|
27
Dec
2016
News
SRI News
06
Dec
2016
Crowdfunding for a Space Renaissance Tour, to support the Renaissance vs. new Middle Ages
Dear friends,
we are living in a very critical age. The Renaissance, which began more than 500 years ago, has developed through several scientific and industrial revolutions, and is now aiming directly towards outer space. Should this step be misunderstood, misinterpreted or set-aside, the Renaissance will be defeated and mankind may enter into yet another dark age. The risks are real, should the current global crisis win over the Renaissance, or if continuing global conflicts emerge with unpredictable consequences. Our duty is to support the Renaissance everywhere, with all of our pacific and positive means.
Two months ago, the Space Renaissance International (SRI) 2nd World Congress updated its analysis of the status of civilization, and defined our program for the next four years, working towards 2020. We have identified three essential developments, which SRI will support with outreach actions: establishing Low Cost Access to Earth Orbit, addressing the issues of the Protection of Civilian Life and Health in Space, and advocating for a suitable set of Laws for the global governance of activities in Outer Space, i.e. to collate, and extend international civilian rights in space.
Some key technological advances, including fully reusable rockets and additive manufacturing, will allow the inception of comprehensive manned activities in Earth orbit, and the first steps for industrialization of the space surrounding the Earth and Moon region.
SRI will promote and support such an ongoing process. Nothing will be easy or discounted. We have a wonderful opportunity, next year, to focus public attention on the civilian space development: the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967. While, in 2018, the UN will convene the fourth International Conference on the peaceful uses of outer space UNISPACE+50 which will define outer space development for the 50 years which lie ahead. It is paramount that the public at large fully understands what is at stake within this few years: extending civilian rights in outer space, in order to allow civilian passengers and settlers to travel, live and work in space. Something that, so far, has been definitely missing, within any space program. Travel in space, for the few private astronauts who have visited the International Space Station, was obtained under military rules: very low protection for human life and health, no warranties, no responsibility from the agencies for possible injuries or health damages, and a long military training needed. Within the perspective of the geo-lunar space civilian development and industrialization, we need a full commitment, both by the scientific community and by governments worldwide, to solve the main life protection issues — cosmic radiations and zero or low gravity — and to define a proper outer space law system.
Our congress approved a very effective program for next four years, including a world wide Space Renaissance Tour, prizes for young artists and scientists, and to develop the Space Renaissance Academy, a wide philosophical, scientific and cultural education project.
But then not make long turns of phrase: we need funds.
In 2016 we made several meaningful steps forward. SRI is now present in almost twenty countries world-wide. In two countries — USA and Italy — we have formally incorporated local non-profit chapters. In two countries — UK and India – chapters will be incorporated in few months. In many other countries our members are working to aggregate supporters for local chapter activities. Everywhere we’ll take public initiatives.
Even so everything we plan to do, basing on volunteer effort, also implies hiring specialized services: web marketing and events management, just to name two. So the very first very urgent step is to create a seed fund, enough to hire the needed services for at least one year.
We have started a crowdfunding campaign, and we are asking you very seriously to help us, in one or both of two ways:
- DONATE WHAT YOU CAN, FOR OUR STARTER FUND, at https://www.gofundme.com/space-renaissance-tour
- join us as a registered member of Space Renaissance International
Ad Astra!
Adriano V. Autino, SRI, President
25
Nov
2016
Moritz Bierling (Exosphere) interview to Adriano Autino, President of Space Renaissance International
Moritz Bierling (Exosphere) interviewed Adriano Autino, President of Space Renaissance International, in the frame of the Exosphere show called “The Creative Economy Interviews”. Autino talks about the Renaissance, begun 500 years ago, now aiming to outer space.
Your work with Space Renaissance, what is it about and what do you plan for it?
To make the meaningful steps of civilian expansion into outer space during next ten years is very urgent: low cost access to orbit, protection of life and human health for civilians passengers and settlers, a coherent space law system, to rule the commercial civilian activities in outer space.
The change of paradigm, now feasible, from military space exploration to civilization expansion into outer space. This is our presentist vision: the future shall be now! Traditional futurism, that used to promise a brilliant and distant future, is now obsolete. Humanity needs that brilliant future, now.
We recently had a very good methodology lesson by Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX: let’s do what we can with the technologies we have, which demonstrated that we can certainly achieve immediate results.
A Columbus egg, a brilliant yet logical idea after all, if we cannot yet build a single stage transportation directly to orbit , let’s take both stages back down to Earth surface for reuse. Such a simple strategy is already downsizing the cost to orbit, making the old monopoly of expendable rockets obsolete.
So we have some urgent priorities, as we discussed during the recent Space Renaissance 2nd World Congress:
– to accelerate the development of technologies for Low Cost Access to Earth Orbit,
– to resolve the issues of protection of civilian life and health in space,
– to develop a suitable set of laws, to rule the activities in Outer Space, i.e. to code the civilian rights in space
– to build the geo-lunar space infrastructures, from Earth orbit to Lagrange Points, developing habitats, manned workshops, industrial settlements, asteroids mining, hotels, advanced research settlements
This is a complete change of paradigm: from (military) space exploration to civilian space development.
In this perspective, priorities change: protecting life and health assumes great relevance, since people will live and work in space for long periods or undetermined time. In the space exploration paradigm, we had mission requirements, for round trips, or lingering few months in space. In the space settlement paradigm, we have humanist anthropologic requirements. The exploration time didn’t need a space law system, since astronauts were subject to military rules, with no warranties, nor the space agencies were responsible for their life. The space settlement urgently needs space law, to be evolved from the Outer Space Treaty (1967), and the marittime law. During next four years, SRI will develop the Space Renaissance Tour, bringing our proposals to the five continents, with big events involving rocket stars, and rock stars… we are negotiating, i cannot make any name, so far.
And your advice to young people just starting out and wanting to get into cool work, what do you recommend the young people of Italy and the world to do in order to get started with their careers?
Everything we are doing is done for young people.
The birth of civilian space development will create millions new jobs, on Earth and in space, as it was done during the past century, by the aeronautic industry, the automotive industry and other industrial vectors, now obsolete.
My first suggestion would address more to the education and entertainment dealers.
Our young people are shamefully kept in the ignorance of the ongoing renaissance, and the extreme need to support it.
The Space Renaissance Academy is trying to fill such a big gap, providing knowledge about history of astronautics, history of the renaissance, our present and our future.
Initiatives like Exosphere are very opportune and useful too, since they allow many young people to join together, sharing meaningful contents.
But i take this chance to extend a call to all journalists and medialists: come to us, take our urgent message and spread it to the young generations, the Renaissance needs them, and they need the Renaissance!
There are many works that can be made in Earth orbit, today, with high return, in terms of costs saving, in the frame of the current space market.
Talking about satellites, it would be very much convenient to mount, them in orbit, by manned orbit workshops. The satellites could then be placed in the required orbit, and periodically maintained, by such orbital workshops.
The recovery and possible reuse of the space debris is another topic that will gain momentum in the immediate future.
But we should start to think to a context in which many earthling jobs will have their counterpart in space: restaurants, shops, arts, sports, entertainment, tourism, hotels…
The civilian space travelers and inhabitants will not be “astronauts”, in the meaning we know today…
And the geo-lunar civilization will not need only scientific and technological skills… there will be need of philosophers, writers, psychologists, cultural operators, and many other humanistic skills.
So, a pragmatic suggestion to young people:
give to your studies another direction, whatever your preferred field: to the high!
07
Oct
2016
The space frontier is opening! The outcomes of the SRI 2nd World Congress
The Space Renaissance International 2nd World Congress took place on Skype, from September 30th until October 2nd, 2016, and it was a great event, with participants from all continents. During the three days, five thesis documents and a final resolution were discussed, amended and voted upon. The SRI Board was renewed, to represent the active and collaborative international team that is now leading SRI, and that signed important results. These include, the incorporation of the Space Renaissance USA chapter, in April 2016, the more than doubled SRI presence on social networks and the application to the MacArthur 100&CHANGE prize (link at the bottom of this page).
