Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Habitats - Geodesic Domes - what now?

I just finished reading "IDEAS AND INTEGRITIES" by Buckminster Fuller written back in 1963 and was thinking about Geodesic Domes for lunar construction and whether they might be of use for providing shelter to the many Haitian survivors of the recent earthquake there.

Buckminster Fuller has a lot to say about how we have been living based on past models and how he felt things could be a lot better if we spent more time and research on making better use of materials, especially for providing habitats for all of those on Space Ship Earth.

He mentions that in holding to the idea of survival of the fittest we spend a lot more on making war machines than we do in providing for peace time use of livable habitats. Only as a secondary by product of all of the technological achievement do we gain by technology transfer the makes it possible to have more with less energy input by human muscle power.

I don't know what the NASA budget will look like for supporting going to the Moon. Will have to wait for next month to see what is being requested and then see how folks adjust.

With that said, let me copy a couple of paragraphs near the end of "IDEAS AND INTEGRITIES" and let you think about where we are going and what individuals might do building on where we find ourselves today.

This from page 307-308, "IDEAS AND INTEGRITIES - remember this is 1963 and we haven't landed on the Moon yet. - LRK -
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We are shooting to get to the moon. What soldiers want is to get the first commanding platform in space. That's what the militarists are after. To be able to send a man to the moon, you first have to be able to give him his own private little earth, and he's been living on an enormous earth with great energy-exchanging patterns he knows very little about. He knows a little about the air he breathes or the gas plants give off. He doesn't know why men's temperatures are ninety-eight and six tenths degrees, Fahrenheit when in good health. He doesn't really know about his extraordinary energy balance. Our processes are so secret that nobody really knows anything about plumbing. Everything fundamental about our sewage system was invented in India by 2500 B.C. No one has made significant improvements since that time. No architect ever looks back of the purple tiles, no scientist ever studies plumbing. We never hire scientists to look at our homes. Scientists, however, work with weaponry, and its by-products go back into our homes, but it is completely inadvertent. What would happen if the scientist helped us to use everything he and we've learned to make the world a success for man?

This is what is going to happen with our explorations into space, because we can no longer be wasteful. We will have extraordinary energy cycles developed in our behalf by the scientists. We're going to have to give our spaceman enough food--he needs a ton a year, and he'll have to process that. We are going to have to find out how to use that valuable chemistry we have been turning over to Nature's landscape to process for us. While we look the other way the spaceman won't be able to get rid of it. If he spits there is no gravity to take it away. It stays right there in front of him in space. We are not going to send the spaceman out into space to find out what to do with his chemistry to make him survive. If our scientists on earth haven't figured it all out very satisfactorily in every respect, psychologically and esthetically, as well as chemically, before we send that space-boy "out," he'll never com back "in" again--alive.

For the first time in history we are employing scientists to work on a little house. It hasn't been thought of, architecturally, as a house, but it's the most important house that's ever been worked on. In America we are spending three billion dollars a year and in Russia they are spending six billion dollars a year on this autonomous dwelling device--for man.

The little black box that will take care of our sanitation will be more effective than anything that's been used before. Men will control their environment and be very healthy. ....
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Well that is about going to space and the ISS has been doing some of what "Bucky" predicted, but not enough. We haven't learned to recycle EVERYTHING on the ISS and setting up a base camp on the Moon is going to have to consider that.

How about something her on Earth for Haiti?
- LRK -

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http://www.readyforanything.org/?p=1090
GEODESIC AND MONOLITHIC DOMES OFFER BEST SHELTER FOR HAITI’S 1.5 MILLION HOMELESS EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS. I.P.N. WORKING TO CREATE DOMEBUILDER ALLIANCE.
Posted on January 21st, 2010 by admin

By Aton Edwards, I.P.N. Executive Director

As I post this story at 4:10 AM on Thursday morning, January 21th, the body count in Port-au-Prince is estimated at over 200,000 with over 20,000 people dying daily from untreated injuries alone. Roads to Port-au-Prince from the Dominican Republic are clogged and, rapidly degrading because of the constant traffic. Hundreds of thousands are still without food & very little clean water is available.

snip

I already knew that there was only one way to house the survivors. Wyclef and his team needed Bucky Fuller’s finest creation, the geodesic dome. All I needed at that point was to design a workable plan that his associates at could make it happen as rapidly as possible, so, I began to develop a workable strategy.

The geodesic domes offer the earthquake survivors disaster resistant, simple to set-up and transport, and relatively inexpensive (when compared to traditional structures) shelters. They come in many different sizes ranging from 16′ to large 90′ structures. All have the capacity to withstand high winds and, can be designed to withstand even the most powerful hurricanes. I knew that Pacific Domes of Oregon manufactured several versatile geodesic dome models that could be used to help solve this enormous housing crisis. So, my first choice was made.

