mercury’s solar constant is 6.5 times higher than Earth’s so energy for the mass driver will be abundant. Accordingly, solar sails near Mercury will employ 6.5 times the thrust they possess near Earth. Mercury would therefore be ideal for materials acquisition, hardware construction, and to send to and terraform Venus. Building solar collectors on or near Mercury, could provide ample energy for large scale engineering projects for laser pushed light sails to nearby star systems. The NASA Messenger (2004–15) robotic spacecraft mapped the surface of Mercury. Messenger studied Mercury’s magnetosphere, the poles, core, and exosphere. Transponders were used for communication with NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Venus

The European Space Station’s (ESA) first mission to Venus surveyed the planet’s atmosphere

(2006) over two (2) Venusian days or 500 Earth days. The Venus Express (2005–14) was named after the Mars Express. Half the distance to Mars, the Venus Express dealt with increased ionized radiation but greatly expanded photovoltaic solar panel power. Beneath sulphuric acid clouds, Venus has greenhouse atmospheric conditions retaining carbon dioxide from which scientists may learn a great deal about climate change on Earth.

Mars

Mars presents numerous challenges illuminated by reality and romanticism. Carl Sagan said we have been wanderers and the next place we may wander is Mars. The thin, rugged, cold, inhospitable carbon dioxide atmosphere will not hold a body of water in place. Mars is distant from the Sun. It takes two Earth years for Mars to orbit the Sun which means it has wild temperature swings even though Mars has days, nights, weather patterns, and seasons. A day on Mars is like Earth as it is 24.6 hours long. Mars has the solar systems tallest volcanic mountain and a canyon that would reach from New York to California. Mysterious methane emissions indicate cataclysmic floods 3 billion years ago spelled the end for liquid water on Mars. Gravity on Mars is a third of Earth’s so astronauts could lose much skeletal and muscle mass in its atmosphere.

Mars lies on the outer edge of the solar system’s habitable zone determined by distance from its star. Solutions for survival on Mars include extracting water from air using the mineral zeolite, microwaving soil for groundwater at high altitudes, or drilling into miles of frozen underground glaciers, at poles identified by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, creating oxygen from carbon dioxide, generating methane for fuel using the Sabatier process, and communicating by beaming satellite radio waves.

Solar power would create electricity on Mars, but it would be difficult with distance from the Sun and dust storms. A nuclear battery, a radioisotope thermoelectric generator under the surface of Mars, could convert heat into electricity for precise scientific instruments. Fission in a NASA nuclear reactor could produce electricity on many planets and asteroids. The reactor would connect to the base by cable providing power any time of day or night and in any atmospheric conditions. Ancient dried underground Martian lava tubes dozens of feet under solid rock provide protection from solar and cosmic radiation and they could serve as places to live. Fourteen (14) plants have been tested to grow in the soil of Mars which contains phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, and iron nutrients as long as Martian soil is made more efficient and nitrogen rich.

NASA landed its Insight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport) Rover on the surface of Mars on November 26, 2018. The rover slowed down from 12,300 mph to 5 mph and then slowly landed safely on Mars in six (6) minutes following its 300-million-mile journey from Earth. Insight is the first outer space robotic explorer. It will dig far deeper into the surface of Mars than ever attempted to study the crust, mantle, and core of the Red Planet. It is the first NASA spacecraft to land on Mars since the Curiosity Rover. NASA hopes to fully orbit Mars by 2030. NASA stated in 2019 the first human on Mars will probably be a woman. Female astronauts will lead us to build bases and cities on Mars. Besides rovers and orbiters, NASA landed a rotary helicopter on the surface of Mars in 2020.

By 2030, Elon Musk’s Space X intends to place a human on Mars and by 2100 establish a thriving colony. Other Earth like colonies will fill our galaxy where there is liquid water.

Asteroid Belt

Asteroid colonization requires space habitats. Asteroids have significant material resources. Some asteroids even have moons. Ceres, located between Mars and Jupiter, is the largest asteroid, but its resources are thinly distributed across space. Unmanned spacecraft can cross 500 million kilometers of space but the orbits of most asteroids and Earth are very distant. Asteroids also have a massive and very hard to alter momentum. Mass drivers or rockets may be installed on asteroids to divert their paths safely. The Hayabusa mission from Japan landed on the Itokawa asteroid. As space material that could not form into planets, asteroids can tell us a lot about the formative years of the solar system. Rest easy knowing none of the 4000 known near-Earth objects are expected to come close enough to threaten Earth in the twenty-first century. The space economy is pioneered by visionary mining entrepreneurs like Peter Diamandis of Planetary Resources. Asteroid UW-158 is believed by scientists to have a 90-million-ton core of platinum. In 2019, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) landed on and took photos and rock samples of the Ryugu asteroid which is half a mile in diameter and 131 million miles from Earth. NASA’s 2022 mission to the 16 Psyche 140-mile-wide asteroid located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter could hold enough iron if shared equally to make every person on Earth a billionaire.