The SRI first World Congress was held five years ago, in 2011. Since then, many things have changed and finally the space frontier has initiated the opening process. Fully reusable rockets have had their first successful experimentation this year and the obsolete monopoly of expendable rockets is now finally broken. This is also a good time for assessing SRI’s capabilities to understand and foresee the social processes, since this is one of the conditions that justify the existence of an organization like ours. The result is the Final Resolution of our recent Congress that we agreed to. Below is a large excerpt from the resolution. The complete acta of the Congress will be available soon.
Fully reusable rockets are now a reality thanks to a collaboration between the NewSpace industry — Elon Musk’s SpaceX — and NASA. Space tourism is a growing and meaningful part of the Newspace segment, endowed with a high capability to develop on its own capital: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, Skylon, XCOR, and many other space companies are working hard to initiate commercial flights. The paradigm change has finally arrived: reusable rockets reduce the cost of launching into Earth Orbit. So we were right, when we said that the NewSpace industry, in order to meet this unprecedented evolutionary challenge, needed, and still needs, the support of public money as well as a positive public opinion. If this awareness was more largely shared, maybe the history would have been different. However we are working restlessly for the space frontier to be opened in time.
The experience of SpaceX demonstrates that private industry, working with government agencies contracts, can in fact reach the goal of lowering the cost of the Earth-Orbit transportation by several magnitudes. As such, many other objectives can now be targeted, including a substantial industrialization of the geo-lunar region. Space tourism and other civilian space activities, such as orbital manned services, asteroid mining, advanced research settlement and space based solar power will all benefit from the reduction of the Earth-Orbit launch costs. That’s why our main commitment, during next four years, will be to work towards a general extension of such a method: a broad collaboration among the government agencies and the NewSpace private industry.
If most people continue thinking that the world is closed, it will remain so. Instead of this, if we are able to build on these recent achievements and extend these into a meaningful vanguard, then the space-enabled future can become a reality. The first essential step on such road is to accelerate the development and the marketing of technologies that enable low cost civilian passenger transportation into space.
We are not working for a revolution, but for a renaissance of civilization. A revolution is violent, while a renaissance is fundamentally joyous and peaceful. The true conflict nowadays is between those who aspire to growth and change (the Renaissance), and those who want de-growth, de-industrialization, cultural involution, which will eventually lead to the implosion of civilization. The global crisis of the closed world has worsened, but the renaissance is going ahead and aiming to reach space. We do not fear robots: humans do it better, are more efficient and more cost effective in the space environment.
The next 10 or 15 years will see the technical and social opportunities brought about by the renaissance of the last 500 years to balance the threats, the conflicts, the huge risk of a World War III, that could be the last global war that humanity wages, since the next wars will be fought with sticks. A peaceful expansion of civilization into outer space via a peaceful development of civilian space activities, will be the core of our celebration of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which will have its 50th anniversary in 2017. We will bring our proposals of principles for a space law, which development is urgent, to the United Nations in order to provide democratic rules for commercial and industrial activities to be conducted by private entities in outer space.
SRI will develop a narrative of our near future, of our possible present civilian life in space, requiring artists to represent what cannot yet be photographed because it doesn’t exist, yet. Elon Musk announced his Interplanetary Transport System, to carry passengers to Mars for a relatively modest ticket price in few years. Jeff Bezos announced his plan to start migrating heavy industries into outer space, making of Earth a beautiful garden. Jeff Greason is working to develop manned activities in Earth orbit. All of these great space programs are not very well known by the general public. They are not yet part of educational programs in schools and colleges. SRI wants to raise such awareness and push the urgent narrative in throughout society.
SRI entered its 2.0 phase, going over the mere “propaganda”, toward a concrete engagement in the social reality. We will be open and collaborative in order to be able to listen to all of the voices which can be available to work for the renaissance. We shall reach out to many renaissance persons, creative minds which can contribute to the renaissance, if given the proper tools and channels.
During next four years, towards 2020, we shall bring the awareness of the extreme urgency to open the space frontier to civilian and industrial activities to the broad general public. We will support the quick development of low cost launch vehicles, promote public support for the NewSpace industry, promote a space industrial political platform, promote space based solar power, contribute to space law and promote a “presentist” vision and narrative of our immediate future life in space. We begin by lobbying governments, space agencies and international institutions. We will try to create collaborations with all the renaissance initiatives, which are not limited to the Space Renaissance’s ones. In order to realize such an ambitious program, SRI will initiate a major world-wide program:
The Space Renaissance Tour
We want to bring the space renaissance message to all five continents in the next 2 to 3 years. This will be achieved with public conferences having their focus on few key themes, namely: accelerating the development of low cost Earth-Orbit passenger and cargo transport vehicles, promoting civilian space development as an alternative to conflicts and the risk of a World War III; celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and to reaffirm the Human Right to Development as stated by United Nations in 1986. To lead such a grand tour which we will call the true renaissance vanguard of our time: we salute all of the NewSpace industries making the Space Renaissance happen!
Now, to realize all of the above we must rely upon the help of all the renaissance persons in the world. By registering as a member of SRI, you will help us by creating a seed fund, by which we can hire proper services and build up our very ambitious but urgently needed program. We need your financial contribution as well as your ideas and your projects, but mostly we need your activist volunteer commitment.
please join us, join the renaissance,
JOIN THE SPACE RENAISSANCE INTERNATIONAL!
20
Sep
2016
DEVELOPMENT IS A HUMAN RIGHT – AN OPEN LETTER TO UNITED NATIONS
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
DEVELOPMENT IS A HUMAN RIGHT – AN OPEN LETTER TO UNITED NATIONS
SRI News #05.2016 – September 17th 2016, by A. V. Autino, with contributes by M. Perez, A. Sinclair, A. Woods
In our incoming Congress we will discuss the program for next four years, including initiatives towards United Nations, concerning the Human Right to Development and the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
On the above subjects we sent an open letter to UN, while they are meeting in New York. Our analysis says that only expanding our industrial and commercial activities in space the human right to development can have a chance.
We think that a broad international collaboration is needed.
What is your opinion? Share it with us, during the Space Renaissance congress:
“FROM SPACE EXPLORATION TO SPACE SETTLEMENT”
The Space Renaissance International 2nd World Congress will be held from September 30th to October 2nd,
on skype chat, three hours per day, starting at 15.00pm, GMT
REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE TO THE CONGRESS!
(participation is free)
see the Congress Theses
In the framework of the 2nd Space Renaissance International World Congress
September 20 – October 2, 2016
OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Distinguished Participants to the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 71),
Distinguished Participants to the High-level segment of the General Assembly to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development[1],
please accept our greetings and sincere wishes for a successful and productive conference!
Thirty years after the Declaration on the Right to Development[2], we have to acknowledge that many analysts paint a dismal picture of the status of civilization in spite of meaningful advances in education, longevity, civil rights, malnourishment, poverty and in other critical societal areas.
Though there are places and situations that world’s media highlight as examples of worsening conditions and inequalities and obstacles to development, UN statistics show clear and gradual improvements. Yet, there exists new threats to human development that must be dealt with, such as serious environmental issues, increasing scarcity of material and energy sources, that are becoming more and more evident and serve to enhance conflicts, terrorism and migration fluxes.
We identify the problem of a growing human population within the closed system of planet Earth as the main cause for the worsening of all the well-known global problems which concern the UN and national governments across the world. There will soon be 8 billion humans on our home planet who are facing resource shortages, mass migrations, economic and political disenfranchisement, and widespread civil unrest exacerbated by this population pressure, not to mention the huge environmental issues, general pollution and the decay of the oceans. The global financial crisis initiated in 2008, is devastating society and jeopardizing its industrial capabilities that are necessary for development.
