Do you want to be a space explorer?
Many internet billionaires are turning into commercial space explorers: flying as space tourists, building and launching their own rockets, and starting space mining companies. They do this because the technology to take human civilization into the solar system has arrived. Space colonization is now possible, and we can solve many of Earth’s greatest problems, too, by bringing the billion-fold greater resources of our solar system into our economic sphere. The greatest entrepreneurs of our time have sensed that this will be the golden age of space and they want to make it happen.
Well, that can be a signal to the rest of us. It’s time to get involved in space! Let’s not get left out from what may be the most important movement of our times. A few of us might get jobs working for a government space agency, and many more might work for the commercial space companies, but we can all be citizen space explorers! The same technologies that are opening up space are also making it more participatory.
This blog will focus on this movement of human civilization into space: exploring it, mining it, utilizing its resources, setting up profitable commerce, establishing a self-sustaining industry, and eventually building colonies beyond the Earth. In the coming posts I will have a lot to say about this fledgling movement known as “citizen space exploration.” I am a physicist and planetary scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center* and have worked in this field for almost 30 years. I co-founded the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab located in the KSC Swamp Works. We develop technologies to land on extraterrestrial bodies, to drive on and to dig in the soil, to mine its resources, to process them for human exploration and industry, to build with the local resources, and to study them for science. Many of us in the space industry believe we see the way forward to rapidly move humanity beyond a single planet and solve world problems. This is my passion and calling as a scientist and technologist. I am excited to play a role in this. It could be the most interesting time in all human history to be alive! We are on the verge of leaping over the barrier that exists here at the end of our Kardashev Type I civilization (more on that later) to establish a Type II civilization, one that is no longer bound to a single planet, so that we can really make the entire solar system our home. Wow! What will the world be like when we have literally a billion times greater capacity through robotics and space resources to make goods and services, to do science and engineering, to support the arts and literature, and to do everything that together are called “civilization”? It is truly hard to imagine, just as it would have been hard for an ancient Sumerian to imagine what we can do in the type of civilization we have today.
We are already experiencing an explosion of the technologies that will make this possible: robotics, artificial intelligence, automated manufacturing, and so on. And for me it is all the more exciting because space exploration is becoming democratized. It will no longer be the exclusive domain of professional rocket scientists. Its explorers and settlers will be a cross section of our entire population, including people just like you. So if you want to be a part of this great movement in human history, you can. First there are things we can do here on Earth to make it happen. Then there may be opportunities for telepioneering, where we privately own and operate robots in space to directly participate in space commerce and to create the worlds where we will be going. And just beyond that, we may have opportunities to go there. Through this blog, please allow me share my excitement and ideas for how we can help humanity take this great leap, how through space resources and technology we can move our world rapidly into something much more vibrant and vastly more exciting than the world we have known so far.
* B.N., all opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent NASA, the federal government, or the Kennedy Space Center.
@DrPhiltill
Latest posts by Phil Metzger (see all)
- How Big Is a Planet? - June 25, 2015
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100% certain this is the correct path forward. Exciting times indeed!
I look forward to the journey and your blog updates.
So exciting to see this happening! Great blog Phil!
Are you aware of the Mars One project? Do you think this is a viable mission plan?
Hi Scott! Yes, I’m aware of it. I did some reading tonight to answer your second question. I think it is viable in the sense that with the right funding all the engineering challenges can be overcome. So yes, it is viable. But there are some challenges. The biggest might be Entry Descent and Landing. The website says they plan to use only existing technologies, but I don’t think there are existing technologies capable of landing such large vehicles on Mars today. Here is a presentation that discusses this and a number of possible solutions:
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20100017668_2010017622.pdf
I am sure the Mars One people know about this and there are two sides to every issue, so I would like to hear their side regarding EDL. Maybe they know something that I don’t. Also, the technologies to live off the land on Mars don’t yet exist. We can certainly develop these technologies but there will be some cost and time required to do it. Obtaining water. Purifying it. Compressing and separating the components of the thin atmosphere. We can do these things, but making hardware that is mature and reliable will take some effort. Right now many of the technologies are at extremely low Technology Readiness Level (TRL). So I am not sure if the timeline is realistic considering the levels of funding they are likely to have to do it. Given enough funding — absolutely they can do it! Given less funding, it will take longer.
One technology that I think we need for real colonization is the ability to make metal out of minerals that would be considered too low-grade to be economic here on Earth. We can’t expect astronauts to spend all their time prospecting and mining for high-grade ore. So we need processes to extract the metal from whatever mineral is easily available. Feldspar has aluminum. Pyroxene may have a variety of metals. Olivine has aluminum and iron. These minerals also have loads of silicon and oxygen that need to be removed.
