what will we do on the moon

8/9/2019 What Will We Do on the Moon

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What Will We ActuallyDo On the Moon?

http://www.marcusmoon2022.org/


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http://www.marcusmoon2022.org/ 2

Purpose

Demonstrate a method of communicating about the

Vision for Space Exploration that could begin

motivating the public to support it


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Global Lunar Strategy

NASA catalyzed global lunar-exploration planning

March 2006 workshopwith 200 participants inseven teams

Open RFI

Gap-filling reviews by 10NASA centers, 14international spaceagencies, two commerce

roundtables, young-professional andadvocacy interestgroups, MEPAG, LEAG


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Global Lunar Strategy Dec 2006

~800 ideas about what to do on the Moon

Yielded 188discreteobjectives

6 themesabout why


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Theme Mapping

Orange Team 3/06

Enable increasingly sophisticatedlunar activities

Conduct science to gain new

knowledge

Improve the human condition

Provide economic growth

Enable deeper exploration of thesolar system

Ultimately establish humansettlements off Earth

Global Strategy 12/06

Scientific knowledge

Global partnerships

Public engagement

Economic expansion

Exploration preparation

Human civilization


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Two Techniques

Future history as a story

Specific vignettes that provide glimpses


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Pocket Guide to Lunar ActivityFirst we will reinstate the capability to land people there, sustain them for a few days, and return

them. This time, we will not be fundamentally restricted to Nearside, near-equatorial sites. Smallcrews will explore their surroundings, collect samples, set up simple surface systems (for power,communications, and scientific and engineering experiments), and learn how their equipmentreally operates. We will use simple rovers to explore regions surrounding the landing site. Wewill use remote sensing and surface exploration to seek unique places where useful materials orscientific phenomena are concentrated.

After determining where it makes sense to put down roots, we will bring larger habitation andworkshop elements, and construct radiation shields around them using assembled structureelements and lunar regolith. We will commission power plants that can operate through the two-week night time. We will explore the strange regions where permanent shadow and near-

permanent sunlight are close together, where there may be ice resources, and locations on theFarside where Earth is never directly visible. We will grade and pave the surface locally to makeit safer, cleaner, and more predictable for people, mobile equipment and automated machines tooperate. Crew members will begin to specialize: experiments, exploration, construction,housekeeping, jury-rigging, and repair.

Among the engineering experiments will be some that test practical ways of operating, constructing,excavating, beneficiating, and ultimately producing useful products from lunar material: oxygenfor propellant and life support; masonry, glass, and iron for making things; nitrogen and otherlight elements for air and nutrients. We will learn how to cultivate, protect, and harvest plantsand animals. We will try a wide variety of solutions to these challenges, selecting and scaling up

the ones that work well.

We will establish test sites where we can practice techniques being designed to explore near-Earthasteroids and Mars. We will build research facilities that Earthbound scientists use by proxy toperform unique astronomical observations, or uniquely dangerous experiments. If it turns out tobe economically sensible, we will establish large-scale production of lunar-derived propellantsand construction materials to enable cis-lunar development, and large-scale generation of energyfor Earth. We will build destinations on the Moon for business and leisure visitors. Eventuallythe scale and viability of these activities will cross the threshold that defines settlement, andhumanity will become a two-planet species.


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Eleven Vignettes

Enable increasinglysophisticated lunar

activities

Pave for dust control

Establish a colony of continuously active robots

Kitchen science

Designer biology

Tend the machinery

Conduct science to gainnew knowledge

Search for pieces of ancient Earth

Build simple observatories that open new wavelengthregimes

Improve the humancondition

Establish a virtual real-time network to enable publicengagement

Provide economic growth Institute a public-private lunar developmentcorporation

Enable solar systemexploration

Rehearse planetary protection protocols for Mars

Establish humansettlements off Earth

Expand life and intelligence beyond Earth


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Eleven Vignettes

Enable increasinglysophisticated lunar

activities



Kitchen science

Designer biology

Tend the machinery

Conduct science to gainnew knowledge


Build simple observatories that open new wavelengthregimes

Improve the humancondition

Establish a virtual real-time network to enable publicengagement

Provide economic growth Institute a public-private lunar developmentcorporation

Enable solar systemexploration

Rehearse planetary protection protocols for Mars

Establish humansettlements off Earth



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Lunar regolith + hard vacuum = !