Paragraph14. of the UN 2030 agenda[3] well summarizes such a situation, and par. 15. recalls the opportunities of this historical age: “It is also, however, a time of immense opportunity. Significant progress has been made in meeting many development challenges. Within the past generation, hundreds of millions of people have emerged from extreme poverty. Access to education has greatly increased for both boys and girls. The spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies, as does scientific and technological innovation across areas as diverse as medicine and energy.” This paragraph describes the great impulse to the progress of civilization that was provided by the industrial revolution, that we can see as the last act of the renaissance, initiated in 1500. Today’s industrial capabilities are under attack, by the current global crisis, and it is dramatically urgent to contrast and reverse such a crisis by relaunching industrial development, fully profiting from the fantastic new technologies that have raised in recent years.
The Declaration on the Right to Development well summarizes the humanist concept that growth -economic and cultural growth – is essential for the progress of ethics, freedom, democracy and well-being. With almost eight billion intelligent human beings, our species was never so rich, provided that we will be able to allow such a huge patrimony to realize its full value by investing in itself and continuing its progress. Enduring cultural and economic growth decreases social fear and progressively reduces the causes of conflicts.
At this moment there are two major forces fighting in the world:
- A multifaceted global crisis which is devastating our culture and paving the way to a general decadence of civilization accompanied by the emergence of populist and new feudal authoritarian regimes, as warned by Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein[4], the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a recent address to the Peace, Justice and Security Foundation Gala, in The Hague.
- The forces of the renaissance – the courageous entrepreneurs who are betting their lives on new technologies and methodologies. With a trust in scientific research, and with a new pragmatism, they refuse to look too far into the future. They do not stop dreaming, but do what they can with available technologies and with technologies that are expected to appear soon.
We believe that space development is the simplest measure available to humanity that can mitigate and progressively resolve the main global risks our civilization is currently facing. When a species is close to saturating the ecological niche where it was born and evolved, there are only two choices: to expand into a greater ecological niche by utilizing the available technologies or to condemn itself to limitation, decadence and extinction. On our home planet we see a growing scarcity of basic resources and useable spaces for the development of all its citizens, whereas the expansion of humankind into the solar system will provide space and resources enough for the future development of perhaps trillions of human beings in the coming millennia. The expansion of human industrial and commercial activities in the geo-lunar space region should be kicked off between now and the year 2025 – a date that many forecasters see as the beginning of a very critical period, in which the danger of a global conflict will escalate, bringing with it unpredictable consequences. The opening of the space frontier to human development will relaunch the global economy at unprecedented rate, and will be the key element to defuse a potential World War III.
The first essential step on such road is to accelerate the development and marketing of technologies for civilian passenger transportation in space. We advocate a change of paradigm from space exploration dealt by military trained astronauts, to civilian space flight, which will allow anyone to travel into space and as convenient as taking a normal airline flight. When low cost space transportation vehicles will become available, a season of great innovation (renaissance) will be triggered and new answers to human needs will create new self-sustaining markets. History shows examples of new routes, created by explorers, followed by merchants and then used by many others. Searching for and discovering new lands are essential aspects of human nature. The exploration and discovery of the solar system represents the exciting historical age that is now before us, one that is far greater and transformative than any previous age. Opening the new frontier of extraterrestrial space is now an urgent necessity for humanity, but, until now, this process has been restricted and delayed by monopolistic interests and governmental control.
In a problem solving perspective national and international communities will expand human presence in Earth orbit, working together in peaceful cooperation and collaboration. Innovative services can be provided for space debris recovery and reuse, fueling stations, spacecraft assembly and maintenance and for global communication and educational satellite networks. Space development can quickly achieve both the near term and long term goals of exploration and settlement, while supporting the sustainability and prosperity of our global communities on Earth.
However, time is of essence: supporting the forces of the renaissance to relaunch global development for all people of Earth before the year 2025 is the duty of all persons and institutions caring for the survival and continued progress of human civilization. This giant evolutionary step requires a broad international cooperation and we invite UN to provide the necessary framework for such an unprecedented promotional action, to encourage (as we have written in our SRI 2nd World Congress Thesis 1 [5]):
- To propose that the main space agencies increase their activities in space and procure their transportation needs in an open, competitive marketplace, establishing a “free trade zone” in launch opportunities among all partners, so that the market will expand in a way that supports lower cost solutions such as reusable launch vehicles that are being developed by the private sector.
- To propose that the main space agencies become customers for space resources – for example, by buying propellant, water, or mass for radiation shielding in space and by providing a market for those resources to stimulate the private sector to supply them.
- To motivate governmental space agencies to prioritize research and technology for the unsolved problems needed for humans to live in space, on the Moon and on other celestial bodies indefinitely, such as protection from cosmic radiation, studying effects of Martian and Lunar gravity, effective artificial gravity for living in open space, faster and more economical transportation techniques, and in-situ resource extraction and utilization for the Moon, Near Earth Objects and Mars.
- To motivate governments to support — through tax discounts, grants and a friendly fiscal policy — the civilian space industry, the development of space tourism (suborbital, orbital, Moon), near Earth asteroid mining and using asteroids as space urban infrastructures, the validation of new technologies for low cost and safe access to Earth’s orbit, and the development of technological systems and new methodologies for human spaceflight.
- To convince the larger public that expanding civilization into space and giving birth to a true space renaissance is possible, convenient and urgent; and that passenger space travel will, like air travel did, create tens of millions of new jobs around the world.
- To create space renaissance investment funds to allow all savers to direct their savings into astronautical industrial enterprises.
- To limit military activities in Earth orbit to a purely surveillance operations while forbidding and preventing any lethal militarization of the space environment, as any major war is perceived to be the biggest threat to the future of human civilization, and space development is seen as the most optimistic alternative to war. Therefore, ongoing legal efforts such as the proposed Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) and the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) resolution deserve immediate attention and further elaboration. Any and all efforts at the international level that insure and enforce this aspect should be given the highest priority. The space environment has already proven to be an effective arena for international cooperation and, as such, it holds much promise and economic opportunity for emerging nations to collaborate with the current spacefaring nations. As economic development leads to peace and prosperity, further international cooperation and collaboration in the space arena needs to be encouraged and supported.
The 50th anniversary of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty presents the United Nations with a timely opportunity for these actions and endeavors to be given the highest consideration. We, at Space Renaissance International, are available to help with our network of experts. During the upcoming anniversary year, we are also planning events and activities that foster public discussion of these critical issues which have relevance for every citizen on planet Earth.
September, 17th 2016
Sincerely,
Adriano V. Autino, SRI, President
The Space Renaissance International Executive Committee
Space Renaissance Australia
Space Renaissance Bosnia Herzegovina
Space Renaissance Brasil
Space Renaissance Canada
Space Renaissance Espana
Space Renaissance France
Space Renaissance Germany
Space Renaissance India
Space Renaissance Italia
Space Renaissance Mexico
Space Renaissance Morocco
Space Renaissance Nederland
Space Renaissance Nepal
Space Renaissance Poland
Space Renaissance Russia
Space Renaissance Switzerland
Space Renaissance UK
Space Renaissance USA
[English language editing by Arthur Woods]
The Space Renaissance International 2nd World Congress will be held from September 30th to October 2nd, on skype chat, three hours per day, starting at 15.00p, GMT
(participation is free)
[1] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/Pages/DevelopmentIndex.aspx
[2] https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Development/DeclarationRightDevelopment_en.pdf
[3] the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/ZeidwarnsagainstdemagoguesinEuropeandUS.aspx
[5] https://spacerenaissance.space/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Our-Committment-to-Astronautics-SRI-2nd-Congress-Theses-1.pdf
[2] https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Development/DeclarationRightDevelopment_en.pdf
[3] the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/ZeidwarnsagainstdemagoguesinEuropeandUS.aspx
[5] https://spacerenaissance.space/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Our-Committment-to-Astronautics-SRI-2nd-Congress-Theses-1.pdf
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
05
Sep
2016
We will not be astronauts!
