Space Colonies

Introduction:

Space or extra-terrestrial colonization describes permanent settlement off planet Earth. Survival of the biosphere and human civilization pursuant to a natural or man-made planetary scale disaster and the vast resources available for expansion of human society are two primary arguments in favor of space colonization. Arguments against space colonization of space include commodification of the cosmos expanding the influence of wealthy and powerful institutions including the military at the cost of wars, economic inequality, and environmental degradation.

No space colonies have been built yet due to large technological and economic challenges. Space settlements would have to provide for the material needs of hundreds of thousands of humans in space which is very hostile to human life. Space colonies would require controlled ecological life support systems which have not been fully developed yet. It is not yet known how humans would behave and thrive in space long-term. It currently costs $2500/lb. to orbit Earth so a space colony would be very costly.

Despite numerous space colony speculations, proposals, and designs, there are no current large scale private or government plans for space colony development underway. Reusable launch systems technology and automated manufacturing and construction techniques will make space colonization less expensive in the future.

So far, Bigelow Aerospace is the only private commercial spaceflight company to launch two (2) experimental space station modules, the Genesis I (2006) and Genesis II (2007), into Earth’s orbit and launched its first space habitat production model, the BA 330 (2017) detailed below.

Historiography

Edward Everett Hale’s (1869) book The Brick Moon was the first work on space colonization. Russian physicist and schoolmaster Konstantin Tsiolovsky’s Beyond Planet Earth (1900) detailed the building of greenhouses and raising of crops in space. Tsiolkovsky believed space would prefect human beings and lead to immortality and peace. Lasswitz wrote about space colonies in 1897 and Bernal, Oberth, Von Pirquet, and Nordung all described space colonies in the 1920s.

Wernher von Braun published his ideas on space colonies in Colliers magazine (1952) as Dandridge M. Cole started authoring his ideas on space colonies.

Reasons

Let us next turn to reasons for space colonization.

Survival

Off planet colonization of space by humans and other Earth species could save civilization in case of a natural or man-made disaster. United States Department of State’s Louis J. Halle wrote in Foreign Affairs (Summer 1980) space colonization will protect humanity in case of global nuclear warfare. Physicist Paul Davies believes a self-sufficient colony could “reverse colonize” Earth and restore human civilization if there is a planetary catastrophe threatening the survival of the human species on Earth. A supernova explosion would require colonists from Earth to be 30,000 light years away from the planet.

Author and journalist William E. Burrows and biochemist Robert Shapiro’s private project Alliance to Rescue Civilization is striving to create an off Earth “back-up” of human civilization. Colonizing other worlds does improve the survival prospects of our species.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin stated in 2005 the goal of current spaceflight programs is scientific exploration and “extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system.” Griffin states “if we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must populate other planets.” Although this is barely conceivable with the current state of technology, we may one day have more humans living off Earth than on it as well as more people living off the habitats of asteroids, the Earth’s Moon, the moons of Jupiter, and other planets. Griffin is convinced humans will colonize our solar system and other star systems in our Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

Resources

The energy and material resources in just this solar system are so vast they could support several thousand to over a billion times the current Earth population. Outside our solar system, hundreds of billions of stars in just the observable universe provide ample opportunity for resource collection and colonization. Such interstellar travel requires not yet developed generation star ships or faster than light (FTL) spacecrafts.

Asteroids will be important in space colonization. Asteroids contain water and materials to make structures for mining. Mining and fuel stations must be constructed on asteroids instead of resupplying on Earth. NASA calls the extraction of asteroid resources “optical mining.”

Propellants from asteroids will save at least $100 billion as we explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Asteroid mining could be possible within the decade with expanded funding and technology. These bodies could provide an endless resource supply with massive economic growth and development. In other words, space colonization could provide a sizeable return on investment.

Expansion

Human and technological progress has destroyed the Earth’s environment, ecosystems, and wildlife and displaced indigenous people. Native peoples found their lands, water, and air encroached upon and their populations and cultures genocidally extinguished. Space colonization would theoretically result in less damage even if there is no life outside this planet as Hawking claims.

Population

Overpopulation on Earth could be mitigated thru space colonization. If resources and viable life supporting habitats were built, growth limitation would no longer be dictated by Earth’s non-renewable resources. Off-planet colonies could satisfy most of the resource needs of Earth’s people while decreasing the need to use Earth’s limited resources.

Additional Arguments

Flourishing progressive civilizations depend on the human will to explore and discover. Space colonization would provide very large population with happiness over billions of years. Nick Bostrom of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford believes it is more important to advocate the reduction of existential risks to increase the likelihood of colonization than it is to simply accelerate technological advancement.

Freeman Dyson, Richard Gott, and Sid Goldstein (2001) provided the following reasons for space colonization to the space news website space.com:

1. Spread life and beauty through the Universe,

2. Ensure survival of our species,

3. Make money thru space commerce in solar-power satellites, asteroid mining, and space manufacturing, and

4. Conserve the environment of Earth by moving people and industry into space.

Goals

Abundant, more easily produced, higher quality, and high value items can only be produced in space. Such high value items including precious metals, solar cells, power, ball bearings, semi-conductors, pharmaceuticals, and gemstones would provide very high return on initial investment in space infrastructure.

Extraction and mining of metals from small near-Earth asteroids like 3554 Amun or (6178) 1986 DA would produce thirty (30) times the metal humans have produced thru all history and could be worth $20 million at 2001 market rates. Some easily required infrastructure items like oxygen, water, base metal ores, and silicates easily produced on Earth would not be as valuable in space.