Design aroundmitigation of bad effects Pave roadways and work areas

Grade, then stabilize Compaction vs. using the natural resource

Paving alternatives Compacted gravel Paving blocks

Direct sintering

Imagine an investigation that prototypes various methods todetermine what works best to control dust


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Kurzweil singularity what will we expect of robots by 2025? Benefit-to-cost ratio Human extension and enhancement

How much of an outpost could be built robotically? Shape a predictable environment

Establish, verify routine operations Build radiation shelters

Remote, dynamic construction site Productivity Public interest No downtime during, between human visits

Imagine looking in on a robotic colony as it changes every day


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Kitchen science

How normal processes work on the Moon, and affect routineactivities Convection, mixing, drainage, evaporation

The practical things

How to cook, how to clean, how to live

Must be done in situ

Investigations akin to play

Inherently interesting: defining a new way for humans to live

Make it personal: what do you do every dayand how will welearn to do these things on the Moon?


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Designer biology

1960s quiz: Which will occur first? Transgenic and knockout mice

DNA fingerprinting as admissible evidence

Cloned pets

Moon base

What biological miracles will be common by 2030?

Plants and animals optimized for lunar conditions Hard radiation, low atmospheric pressure, different partial

pressures, long dark periods, strong ultraviolet, economical

geometry, alien soil, nutrient concentration

Imagine a laboratory on the Moon devoted to developing a novellunar ecology that meets our needs


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Tend the machinery

You think YOU spend weekends working on your house

Economics will drive routine lunar ops to be machine-mediated

Highest and best uses of humans

Exploration Jury-rigging new solutions

Maintenance and repair

Shirtsleeve workshop will emerge as critical need

Long night-time, diurnal rhythm

Imagine the public appeal when tending grows to includehusbandry of living things


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Conduct science to gain new knowledge


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Oldest Earth rocks miss the first 1/5 of Earth history Tectonic recycling, weathering obliterate the record

Lunar environment preserves solar system history

If SNCs could come from Mars to Earth Lunar regolith must contain Earth rocks

How would we recognize them?

Imagine a scientific campaign using robots, humans, searches,modeling, sample recovery, and in situand terrestrial labanalysis to gain insight into the missing history of Earth


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Observatories to open new wavelength regimes

Every new wavelength window has yielded new discoveriesabout how the universe works Space flight opened several windows above Earths atmosphere

Two unexplored windows remain: they require both a spacelocation andvery large detectors

Low-frequency (P > 10m) radio Large array of simple dipole antennas

High-energy cosmic rays Detector/regolith lasagna

Imagine robotic preparation and deployment of new kinds ofobservatoriesand imagine new discoveries being made


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Improve the human condition


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Virtual real-time network for public engagement

Voters of 2030 will not be born for another 5 years How much will they share our values?

Todays media world: interests are a click away

Public will expect to be embedded in humanitys lunaradventures via high-fidelity telepresence Anytime-broadband infrastructure Privacy challenges

Not Education and Public Outreach Digital-wallpaper live feeds of lunar wilderness or worksites Moonwalks in immersive VR in junior high Lunar inhabitant blogs and chat

Imagine how the issue of relevance will vanish as lunar livingbecomes just another part of our daily life


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Provide economic growth


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Public-private lunar development corporation

Public-private partnership is required to jumpstart viablecommercial enterprise Sparse and frangible business opportunities

High barriers to entry

Port authority model1. Insures core service continuity, predictable business conditions

2. Promotes competitive growth via long-term, competitively-awarded service contracts

3. Reinvests its own profits to improve the port infrastructure

Accelerate commercial implementation of routine services Habitation, energy, communications, propellant production,

consumables resupply, food production, waste management,construction, maintenance, housekeeping, recycling, security


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Enable solar system exploration


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Planetary protection protocols for Mars

Mars is very different from the Moon Yet, we can design lunar operations to validate Mars techniques

Key feature of human Mars exploration is investigation ofspecial areas where life might be Paradox: require human field work, but most susceptible to

contamination

Can sub-optimize lunar ops to emulate Mars conditions Far-side outpost + 6-mth orbital loiter + 1-yr base ops with Mars-

type systems + 6-mth orbital loiter = simulation

Help is days away, rather than months

Imagine rehearsing protocols for exploring special areas Sterile robots, habitat gloveboxes, dust control, ops procedures


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Establish human settlements off Earth


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ber-objective focuses the others Long-term purpose Operations tailored for permanence, local supply, economic

growth, self-sufficiency, survival, procreation, and new beginnings

Settlement resonates with people A dwarf planet only three days awaywith resources

Opens alternative industrial space futures Strategic destination for passenger travel Noahs Ark reassurance

Key architecture and investment decisions Reusable hydrogen/oxygen transportation systems

Sites selected to scale up resource production Regenerable life support, genetic modification Habitat construction Genuine economic development

Imagine using settlement to focus what we do on the Moon now


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What Happens Next?

More vignettes Try this at home

Engage visionary illustrators Doesnt matter if reality is different 25 years hence

Get professional help

Test-market

Be bold

what will we do on the moon

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