Dear SRI Members, Supporters and Friends, Renaissance People,
As you might already know, Space Renaissance International will hold its 2nd World Congress from September 30th to October 2nd. The Congress will be held online, via SKYPE chat, 3 hours per day starting at 15:00 GMT.
Though SRI needs to increase its public visibility, we chose not to hold a live congress this time. Our main goal is to update our analysis and strategy, and to share this discussion with the highest number of renaissance men and women, that we are sure greatly outnumber SRI supporters, worldwide! Holding an online chat congress, participants will be allowed to register for free, avoid any travel expenses and be able to comment and participate even when everyone else is offline. During the three days of the congress we will discuss five “theses” or thought documents, covering what we understand to be the key issues during next four years, up to the SRI 3rd world Congress, in 2020.
The title of the congress is “From Space Exploration to Space Settlement”.
We propose that world leaders need to understand that humanity urgently requires a change in direction from exploring space to developing civilian activities in space, finding ways to create human space settlements. A global renaissance is fighting the global crisis, producing social, technological and scientific transformations: in order to win, it needs to be taken off planet, to be a space renaissance!
“Thesis 1 – Our Committment to Astronautics” is an update of our analysis, about the current status of the civilization, faced to the challenges of nurturing the needs and industrial development of seven and half billion humans, avoiding further deterioration of the planetary environment, addressing the ever-increasing shortages of raw materials and energy sources. We will compare the history of the last five years, to the forecasts we made during the 1st SRI World Congress, held via SKYPE in 2011, especially as far as the development of civilian astronautics is concerned. We ask: “How can we influence global public opinion, demonstrating the extreme need for humanity to expand beyond Earth’s limits?” “Which are the most promising social and industrial processes, to be supported and further expanded?” And, “Is the science fiction scenario we used to love during the past century nothing more than a nostalgic dream, characterized by a romantic, vaguely retro, flavor?”
It is likely the term “astronaut” doesn’t apply to the civilian space passengers: Astronauts were sci-fi heroes, and are now military trained individuals who are carefully chosen and prepared for their missions. What we are talking about is our dream of taking a space vehicle as if we were taking a normal air flight, flying to the Moon or a Lagrange city whenever we desired. During such travels, one would not expect to go outside the vehicle in a space suit, just as we are not likely to sit on the wings of a jumbo jet during a flight from Milano to NewYork. We will not be “astronauts” at all, not even when we will reach our destination in space, where we will mostly live in closed environments.
Does a proper narrative exist, already, to stimulate people’s curiosity and make them feeling interested in space life? Do we need a new “futuristic” art movement? Perhaps we had enough futuristic visions, that always postponed to a more or less distant future the human expansion into space. A new art movement is deeply missed, but it should talk about our possible civilian life in space now, more than about future. An avant-garde awareness that we are late, from all points of view, and we have nomore time to waste. A word for defining such a movement doesn’t exist, yet. Usually, movements have birth before definitions.
Our duties, as awakened and conscious renaissance people, are enormous, and we could be terrified by the challenge… but we will not surrender. When looking up in the night sky and see the majesty of the Milky Way we know the possibilities waiting there … Looking at the sky is our power, the stars are our evolutionary destination. Like the first hominids who strained to stand up in upright position, we strive to think ourselves among the stars, in a 3d environment, limitless in every direction and degree of the space sphere.
“Thesis 2 – Space for Peace” discusses the rise in global conflicts that constitutes the biggest threat to the future of civilization. The underlying causes for these conflicts are numerous but most have to do with exerting control over natural resources and territories and the populations living in these regions by financial and geopolitical interests. Any major war that may occur in the next few years would have unpredictable consequences. As an alternative to the possibility of global war, we propose a civilian space development program that expands human activities into geo-lunar space, as the only valid counter measure to mitigate the risk of a global conflict and avoid an implosion of civilization. This theme will be a key part of our next four years program having a key place in all of our public events.
“Thesis 3 – Building the Space Renaissance” defines our program for next 4 years, including a primary initiative that will touch the five continents, distributing our space renaissance proposal around the world by lobbying the governments, collaborating with space agencies, trying to reproduce the exemplary experience of SpaceX to the entire “NewSpace” industrial segment. And, in addition, developing our proposals in the area of space law in the context of the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty – the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies – which entered into force in October 1967 and provides the basic framework on international space law.
“Theses 4 – A New Communication Strategy” defines how we plan to multiply our out-reach, making a growing number of people aware of our proposals and initiatives, and encouraging them to join SRI and work with us, to wake up other renaissance people.
With “Theses 5 – Space Renaissance Academy” we will describe and set up our education program, that in its first phase will see the development of webinars (soon to be available online).
Please register to attend the congress for free, if you want to be sure you will be part of the SKYPE chat.
Registration only takes a few seconds, and will allow us to optimize the organizational process.
We also want to invite you to check out the theses documents, and feel free to propose a paper of your own or amendments to what you read:
An online form is available to upload your proposals to the congress.
Should you like to add any contribution/proposed amendments to the theses documents, please follow this procedure:
- read the theses documents (the above link)
- identify which theses document(s) your proposal(s) apply
- in case you want to submit a paper, use the proper template
- upload your text or paper
Are you a renaissance person? Do you think what we do is useful? Please also consider joining the Space Renaissance!
Download a pdf version of this article.
13
Aug
2016
Additive manufacturing: a disruptive renaissance technology!
