Lunar Settlelment as part of Space Settlement -What's On Your Road Map?

Received an e-mail from Al Globus who conducts an annual Space Settlement Contest at NASA Ames Research Center.

In the past I had the opportunity to help grade the papers submitted by students around the world. Haven't done that of late since I am now outside the Ames fence. :-) http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/colonies.html
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/Contest/
http://hometown.aol.com/oscarcombs/excerpts.html

Al indicated that the National Space Society (NSS) is building a web site that is devoted to space settlement, which will include the idea of building a space settlement on the Moon.
http://www.nss.org/
http://www.nss.org/settlement/roadmap/

He is looking for good materials. Will talk more with him and see what he has in mind. When I have a better picture of what they are doing will pass the information along as I am sure you folks may have ideas as well.

Maybe this will be a way to take you to the Moon at least visually.
See Snips below.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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Hi! Long time no see.

I'm now the chairman of the national space society (NSS) space settlement advocacy committee. Among other things, we are building a web site devoted to space settlement. One section is devoted to lunar settlements. Can you point us towards some good materials? We have a guy who does a great job of taking raw materials and arranging them for the site, but we need materials.
Note: we are interested in permanent more-or-less self-sufficient settlements, not bases.

Also, it occurs to me that you would be an excellent addition to the committee. It would involve a small amount of money to join the NSS, then participating in email exchanges and occasional telecons, and perhaps choosing a project to help with (e.g., the lunar settlement section of the web site). If you have any interest, please give me a call ...

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"Earth is the cradle of Mankind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever,"
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Al Globus
http://alglobus.net
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http://www.nss.org/
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Al Globus, chairman of the NSS Space Settlement Committee, in the news (July 11, 2006)

If we destroy planet Earth, will space stations save us? It's an old adage that says science fiction often becomes science fact. One hundred years ago, writers were keeping readers spellbound at the idea of flying machines and wireless radios.

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http://space.alglobus.net/
Orbital Space Settlement

Today space is mostly rock and radiation. We can change that. In the 1970's Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill showed that we can build giant orbiting spaceships and live in them. These orbital space colonies could be wonderful places to live; about the size of a California beach town and endowed with weightless recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow-room in spades, and great wealth. In time, we may see hundreds of thousands of orbital space colonies in our solar system alone. Unlike earlier colonization events, no people need be oppressed and no ecosystems destroyed for the simple reason that there aren't any out there. If we do it, space colonization will be so important that only the origins of life itself is comparable. Even ocean-based Life's colonization of land half a billion years ago pales by comparison.

Space settlement provides an unparalleled opportunity for the United States.
The U.S. is an expansionistic nation and there's a lot more opportunity to expand in space than on Earth. America has been expanding steadily from the day the first colony was established on the Eastern Seaboard. Today this expansion takes the form of a world wide military presence. This policy has some severe problems. Namely, some of the people in areas occupied by the U.S. military are well armed, royally pissed, and getting way too good at killing American soldiers. These sorts of problems are inherent in any expansion here on Earth. So, what if the U.S. spent it's money on space colonization rather than global military control?

* It's cheaper. The U.S. military budget is about $500 billion per year, far more than needed for space colonization.
* Fewer casualties. America has lost only 17 astronauts in 45 years of spaceflight, compared to over 2,000 American soldiers and a lot more Iraqis and Afghanis in the current wars alone.
* More real estate. The largest asteroid has materials sufficient for 1g living area equal to a couple hundred times the surface area of Earth (distributed into many colonies).
* More energy. The readily available, completely reliable solar energy in space is 625 million times that available on Earth.
* More money to be made. One small Near-Earth Asteroid has about $20 trillion (yes, that's with a 'tr') worth of precious metals.
* And perhaps most important, no one need be oppressed and no ecosystem need be destroyed. Nothing is stolen -- everything can be created from rock and radiation at no one else's expense.

Bottom line, there is a lot more wealth and power to be gained in space and you don't need to hurt anyone. Let's go!

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Parting Words

Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that new ideas pass through three periods:

* "It can't be done."
* "It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing."
* "I knew it was a good idea all along!"

Princeton professor Dr. Gerard O'Neill got us past the first period in the 1970s by showing that space colonies are technically feasible. We're now in the second stage.

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http://www.spacesettlement.org/
The Space Settlement Initiative

Will people ever live and work on the Moon and Mars?

Will the settlement of space take place in your lifetime?

The settlement of space would benefit all of humanity by opening a new frontier, energizing our society, providing room and resources for the growth of the human race without despoiling the Earth, and creating a lifeboat for humanity that could survive even a planet-wide catastrophe.

Unfortunately, it seems clear that, as things stand now, space settlement will not happen soon enough for any of us to see it. But that could be changed! The legislation proposed on this web site would:

# save NASA and the taxpayers the cost of developing affordable space transport by allowing private enterprise to assume the burden of settling space

# make it possible for ordinary people to purchase tickets and visit the Moon as tourists, scientists, or entrepreneurs

# create vast wealth from what is now utterly worthless

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http://www.space-settlement-institute.org/
The Space Settlement Institute

A think tank dedicated to finding ways to make Space Settlement actually happen in our lifetimes.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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