Stage one of the dome building operation would begin with Pacific Domes.
snip

I also knew that more permanent housing would also be needed. Monolithic domes started a special program back in 2009 called One Dome At A Time created up by Haitian born Hip-Hop artist Won-G.
snip
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http://pacificdomes.org/
http://pacificdomes.org/relief_domes.html
Pacific Domes are the strongest portable structures known to man.
These highly portable structures are quick and easy to erect with a
ratchet! They are engineered to withstand hurricane force winds and
heavy snow loads. Many sizes are available depending on the
application. The larger domes can be used for warehouses, distribution
of supplies, and also for kitchens and food services. Our mid-range
domes are perfect for classrooms and medical centers. Smaller domes
provide a safe and weather proof shelter for displaced families.
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http://www.monolithic.com/
Monolithic Domes & Eco-Shells can provide the people of Haiti with
permanent low-cost disaster resistant homes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm29nmhmQjM&feature=player_embedded
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You may know of others that have plans to provide housing that is quick to erect.

Individuals can make a difference.
- LRK -

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/01/gates_foundation_pledges_10_bi.html
January 29, 2010

Gates Foundation Pledges $10 Billion For Vaccines
The $34 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is more than
doubling its vaccine portfolio -- already its largest focus.

The Gateses announced today at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, that they plan to spend $10 billion on vaccine
development and deployment over the next decade. "We must make this
the decade of vaccines," Microsoft founder Bill Gates says.
snip
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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
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
==============================================================
http://www.moon-isru.com/information/ASEM2004.pdf
Design and Construction for Self-sufficiency in a Lunar Colony
Niklas Järvstråt1* & Cengiz Toklu2
1TMD, University of Trollhättan/Uddevalla, Box 957, SE-461 29
Trollhättan, Sweden
niklas.jarvstrat@htu.se
2 Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus
cengiz.toklu@emu.edu.tr

ABSTRACT
Construction on the moon poses radically new design challenges. We
will give a brief overview over the resources available, the
structural loads and other design requirements, and some suggestions
for construction approaches. The main structural load will not be
gravita-tional loads, but rather internal pressure and airtightness,
while additional specific considera-tions such as radiation protection
and meteorite impact safety must be considered. It is argued that any
long-term habitat on the moon will be buried deep – either by piling
regolith on the structures or beneath rock in caves or mineshafts.

snip
==============================================================
http://simplydifferently.org/Geodesic_Dome_Notes?page=18
Simply Differently org

Geodesic Dome Notes
written by Rene K. Mueller, Copyright (c) 2005, 2006, 2007, last
updated January 15, 2009

Real Life Application

I considered the geodesic dome for doing a temporary building or
habitat. Using a set of struts, build by wooden roof laths (very cheap
and easy to get here in Switzerland), and building a 5-6m diameter
dome for myself to live in it. I merely doing the skeleton of the dome
(no faces), and put then a cover over it (shape not yet determined).

snip
==============================================================
http://www.cjfearnley.com/fuller-faq.html
The R. Buckminster Fuller FAQ
Christopher J. Fearnley, cjf@CJFearnley.com

snip
==============================================================
http://www.di.net/articles/archive/2381/
The Importance of Being Bucky (Buckminster Fuller)
Andrew Charles Yanoviak

An Unorthodox Primer on How to Be Great

As a 20th century futuristic practitioner and iconic philosopher,
“Bucky” Fuller was and is, an architect’s architect and a scientist’s
scientist. As an omnidirectional “superstar,” he very strongly
influenced several other luminaries such as I. M. Pei and Sir Norman
Foster (as dramatically manifested in their avant-garde geometric
works-of-architecture), as well as other stellar design leaders and
firms.

In recorded history, there is no other A/P/E as honored as Bucky, with
the eponymous allotrope Carbon 60 named “buckminsterfullerene,”
nicknamed “buckyball.” And rightfully so, because his insightful
geometric explorations and foresightful synergistic discoveries, e.g.,
his “bible” in Synergetics: Exploration in the Geometry of Thinking,
have poignantly created a global multidisciplinary nanotechnological
revolution with phenomenal economic benefits for all of mankind
dwelling on what he coined “Spaceship Earth.”

British editor and author Martin Pawley notes, “Richard Buckminster
Fuller (1895-1983), inventor, engineer, scientist, philosopher and
poet, bequeathed more guidance to posterity than any of the great
pioneers of ‘modern architecture,’ whose influence and thinking has
already waned under changing circumstances … He died loaded with
honors from the ‘world of architecture,’ a profession that had earlier
rejected him, only later recognizing the limitless possibilities that
his concept of ‘design science’ offered for the future. Today, the
reality of this bequest is larger than life and to be seen
everywhere.”

snip
==============================================================
http://www.monolithic.com/
Welcome to Monolithic.com

Monolithic is a family of companies sharing a mutual goal: To improve
the lives of people worldwide through the introduction and
construction of Monolithic Domes, for personal and public use, that
are superior in strength, energy-efficiency and cost control.

Located in Italy, Texas, Monolithic has been constructing these
quality buildings for more than thirty years. This website is devoted
to broadening the understanding and education of this technologically
advanced construction process.

A complex of seven, 60-foot, interconnected, colorfully painted and
decorated domes dominates the far end of Monolithic’s headquarters. It
is Bruco – Monolithic’s 14,000 square foot factory that houses the
state-of-the-art equipment for the design and manufacture of Airforms
and various other tarps, covers and liners.

snip
==============================================================

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

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