|
Additive manufacturing: a disruptive renaissance technology! by Adriano V. Autino |
|||
|
As promised, here is a short reportage—and a few considerations—of the Additive Manufacturing workshop that ran from July 20th to July 22nd 2016. The workshop, organized by ASI, took place in the auditorium of the Tor Vergata branch in Rome. The initiative—relying on the expertise of Roberto Formaro, head of ASI’s Technology and Engineering Division, Danilo Rubini, and their staff—has without doubt been a success. During the course of three days, it has seen more than 300 participants, mostly from the industrial and academic fields. During the workshop, about fifty speakers have taken the floor. Of these, the 60% were representatives from industrial or technological research entities, 30% from universities, and 10% from research institutions. Among the universities, many came from Milan Polytechnic and Tor Vergata University. I was a little taken aback by the more limited—although of remarkable level—participation of the Turin Polytechnic, especially considering the prominent presence of Turin-based companies at the workshop. Would you believe it possible that, during this seemingly endless economic crisis, in Italy of all places, an industrial sector is seeing growth rates in double figures? Well, this sector exists, and it is called Additive Manufacturing. |
|||
|
. |
. |
||
|
. |
. |
||
|
Additive Manufacturing: a quick and non-exhaustive technical data sheet Since not all of us are experts of industrial productive techniques, a few informative notes are necessary. It is simple enough: traditional mechanical manufacturing technologies are called subtractive, since they mostly work on metals by subtracting material. From a round or squared piece, superfluous material is sheared through turning or milling with the support of CAD/CAM tech. I hope experts in mechanical processing technology will forgive me for this extreme simplification, but I just aim to give a general idea to the non-experts. Additive manufacturing—commonly known as 3D printing—operates instead in the opposite way, by adding material where it is needed. This is done by layering material in shapes based on CAD/CAM models. Prime materials are in this case powders from metal or other materials, then mixed with additives to obtain alloys and compound materials. The powders are then melted with lasers or other heat-based methods, following the outline of the digital model. 3D printing can also be used to create objects starting from polymers or polymeric alloys. Precision additive manufacturing is divided in a few sub-technologies. I will list here the ones I was able to note down: EBM (Electron Beam Melting), DMLS (Direct Metal Laster Sintering), SLM (Selective Laser Melting), SLS (Selective Laser Sintering), LBW (Laser Beam Welding), FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling). Large scale 3D printing, presented by its inventor Enrico Dini (D-SHAPE), utilizes sand mixed with chemical binders, and obtains a compound similar to rock. This is used to build habitable facilities and a variety of different elements—including artificial coral reefs to repopulate ocean floors. Since 2010, ESA has been experimenting with this technology to “print” habitable modules on the lunar surface, using regolith as construction base material. For more on this, see the famous videos of architect Norman Foster, one of the partners in the D-SHAPE team. As widely discussed during the workshop, these are technologies destined to radically change the ways of industrial production. Or maybe we could say—if by industrial production we mean the tayloristic model of serial factory, or its modern adaptation, the robotic islands—that these technologies are destined to embody the ways of post-industrial production. Of course, for mass production purposes, serial production chains will continue to exist. But the most important aspect that seems to have reached its end—or at least to be significantly reduced—is the paradigm of economies of scale: “the larger the volume the lower the production cost”. This is because 3D printers allow to drastically lower the production costs for small or very small series as well. The advantages of additive production, compared to subtractive, are plenty and, as revealed during the workshop itself, many of them are yet to be discovered. Here, in random order, are the ones I was able to capture from the slides shown by workshop participants. Through additive manufacturing, it is possible to create geometries and structural properties that would be impossible to create with traditional processes. It is possible to create components of incredible geometric complexity. It also becomes exponentially easier to customize production, even for low volumes. 3D printing allows for a great reduction of the number of components needed to make up an object—if not, in many case, for the production of a single shaped piece. Prototyping and production times are also much shorter, compared to traditional techniques. The finished product is much more durable, resilient, and compact, thanks to the substantial absence of mechanical stress—which in classic processing happens due to “violent” processes such as turning, milling, bending. Also, the finished pieces tend to be significantly lighter in weight. Last, but not least, additive manufacturing definitely presents itself as a “green” technology—or, in other words, sustainable. The saving of material and waste reduction are huge: just consider that the leftover powders not used in the process are not ruined or modified in any way, and can therefore be reused in the process for a very high number of cycles. At the same time, there is a great reduction of environmental pollution, both through the production process, through the massive reduction in transport and logistics activities, and also through saving of material. Compared to traditional foundry, we have less use of energy, and no emission of toxic waste, such as dioxins, etc. Mechanics is not “mechanic” anymore As noted by the various speakers at the workshop, and in particular by Professor Quadrini, from Tor Vergata University, the shapes of the objects developed through AM are very different from the shapes—usually squared or roundish—of traditional mechanical products. They resemble more closely the organic shapes of nature instead: bones, trees, seashells. Through opportune study of the structural characteristics of certain natural shapes, it will be then possible to create 3D printed components with similar qualities of flexibility and durability. For those endowed with artistic sense, 3D printed shapes are very stimulating tools, and it’s not difficult to imagine an age that will inspire artists as much as the futurism-mechanics duo did for the great artistic movements of the past century. Let’s forget terms such as beams, clamps, pillars, and let’s adopt words maybe a little more disquieting, because they resonate with our own biology—for example trabecula. These terms make us think of future blends between medical science and mechanical engineering, and not only on obvious common grounds such as robotics and cybernetics. As noted by the various speakers at the workshop, and in particular by Professor Quadrini, from Tor Vergata University, the shapes of the objects developed through AM are very different from the shapes—usually squared or roundish—of traditional mechanical products. They resemble more closely the organic shapes of nature instead: bones, trees, seashells. A.M. and space development Up to here, we have been talking about a new technology, certainly revolutionary and fit for the renaissance—yet definitely confined to terrestrial purposes. Additive manufacturing, as Professor Quadrini himself observed, works by stratification, in a vertical direction, depending heavily on the force of gravity. It is therefore limited, at least for now, to terrestrial applications. In just a few instances—Loredana Santo from Tor Vergata University, Maurizio Romeo from BEAMIT—the discussion verged on 3D printing techniques in microgravity conditions, that could be tested aboard the ISS. Why, then, the strong interest shown by ESA and ASI for this technology? First of all, we must not forget, for the time being the main focus of most companies is still satellite activities. However, the wind is definitely changing, as demonstrated by the strong interest towards the Moon shown by ESA after the assignment of the new general Director Johann-Dietrich Wörner, and by Professor Roberto Battiston’s speech at the end of the workshop. We wait with bated breath for these promising intentions to be translated into actual Intended Tenders. Nevertheless, it is still an important step forward that ESA started a great mediatic outreach, on a true expansion programs. The production of components using A.M. techniques is already started, and in the aeronautical field 3D printed components have been flying for a while now. In the space field, Space X employs 3D printed valves on the Falcons, and the Super-Draco engine is equipped with an entirely 3D printed combustion chamber. Nowadays additive technologies allow to significantly reduce launch costs for all components, from launchers—much cheaper—to payloads (satellites). It will be possible to design, prototype, and produce everything at least one order of magnitude faster; it will also weight less, and cost less, reducing as well the constricting requisite of high durability of space components. When missions used to cost a billion, it was inevitable to rely on fully established technologies, thus neglecting innovation. As remarked by Mauro Varetti—CEO of 3D-NT, ambitious Turin-based startup—additive techniques will open the aerospace field to experimentation, without skipping on reliability requisites—especially when missions include human beings. All of this would be hard to even imagine if Elon Musk had not knocked down launch costs from the 900 million standard—maintained for so many years by United Launch Alliance—to 60 millions, even before the coming of entirely reusable rockets. It is predicted that, when the process of reuse will be established, launch cost will settle around 500.000 dollars. Up to here, we have been talking about a new technology, certainly revolutionary and fit for the renaissance—yet definitely confined to terrestrial purposes. Potential of AM for the development of civilian astronautics The potential of AM is even greater. There is, in fact, the possibility of reducing the cost of launching satellites into orbit almost down to zero, at least for launching from Earth. We can imagine a series of orbital production facilities, using lunar and asteroidal raw materials reduced to powder. The powder would be produced through factories, installed at the lunar poles and at the Lagrange points. The designs for satellite parts and others will be transmitted from Earth, and produced by 3D orbital factories. Astronaut technicians will assemble the satellites and, through suitable interorbital vehicles, they will take them to their destination; technicians would also be responsible for maintenance and, at the end of satellites’ life cycle, for decommissioning. In time, the space infrastructure will be able to sustain its production using only extraterrestrial resources. Satellites will be rid of the expensive and sophisticated automated components—expensive because of the robustness required by launch stress—currently used to unfold solar panels and antennas. Of course, as soon as entrepreneurs will start to populate the geo-lunar space—together with researchers, inventors, and technicians—industrial activity will not be limited to satellite components anymore. It will naturally extend to all the areas that sustain terrestrial civilization, and probably much more will bloom into the human mind as soon as it will be able to think—in 3D!—outside of Earth’s gravitational well. |
|||
|
. |
. |
||
|
|
|||
29
Jun
2016
Our interview with Jeff Greason – Are the major space agencies supporting the development of civilian astronautics?
Space Renaissance International has kicked-off the discussion leading towards its second world congress, mainly targeted to update our analysis of the status of civilization and development of civilian astronautics. Our first reflection is a self-critical one, about the forecast we made during our first congress held in 2011 when we anticipated the kickoff of civilian astronautics that would be catalyzed by space tourism. Following the general expectations, we had no doubt that Virgin Galactic, XCOR or perhaps some other entity would have initiated commercial suborbital flights before 2016. It was a logical perception: space tourism is the only (or at least the first) private initiative that could develop in a self-sustaining manner by selling tickets to private passengers – initially for suborbital flights, then to orbit, to the Moon, and so on. The growing market would work as a positive feedback scenario, decreasing the cost of tickets and boosting the investments for further improvement of technologies.
