earth’s environment & the space connection putting “yin” and “yang’ together “mother...
TRANSCRIPT
Earth’s Environment & The Space Connection
Putting “Yin” and “Yang’ Together“Mother Earth and Father Sky”
By Peter Kokh
Environment vs. SpaceCan there be any Synergy?
• Environmentalists and Space Advocates would seem to be perennially at odds with one another.
• But there is evidence that collaboration is possible.
• Evidence?
1. I have been a life long space advocate
2. I have been a life long passionate environ-mentalist
3. I am not at war with myself!
4. Ergo
Can we work together?
• “Compromise” is to many of us a dirty word, but for different reasons.
• For some Compromise means each side gives up something
• That is a warping of the original meaning
• Consider the word!• Roots: Co+Promise• Not Lowest Common
Denominator! • But Highest Common
Multiple• Both sides gain!• Attitude is everything
Space Groups Are Actually Pro-Environment in Different Ways
• Some would save Earth from Killer Asteroids• Some would put some of our eggs in another basket: Mars• Some would use lunar resources to repair damage to Earth = We all care about our Home world and the future of humanity!• http://www.moonsociety.org/spreadtheword/ppt/Triway1.ppt
Forging a “Working Alliance”
• We start by appreciating each other’s strengths
• Environmentalists look at what individuals and localities can do in the near term to minimize growth of the problem
• Space Advocates look at what the World as a whole can do further into the future
• As children of “Mother Earth & Father Sky”, we have the higher viewpoint. So it is our role to take the initiative.
Space-based solutions will only workif runaway environmental problems can be
kept in check by slowing their growth• Space-based solutions,
while we must work on them now, are decades in the future.
• We don’t need our world to become un-livable in the mean-time. Local near-term efforts do help.
• To begin forging an alliance in which we are all helping, both “parties” need to stop looking at the other as an enemy, when we could work together for a brighter future for our world.
Things the “Greens” are doingto help us design space frontier biospheres
• “Living Wall” techno-logies can be useful in a “modular biospherics” approach to off-world settlement design for resource-using industrial towns on the Moon or asteroids. They do not take up precious floor space but can line empty walls.
Things the “Greens” are doingto help us design space frontier biospheres
• Green Roof systems - we may want to use something similar to maximize vegetation mass, for example in pressurized lunar lava tubes
Things the “Greens” are doingto help us design space frontier biospheres
• Developing workable gray water systems that could be used in every outpost habitat or activity module that has a toilet, to maximize at-source waste pre-treatment, minimizing central systems.
Things we will learn in space settlements that will help on Earth
• Learning to live downwind &
downstream of ourselves.• We could learn that here, but
we won’t, because we don’t have to (lower urgency)
• On the Moon or Mars our environmental sins would haunt us immediately.
• It will be in space that we finally learn to live in harmony with nature.
• Every manufactured item embodies the energy it took to produce it. To reuse & recycle items is to reuse energy.
• We slow “ingestion” of fresh material as well as slow the defecation of trash. To make space frontier economics work, we will have to be efficient
• Minimum ingestion and minimum waste will mean a higher standard of living.
Things we will learn in space settlements that will help on Earth
Learning to live downwind & downstream of ourselves.
We could learn that here, but we won’t, because we don’t have to.
On the Moon or Mars our environmental sins would haunt us immediately.
It will be in space that we finally learn to live in harmony with nature.
On the Moon, there will be no “downwind” and “downstream” sinks
R&D we can do now in prep for lunar settlements that will help here on Earth
• Glass-glass composites, a promising lunar building and manufacturing material, might replace wood furniture and some wood building materials.
• There are many countries on Earth rich in sand and poor in forests.
• Could this application reduce deforestation?
• Major aluminum alloys incorporate a high percentage of copper and/or zinc, both rare on the Moon. Alloys that are developed for the Moon may be useful here on Earth.
• Clean mining technologies
• Many more examples
R&D for Lunar Mining Technologiescan help us clean up our act here on Earth
• There is no ground-water on the Moon to pollute
• The Moon’s surface is pre-mined - the surface moondust blanket contains most everything we need
• As water will be very precious, we must recycle all water used in mining & processing operations.
• There will be no down-stream or downwind sinks into which to flush processing byproducts
• The techniques we learn will help on Earth
NASA-NOAA projects we can support that will earn us points
• Support increased NASA/NOAA orbital sensing that will more closely monitor and characterize ongoing deforestation as well as reforestation efforts
• Top: Forests years ago• Bottom: reductions
NASA-NOAA Research to “map” carbon dioxide concentrations, increases,
decreases, carbon sinks etc.
• No matter what your take on hotly debated CO2 issues, more information is certainly needed and we should support such budget items on a timely basis.
• In all areas, increasing our understanding of our complex planet is a prerequisite to making the right decisions.
• Let’s leave personal temperaments out of it!
We need to anticipate common concerns about SPS Systems
• Many of us take pains to address fears over misdirected energy beams and other safety issues.
• But there are other types of misgivings that call for research on our part
• We should never just assume that opposition will be minor
Our Environment is Dual:Earth is in Space
• The Space around us is also part of our environment, as are its abundant resources.
• An understanding of Earth apart from space is like an understanding of an Island apart from the sea.