Space colonization is a long-term goal of some national space programs. China even landed on the far side of the moon on January 3, 2019. India, China, and Israel have formidable space programs. Since the twenty-first century public-private sector commercialization of space, several private companies have cooperated with NASA in the United States to plan the colonization of Mars. Entrepreneurs Elon Musk, Dennis Tito, and Bas Lansdorp are among those leading the call for space colonization.

The very high initial investment cost is currently the main barrier to commercial exploitation of resources. The return on investment is long-term and involves high risk. The Eros Project, for example, which has never been attempted before, requires fifty (50) years in development.

Methodology

Space colony building requires access to capital investment, food, water, people, space, construction, materials, energy, communications, transportation, life-support, radiation protection, and simulated gravity. Colonies should be constructed near required resources.

John Hickman and Neil de Grasse Tyson point out frontier-opening endeavor capital investment would likely come from governments. Space architecture aims to transform spaceflight from a heroic test of human endurance to a normal and comfortable experience.

Materiel

Local materials could be extracted from colonies on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. Although the Moon is deficient in volatiles such as argon and helium and compounds like carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, the LCROSS impactor targeted the Cabeus crater for its relatively high 1% or more water concentration. Water ice will be found in shadowed craters near lunar poles. Still, at least a million tons helium exist within solar wind deposited regoliths on the Moon. Perhaps most importantly for industry, the Moon holds oxygen, silicon, and metals like iron, aluminum, and titanium which could be mined profitably.

Bulk materials for colonies would likely come from the Moon, a near Earth object (NEO), Phobos or Deimos since launching materials from Earth is so expensive. Source benefits from these bodies include lower gravitational force, no atmospheric drag on cargo vessels, and no biosphere to damage. Many NEOs, some of which are inactive comets, contain substantial amounts of metals. Under their drier outer crust like oil shale lie billions of tons of water ice and kerogen hydrocarbons as well as nitrogen compounds. More distant asteroids like Jupiter’s Trojan are rich in water ice and volatiles. Recycling would be vital in mining.

Energy

With no night and clouds and atmosphere to block abundant sunlight, solar energy should continue to be widely used to power the expanding number of satellites in Near Earth orbit. We must build solar ovens with huge metallic foil parabolic reflectors and lightweight support structures because high temperatures for industrial processes can be realized in the weightless vacuum of space. Flat mirrors can reflect sunlight around radiation shields into living areas avoiding line-of-sight cosmic rays to make the Sun’s image appear to move across their sky or direct solar rays onto crops.

Settlers could use large solar power photovoltaic cell arrays or thermal power plants to meet their need for electrical power. Wires a short distance from power plants or long-distance wireless power transmission can also be used. Initial space settlement designs include solar power satellites (SPS). Wireless power transmission using phase-locked microwave beams or high efficiency solar cells conversion of laser wavelengths send power to locations on Earth or other colonies on the Moon or in space. These processes require less ground area and zero emissions than standard solar panels. The price of SPS electricity will probably be lower than fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Eliminating those energy sources would eliminate greenhouse gases and electric generated nuclear waste.

Wireless transmission of solar energy from the Earth to the Moon and back would benefit Earth’s energy resources and space colonization. NASA physicist for the Apollo missions Dr. David Criswell proposed using untouched microwave power beams to transfer energy from space to Earth. The solar beams could be directed away from human or animal activities to more industrial areas allowing for more reliable and safer transfer of solar energy. JAXA and Mitsubishi have spent more than $21 billion to place to place its solar satellites in space to produce up to 1 gigawatt of wireless space based solar energy.

SPS power is valuable in space. Communication satellites, fuel depots, or orbital tugboat cargo and people transfer boosters between low-Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous orbit (GEO), lunar orbit, or highly-eccentric Earth orbit (HEEO) will rely on satellites and Earth-based conversion stations for electric conversion at any time of day or nite.

Because solar power is not steady on the Moon or Mars, nuclear power is sometimes proposed for colonies there. Nights on the Moon are two weeks long. Mars has nights, high gravity, and large solar panel covering and degrading dust storms. Martian or lunar colonies could receive solar energy wirelessly from SPSs since power generation is difficult on these sites or they will beam power from Earth. The first lunar colonies will probably use solar and nuclear power for life support, maintenance, communications, and research. In the airless environments of Earth and space, large radiator areas are required to disperse heat generation. Solar powered sails, such as those used by Light Sail 2 carried by Space X’s Falcon Heavy rocket ship in 2019, use light as wind and they should replace traditional rocket fuel as a cleaner, more sustainable, less expensive, and longer lasting energy source. Galileo prophesized this development in 1608.

Life Support

In space colonies, life supports systems must import or recycle nutrients without breaking down. Nuclear submarine open system mechanical life support technology could be adapted for space. The Sabatier process or the Bosch reaction could recycle carbon dioxide in a closed system. The Biosphere project in Arizona illustrates is a complex, small, enclosed, man-made biosphere can support eight people for a year. Due to atmospheric closure, oxygen has to be replenished around the end of the first year of a two-year mission. In 2018, using NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium funding, Florida Polytechnic University students discovered a simpler diatomic or algae-based process of using solar cells in space to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

There are a few possibilities for the relationship between organisms, their habitat, and the non-Earth environment. Organisms and their habitat may be fully isolated from the environment as in an artificial biosphere, biosphere, or life support system. The environment can be changed into a life-friendly habitat thru terraforming. Organisms can be changed for environmental compatibility thru genetic engineering, cyborgs, or other trans-humanistic technologies.

Conclusion:

Now we wait and see if space colonization will be pursued by the Biden Adminstration now that Trump established his Space Force and has left office to return to Florida.