There is no doubt that the space frontier will be opened by private enterprise and our focus remains on the private sector. But it hasn’t happened so far. The long promised start of commercial suborbital flights did not occur as expected. However, in the meantime, SpaceX has become a key part of the revolution by developing reusable rockets obtaining NASA contracts. Reducing the cost to orbit objectively supports the civilian astronautics development which allows more private enterprises to enter the market. Robert Bigelow is also taking key steps in the area of civilian astronautics with the first experimental inflatable module deployed on the ISS and by working with NASA as well.Jeff Greason, who recently joined the Space Renaissance USA Chapter, says that there is more work to be done between LEO and GEO than what we expect. So attention students, both young and less young specialists, please take good note that: “one thread that people don’t seem to emphasize” said Jeff “is that the number one problem in the space economy right now is … a shortage of labor! There are many, many activities which cannot be conducted economically because there is an insufficient source of labor in the space industry to do the jobs that need doing.”
There is no doubt that the space frontier will be opened by private enterprise and our focus remains on the private sector. But it hasn’t happened so far. The long promised start of commercial suborbital flights did not occur as expected. However, in the meantime, SpaceX has become a key part of the revolution by developing reusable rockets obtaining NASA contracts. Reducing the cost to orbit objectively supports the civilian astronautics development which allows more private enterprises to enter the market. Robert Bigelow is also taking key steps in the area of civilian astronautics with the first experimental inflatable module deployed on the ISS and by working with NASA as well.Jeff Greason, who recently joined the Space Renaissance USA Chapter, says that there is more work to be done between LEO and GEO than what we expect. So attention students, both young and less young specialists, please take good note that: “one thread that people don’t seem to emphasize” said Jeff “is that the number one problem in the space economy right now is … a shortage of labor! There are many, many activities which cannot be conducted economically because there is an insufficient source of labor in the space industry to do the jobs that need doing.”
Q. So, Jeff, let’s start with this quite interesting point. Could you tell us something more about the activities you are talking about?
R. Today, the bulk of activity in space is satellites. Most of the expense of satellites isn’t directly in the launch cost – though indirectly, the constraints of launch being expensive and hard to schedule are a big driver. But satellites have a lot of mechanisms to unfold solar arrays and antennas, and the components which might be quite affordable for a terrestrial application are expensive because they have to withstand a very rough ride on launch, and then last for ten years or more without maintenance or repair. Now imagine there was a facility for doing some very simple assembly work on orbit, and transportation from LEO to GEO. Satellites are very modular – so many transponders, so big an antenna array, so much solar panel. You could send those elements up, plug the modules together, and build quite large satellites ‘by the meter’ so to speak. It would be a simple task for a technician – if only you had technicians. A lot of money has been spent on research to service and repair GEO comsats. If instead you brought them to a technician, again, most of that could be done. And we know there are materials on the Moon of tremendous economic interest – water for propellant for one example. What’s missing isn’t the machines to do the mining and processing; they’re relatively simple and could be launched if there were need. But they need to be set up, maintained, and repaired – a small base could provide that labor, if economic activity were its focus rather than scientific research. Energy harvesting in space is a definite possibility, but again, the requirement to make the entire architecture 100.00% self-assembling is a big driver of cost; it doesn’t take much to plug pieces together.
Q. On the bad side of the news, we observe that Virgin Galactic was forced to build a new SpaceShipTwo after the tragic accident in 2014 and is still on ground, and that XCOR seems to have suspended the Lynx program, in favor of projects that are bringing in revenue.
Is that only due to difficulties in fundraising and finding investors or are we also witnessing a strong resistance by military lobbies and governments to release their control on outer space enabling private commercial ventures? If so, how could SRI’s lobbying action in favor of paradigm changing measures be effective?
R. There’s been absolutely no resistance from military lobbies that I have seen – if anything, there is friendly interest in the developments of frequent, reliable, affordable space transportation. The space environment is changing – it is no longer a place where military assets are safe from interference by hostile powers. So the best way to peacefully maintain space as a place for the use of all nations is to make satellites not worthy targets to attack. Making them easy and cheap to replace is an excellent way to do that. So there is a lot of beneficial overlap between commercial and military interests in space.
All space endeavors have, until recently, been very difficult to finance. What’s changed that is that small satellites have shortened the development cycle for commercial satellites so that new applications can be tried and show their economic value – or fail – within a few years, which is the time horizon of interest to institutional investors. The reason I’m working on the business plan at Agile Aero is to try and do the same thing for space vehicles – shorten their development cycle. But until we, or someone, does that, investment in space transportation is going to remain a challenge. That’s why right now the bulk of the investment in that area is from high net worth individuals investing in their own projects – which is a very welcome development, but not enough of a foundation for a healthy industry.
Q. Today, Space Renaissance International is making a qualitative and quantitative step, as we say, towards SRI 2.0. Since the end of 2008, our first years of activities, SRI was mainly a philosophical association, a think tank dedicated to developing the advanced concepts of a space age philosophy and to indicate the main strategic direction for our civilization. Recently , SRI more than doubled its presence on social networks, with almost twenty national Facebook pages world wide. SRI USA was incorporated as a 501(c)4 non profit association by Manuel Perez, with a quite focused strategic plan which includes lobbying the US Congress and collaboration with government agencies. Thus, SRI will now develop political goals and not only philosophical ones, by working with national and international institutions and striving to unify as much as possible the space advocacy movement on a platform of a few shared goals. Each national chapter will be encouraged to develop its own proper plan tuned to the national environment and social climate where they are located.
In such perspective, some questions become relevant for SRI as well as for the broader space advocacy movement from a strategic point of view.
Elon Musk has invested much of his previously accumulated fortune – made by brilliant great inventions, such e.g. PayPal — in his SpaceX enterprise and few other futuristic industrial ventures, e.g. the Tesla electric car and the very high speed vacuum tube train. It appears however evident that, with regards to Richard Branson and other new space entrepreneurs, Musk has something extra that allows him to produce many rockets and to recover from accidents in just a few months. The availability of substantial capital is due to the contracts that NASA is assigning to SpaceX for the use of Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules to serve the ISS. It is likely that this momentum is also attracting further investments to SpaceX which now appears to be a successful corporation.
NASA already named the first four astronauts who will fly on the first U.S. commercial spaceflights in private crew transportation vehicles being built by Boeing and SpaceX, as soon as mid-2017, if all goes well. (Gizmodo).
NASA, by supporting SpaceX with lucrative contracts, is de facto supporting the development of fully reusable launch vehicles which is something that space advocates have been promoting for at least thirty years as the essential key factor for the downsizing of the cost of transportation from Earth to orbit. Consequently, the development of a private commercial space industry and market is being supported as well.
But this is not the only good news. On the other side of Atlantic, ESA’s new director Johann-Dietrich Woerner from the German DLR was selected in 2015. During his first interview, he challenged ESA with a grand goal: to build a first village on the Moon during the 2020-2030 decade! Such strategic address was initially announced in a symposium – Moon 2020-2030 – that was held at ESTEC, in Noordwijk in December 2015. If realized, this would be a key step on a path of settlement of outer space.
How do you see this process? Is NASA supporting the development of civilian astronautics by giving contracts to Elon Musk? Is that within the frame of a strategic plan? Or is it just the basis of a pragmatic orientation, because lower launch costs is however convenient?