Then we need better additive manufacturing with the metals to make hardware for spare parts, modification of equipment, and manufacture of new equipment. Having that capability will greatly increase the chances of success of a colonization attempt, because when technologies prove to be functioning poorly — as will inevitably happen — then the colonists can modify or create new hardware without waiting 2 years for more material from Earth. Fortunately 3D manufacturing is exploding in capability right now so that will probably be available on time for Mars One. I am not so sure of the metal extraction technology because it has no market on Earth and therefore is not being developed.
Thanks, Justin! You’re one of the people who can make this all happen.
Hi Philip, great blog!
Something made you start writing after 30 years in the field, what is it? What pushed me was watching a launch last May, and realizing I’m in the wrong field.
As for these words: “It is truly hard to imagine” – it isn’t. A young man (21 years old) had imagined all of this and much much more, in the 1940’s(!) His name was Isaac Asimov.
Imagining is not the hard part, planning and executing is. There will be so many hurdles, and it will be such an effort. I looked at the numbers for fuel consumption in my post back in October – crazy. But it would seem there are enough people who think it’s worth the effort and doable, no matter how crazy.
So let’s go. I’m staying tuned, thanks for sharing.
Wonderful topic to tackle and I think it is indeed necessary to involve the entire population. I am not an engineer, but deal with psychology and from this I am sure that any mission (or new way forward) needs multiple personality types to contribute if it wants to succeed. As most people who work in the same field are of a similar personality type, involving the public is going to help.
Dear Nonentity (great pseudonym by the way), have you looked at the Mars One site? In a nutshell they propose to significantly reduce the cost of a Mars mission by making it a one way trip; like a 21st Century pilgrims to the New World. What advice would you give the mission planners about what to watch out for from those who volunteer to be considered?
Process to produce cheap Platinum for fuel cells and catalytic convertors
Principle Investigator: Charles F Radley (Assoc Fellow AIAA) – Feb 2013
The high market price of Platinum produced via current methods, is approx. €2,000 per Troy ounce or €65/gram, at present annual demand of 300 tonnes per year. The cost to produce Pt is estimated to be $500 per ounce, but high demand drives the price up.
The high price and limited supply of Platinum is a major barrier to widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cells. We propose a process to greatly reduce the cost of Platinum, and thus enable dramatic increase in availability of fuel cells, with corresponding major reduction in air pollution, and carbon output versus fossil fuels.
80% of the world’s supply of platinum comes from the Bushveld complex in South Africa. The ores are deep underground, and are extracted using a very labor intensive process of drilling and blasting, and transport to the surface. Once at the surface, an expensive series of processes is involved to crush the ore, mix it with special reagents and smelted at high temperature until the Platinum group metals are separated from the matrix of Iron, Copper, Cobalt and Nickel. The various Platinum group metals must be further separated using Aqua Vita chemicals until the Platinum itself is purified.
It has been known for some time that there is abundant Platinum present on the surface of the Moon and asteroids. On the Moon, Platinum is ubiquitous, and contained in tiny pulverized meteoric fragments and impact glasses. These native metal particles are thoroughly mixed into the fine grained dusty lunar topsoil, known as regolith, a layer several meters thick. The composition of these native metal particles is similar to that of high grade Platinum ores on Earth, i.e. mostly Iron and Nickel with some copper and cobalt. Concentration of Platinum is about 0.00027%, or 270 parts per million.
The metallic particles exist all over the Moon, but the concentration does vary. Maps have been performed by various space probes orbiting the Moon and we have good knowledge of the distribution of metallic deposits by measuring their magnetic field strength, as well as from neutron spectrometers and other instruments. Some of the strongest magnetic fields have been measured on the north rim of the South-Pole Aitken-Basin feature on the far side of the Moon. This would be a good candidate location for a pilot mining project.
The low gravity of the Moon means it is relatively inexpensive to launch material from the Moon to the Earth. Furthermore, the platinum ore is very accessible, since it is lying out in the open on the surface of the Moon in crushed pulverized form, which makes it much easier to obtain than on Earth, where it is deep underground in hard rocky form requiring expensive blasting and grinding.
We believe it is possible to develop low cost two step processes to produce Platinum from lunar regolith. The first step is to beneficiate the regolith, that is to separate the native metal particles from the non-metallic (siliceous) dusty material. This can in principle be done using a combination of electrostatic and magnetic separation. The challenge is to perfect these techniques in a vacuum, which to date has never been achieved, due to lack of research funds.
A second step will be to smelt the native metal using a solar furnace, to separate the Platinum group metals from the Ferrous-nickel-cobalt-copper matrix.
The final separation of the Platinum itself from the other Platinum group metals (PGMs) can be done on Earth, since all the constituents of the PGM are very valuable and can be sold at a profit, although Platinum itself is the most abundant.
The remaining base metals (Fe, Ni, Cu, Co) will be left on the Moon, where they could be best used for constructing habitats and lunar equipment, and the cost of transporting them to Earth is not justified.