R. Talking about “NASA” and “strategic plan” together probably overstates the case. NASA is a collection of dissimilar interests flying in formation. I would love to see an overall strategic plan for NASA but so far I haven’t. Certainly, however, national policymakers and some farsighted people within NASA have seen the value of adding NASA’s demand to commercial and military demand to stimulate the overall launch market – and of course so the taxpayer can derive the benefits of lower prices that come from a more competitive launch industry. It’s been a slow process dating back to the decision in 1986 to withdraw the Space Shuttle from the commercial launch market. Not everyone realizes that all the military launches in the U.S. and all NASA science missions are already launched on commercial rockets and have been for some time. NASA is providing the critical early customer support for SpaceX and ATK rockets by purchasing commercial cargo service to the Space Station and is doing the same for crew transport on Boeing and SpaceX capsules. I think that is all positive. There are some enormous missed opportunities, however. NASA is still spending about $2 billion a year on a large heavy lift booster that will start with 75 ton and eventually lift 125 ton payloads to orbit and fly every other year. That same price would pay to put up over 300 tons per year on the existing commercial market – and if an additional 300 tons per year of launch were purchased, the price would certainly come down. It’s really a mistake to think of this in terms of one provider; thanks to the efforts of both military and NASA launch the U.S. is now the only country with internal competition for launch and that competition is really improving the performance of ALL of the providers.
Q. Whatever the rationales behind this new orientation of the major space agencies, there seems that a new phase is opening in which many new space enterprises, having civilian astronautics in their mission, can hope to get contracts and to work with space agencies in order to develop technologies that will favor the growth of the commercial astronautic industry. There is, not yet, a big private space travelers market, but it is however a serious development vs. the old exploration paradigm. So, in your opinion, which are the themes upon which a new space enterprise may consider working with NASA, while being coherent with its own civilian astronautic mission?
R. I think the real opportunities are ahead of us. For decades, ambitious human spaceflight goals have been discussed by NASA and other space agencies. Expeditions to Mars, bases on the Moon, visits to near-earth asteroids. The private sector is talking seriously about private robotic missions to the Moon, or human missions to Mars orbit, and providing resources from the Moon and near-earth asteroids. The opportunity for NASA and other space agencies is that if they planned such ambitious missions, NOT as the agency that would perform the mission but simply as customers for those missions, leaving most of the execution to private sector firms to do in the most cost-effective manner, then they could actually afford to DO the things we’ve dreamt of. For example I’ve little doubt that a human return to the Moon, even with a permanent base could be done privately for something on the order or $10-$20 billion. No space agency is likely to do that so cheaply, and it is very difficult for the private sector to justify spending that money. But if space agencies really wanted a return to the moon – they can afford it, if they just buy it. And of course the space agencies have relevant expertise – but that expertise can be made available to private actors where there is need. All these efforts feed each other – the more things are being done in space, the easier it is to do more. For example, if there were some kind of transportation node in cislunar space – say at L1 or L2, it would be easy to stage components for a Mars mission from there, eliminating the need for very heavy lift launch beyond what other customers demand. But sadly, there are still too many in national space efforts who view ambitious space goals not as ends to be achieved, but as justifications for ongoing programs that will be funded year after year, with little incentive to reach the goal and move to the next one.
Q. We have always in mind your historical slides presented at the ISDC 2011, when you were talking about the missing 2nd step of the NASA strategic vision: “step 1 = exploration / step 2 = ? / step 3 = settlement”. We at SRI represent step 2 as a coherent plan for a progressive industrial expansion beyond Earth’s atmosphere based on humanist concepts, starting from LEO, recovering and reusing space debris, developing interorbital maneuverability, improving re-entry technologies, then developing infrastructure in the cislunar space, L4 and L5, on the Moon, using Near Earth Asteroids as raw materials and possible habitats.
What is your vision of a coherent plan for colonization of the Geo-Lunar space region?
R. The missing element right now is extraterrestrial sources of propellant. We know they’re out there, we know how to get them, but we haven’t developed those resources. Once we have that, moving from LEO to GEO, or from LEO to destinations beyond LEO, becomes much more cost effective. I personally think we will need humans to maintain and operate some of that equipment, which implies a transportation capability for people as well as cargo and a logistics resupply ability to bring cargo where we need it to be. Whether that material comes from Lunar or asteroidal sources or (as I suspect) from both doesn’t really matter – once we start to disconnect our umbilical to Earth and supply a big part of what we need to do things in space from resources IN space, we’ll be well on our way to a virtuous cycle where more and more of that becomes the norm. Once you start extracting resources, your next need is energy – it takes a lot of energy to extract and process that material. And of course there’s no shortage of demand for energy on Earth either; we’re 10-15 Terawatts short of what it would take to bring the whole world up to a modern standard of living. So the same infrastructure we need to collect industrial quantities of energy from the Sun, in space, for space-based customers can over time extend to supplying our needs here on Earth.
Q. From our humanist point of view, the overdue change of paradigm – from space exploration to space settlement – a few key areas of scientific research should have an high priority. If it is foreseen that the number of civilian passengers and settlers will increase in space, especially beyond the protective Van Allen Belt, the issues of protection from cosmic radiations and artificial gravity should be addressed, in order the migrants will not be subject to fundamental physiological changes in a few years. These type of research should be better developed by public money, as well as scientific research for a single stage to orbit vehicle, and exobiology, selecting the best vegetables to be cultivated in space, for food and for oxygen regeneration. Do you think a lobbying action may have a chance to orient governments and agencies in such a direction?
R. I hope so, but I’m not counting on it. The idea that the goal of government action in space shouldn’t be to visit it, but to develop it as an economic arena and frontier for human settlement is one that has been growing slowly and not always steadily. Clearly, that is not yet motivating our investments in space research because these problems remain unsolved. It is unpardonable neglect of our research priorities that more than 50 years in to the space age, we still have NO idea what the long term health implications of 1/6 or 1/3 gravity are on human beings. If national space agencies have a purpose, this is the kind of problem they should be solving. And again, how they solve it matters. If they think it’s too expensive – then put out a contract to buy that data. A lot of smart people have been thinking of cheap ways to get that data – surely there is SOME price at which NASA or ESA could afford to answer this question.
[English language editing by Arthur Woods]
OTHER LANGUAGES VERSIONS OF THIS ARTICLE:
Join the Space Renaissance!
2016 is seeing an incredible growth of the SRI presence on the social media, Facebook mainly.
Do you believe in the space renaissance? Then Join the Space Renaissance!
If your country does not have a national SRI chapter already, you can register as a member of Space Renaissance International, here:
https://spacerenaissance.space/build-sri-with-us/membership-2/membership/.
If you like to keep on receiving our analysis, newsletters and updates about our initiatives, please subscribe to the SRI newsletter here:
https://spacerenaissance.space/build-sri-with-us/space-renaissance-newsletter-registration/.
If you have already subscribed once, there is no need to subscribe again.
21
Jun
2016
Space Renaissance USA, Inc. is moving its first steps to the Stars!
One week ago the SRI USA chapter was incorporated, By Manuel Perez (President), Amalie Sinclair (Chairperson), Corrinne Graham (Secretaire), Walter Putnam and Sergio Lebid (Directors).
In the first days of its existence, the new chapter achieved two excellent directors: Jeff Greason and Paul Werbos!
And many old SRI supporters are rejoining, seeing the excellent plan defined by Manuel and his team, with the ambitious mission: “USA to the Stars!”.
Space Renaissance USA, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)4 non profit association, with capabilities of public education and outreach, and lobbying towards USA Congress and political institutions.
In his two first short videos, Manuel addresses not only the space community, but the general public at large, since our goals are of great relevance for the whole society, to help solving their daily problems, first of all jobs and hope in a better future for our children and nephews.
29
May
2016
The Space Renaissance is blooming everywhere!