As a by-product of the benefaction and smelting processes, many volatile gases will be released from the regolith dust, including H2, He, CH4, H2O, CO, CO2 and N2. These gases can be used to cheaply produce rocket propellants (fuel and oxidizer), which will make it relatively inexpensive to launch the Platinum payloads to Earth. Most of the cost of space rockets today is due to the large weight (mass fraction) of propellant they must carry. If the propellant is produced on the Moon, the cost of transportation is dramatically reduced, versus bringing them from Earth.
We propose to study and develop these processes in detail, and develop prototypes to validate the processes in vacuum. We will identify methods to maximize automation and minimize costs, in comparison with competing terrestrial methods.
Preliminary estimate suggests that lunar Platinum mining will be highly competitive with current terrestrial methods. The non-recurring capital cost to set up a 350 KW solar powered lunar mining facility will be about €2B. This plant will produce about 200 tonnes of Pt per year with a market value of about €2B, so will repay the capital cost in one year. Operating costs will be relatively low, mostly the cost of manufacturing propellant and heat shields, perhaps a €100M per year.
There will be some additional capital cost to set up a propellant manufacturing plant on the Moon, which recycles volatiles emitted by the Platinum smelting process, perhaps €500M. A reusable lunar surface to/from orbit (EML1) transport rocket shuttle would be another €200M capital cost. For the far side landing site a relay satellite at EML2 is required, perhaps another €100M.
Kudos! What a truly interesting and informative blog! The topic reminds me of THE MILLENNIAL PROJECT–COLONIZING THE GALAXY IN EIGHT EASY STEPS. Okay, so they are not eight easy steps because technology has to advance to make the vision of colonizing other planets possible. But, considering human beings, where there’s a will, they will find a way.
Thanks, Catherine! Having spent my entire career working in space exploration, I am now more excited than ever because of the bright prospects to really make it take off. The technologies in the commercial sector are exploding — robotics, artificial intelligence, automated manufacturing, and a whole host of related areas — so it is really looking like we can bootstrap space industry and space colonization today, in the working careers of people who are now in the workforce. There is a lot of work to be done, but it is do-able, and the economic picture is steadily improving for us to get it all funded.
I wasn’t aware of the Millennial Project. Thank you for pointing it out. I will be sure to look it up and study it.
All the best,
Phil
Philip, good blog.
Will you be participating in the International Space Elevator Consortium Conference. It’s in Seattle, August 2013? http://www.isec.org Certainly the concept for a Moon or Earth Elevator can be applied to Mars and elsewhere. Such ease of ascension would make resource development more feasible and cost effective.
Hi Randy!
I have not planned on attending that conference (no funding) but it sounds great! Charles Radley has just about convinced me of the economic value of a lunar space elevator but I still want to see the full economic picture first. One problem with an elevator is that it services a very precise location on the surface so you will still need point-to-point transportation to get to the terminus of the elevator. That cost needs to be included in the full analysis. Also, some of the most interesting locations are near the poles of a planet, but an elevator can’t reach that far from the equator. I think the best place for lunar industry is at the perrenially shadowed craters at the poles, because that’s where the ice deposits are located. Charles has pointed out that a lunar elevator, going from beyond L1 down to the surface, can be extremely cheap and so it may well be economic for mining companies to use that versus expending the propellants they just got done mining. I’m just withholding judgment to see the final numbers.
I have not looked so much at the case of Mars elevators.
What are your thoughts on this?
All the best,
Phil
There are many valuable resources available at the lunar equator, a base would be viable without access to the poles. Options for travel between the lunar poles and equator include:
a) rotating orbital tethers, e.g. “bolos” or “rotavators” (aka momentum exchange tether).
b) suborbital (ballistic) chemical rockets
c) suborbital (ballistic) electro-magnetic mass drivers
d) ground rail transportation system (very high capital cost)
e) rovers (would need a highway built at least – also high cpaital cost)
Ref option a) A single bolo in polar lunar orbit would only be able to transfer payloads for a 2 or 3 orbits per month. We would need multiple bolos inclined at different planes, all in polar lunar orbit.
A bolo could drop a payload fairly close to the elevator point, but would miss it somewhat, but it would be close enough that it could be retrieved by a rover. The 2 hour orbit of the bolo would precess 20 miles per orbit around the lunar equator. In one month it makes 336 orbits, Moon’s circumference is 6,784 miles
Here is another idea, a bolo in near-equatorial orbit can scoop up all the payloads around the lunar equator left by the polar bolos, and deposit them closer to the elevator point. Each of the payloads would need to be mobile, IE have a rover to carry them to the bolo touchdown point, a few miles north or south of the equator.
A prototype luanr elevator would cost about $800M, with capability of 100kg payload(s).