Perhaps you’ve wondered why an entity like Space Renaissance International was born, and its practical use may be… But, as Americans say, there is a logic to our madness! (:-)
There are space agencies, governmental and organizational bodies and corporate entities, working in space, across Europe, United States, Asia and many locations. There are also many public associations engaged in interchange, dissemination and educational activities, promoting space exploration and human activities in space. In Europe several original communities have emerged in recent years, enabling the spread of modern astronautic objectives through their mission. The huge success of SpaceX which has privately developed a low cost orbital launch vehicle and returned all of the stages to the ground, ready to be reused, is an remarkable example. However, it is shameful that traditional media in many countries provided little or marginal news about such a remarkable and very recent achievement. And this touches upon the logic behind our original question: what is Space Renaissance for?
Space Renaissance International (SRI for friends) is an association that promotes the human expansion into space, and that is common ground with other associations. But let’s go ahead: Space Renaissance International is a philosophical association, developing a space age philosophy, that is direly needed. And here the field becomes meaningfully narrowed, in fact we might count on the fingers of one hand the associations, or rather the institutes, that are dealing with such disciplines. In the United States, Kepler Space Institute publishes, more or less yearly, the Journal of Space Philosophy, compiling the writings of approximately thirty authors. The Astrosociology Research Institute studies the interaction between space exploration and society, both as behavior and for development, with the additional Journal of Astrosociology publication. Other philosophical and humanistic manifestos might be found through exemplary communities such as the 100 year starship and Icarus International and the SETI program (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). But outlooks in these areas are more often bounded towards the advanced technologies and not the immediate and motivating philosophies of space. Stephen Ashworth, an English astro-humanist philosopher, has drawn up several fundamental concepts outlining the purpose of astronautic humanism, and distributes a regular newsletter, analyzing space usage and related events, from a socio-evolutionary point of view. Even so one can see that resources are limited and that the field of space philosophy is only recently beginning to emerge.
The Space Renaissance International platform can certainly be considered as an early pioneer in these efforts. We aim to propose and integrate an essential philosophical ideas that arise into concrete steps, suggesting autonomous and highly personal reflection to persons who will accept to look at reality by means of a new perception of the world, about the critical issues of our time: the future of civilization, the enormous risks that we are facing, and the choices we have before us; what is not yet done and should have been done already; and what types of implementations are therefore now extremely overdue. In this sense, the specificity and usefulness of Space Renaissance is coming to light, at this point. Why do we propose these concepts that are not said elsewhere? This is because only we are looking at the technological and humanistic renaissance of humanity that blossomed in the last 100 years. That in and of itself allows us to step back from the details of different projects to analyze the state of civilization from our humanist point of view, including the primary responsibility each generation has towards our species – seven billion and a half persons –, as well as towards other sentient species, with less intellectual and cultural means but much potential for the future.
But today we’ll not develop the philosophical discourse, only draw your attention to some of the intellectual peculiarities, which are most often neglected. Our humanist concept, moving from the interests and inherent rights of all living humans and their offspring, leads us to propose the argument that humanity desperately needs to expand its world view into space, and not just to tentatively explore it, if we are to avoid, and have a positive alternative to, a holocaust of gigantic proportions. The equitable space based worldview is not isolated against itself; it includes many propositions, features and issues. Space based IT, within low earth and geo stationary orbit, gave its essential contribute to the world wide network, for global social and environmental problems solving, in support of wide scale global development. In another issue of our newsletters we’ll discuss about the overdue evolution of the unmanned commercial orbital infrastructure to a manned one, capable of the necessary maintenance, recovery and reuse of the enormous orbital space debris. Our humanist vision, a driven purpose to get nearer towards the concrete things, the substantial elements, leads us to formulate a “soft” expansion rationale, one that will allow terrestrial migrants to become inhabitants of space avoiding major physiological changes within a few generations.
This means to seriously address two problems: artificial gravity, and protection from harsh space radiation. Solving these problems would allow us to invest us in space outside of the protective shield of the Earth’s atmosphere and the Van Allen belt, which protects astronauts in low orbit, where the ISS travels. But going to the Moon, even for short term durations, let alone Mars, implies the need for much more robust types of protective shield. After all, why, fifty five years after the first human flight in orbit, have so many of these fundamental problems not been addressed? The answer is perhaps quite simple: because no one has yet seriously faced the issues of transporting civilian passengers in space. A hopeful outlook towards space agencies research and development suggest that they continue to make inquiry, and that if many problems have not yet been solved, it means that our science has not yet reached to that point. But is this statement altogether true? This question does not mean to denigrate the work of many honest researchers, who are dedicated with love and devotion to their work, achieving excellent results. Those scientists are being committed, through their directors and institutions, to develop specific fields and areas of studies and research rather than other ones. So we might ask ourselves: is the strategic vision of the agencies, and of governments establishing, sufficiently based on a humanist conception? The answer, unfortunately, might yet be: only partially.
Current spacecraft are still designed primarily bearing in mind military trained astronauts. You and we might not travel today on the Soyuz, yesterday on the Space Shuttle, as if we were taking a normal flight. We might not bear the accelerations, the on-board living conditions, and the many stresses, which we are not prepared for. Denis Tito and the other few civilian tourists who flew to the ISS have undergone the same training, which lasts several months, made by the military pilots. But, most important, they had also signed a waver, a letter of total release from liability to the agencies, after paying 30 million for a ticket! Fortunately, today a number of space tourism companies are addressing this issue and when their commercial flights will begin, initially only to suborbital altitude, passengers will fly in comfortable conditions, and with legal liabilities, similar to those of a normal commercial flight. Of course, at 100 km altitude the problem of radiation exposure is quite low, and being in weightlessness for a few minutes is a funny thing that does no physiological harm.
However these first attempts of a suborbital tourism industry represent the beginning of the needed change in paradigm, from military to civilian space flight. Even the cost of space missions has represented a determining factor, until today, keeping the high frontier firmly subject to an exclusive government control, and closed to private enterprises. Leading forward on this edge, Elon Musk is creating a true revolution: bringing ashore all the stages of the new generation launchers allows the fast reclaim and reuse of high powered engines, with a drastic reduction in the cost of ground-orbit transportation.
Back to the main issue from a humanist perspective: the protection of life and human health in space, outside the Earth’s protective shield. We need to obtain gravity conditions of 1 G, equivalent to the Earth environment, and being totally shielded from the harsh space radiation, both coming from the Sun and the cosmic sources (from supernovae). Even in the context of what we will presently call the expansionist movement, we might listen to debate about the priorities of colonizing the Moon rather than Mars. But both of these assumptions for future development do not take into account the mentioned problems. On the Moon we could protect ourselves from radiation by living underground, perhaps using the lava tubes, caves ready to be equipped and inhabited. But it still leaves the problem of gravity, equal to one sixth that of Earth. Mars has a gravity equal to one third of the Earth’s still significantly less than what we are used to. On both worlds earthling migrants would be supermen, for a few years, but then they would no longer be able to walk on Earth’s surface, and thus condemned to never return home, except for short “holidays”… on a wheelchair!
Since the first international congress of SRI, in 2011, we began working on a humanistic solution for human life in space. Gerard O’Neill had already written about and designed many of these basic concepts in the 70s of last century: large rotating toroidal colonies, placed in stable Lagrange points, where objects can reside permanently, without the need of asset or orbital correction. This concept was taken up in the movie Elysium, by Neill Blomkamp, in 2013. But if this design solves the problem of artificial gravity, it does not solve the issue of protection from radiation. Another possibility would be to capture an asteroid, among those whose orbit (unsettlingly!) passes near our planet, and to transfer it to a Langrange location, for excavation. Among other developments, we could obtain huge amounts of raw materials, oxygen, and building materials in this way. Then the asteroid could be “terraformed” inside, providing long term, radiation proof living accommodation. Certainly this is a futuristic and multi-generational enterprise involving scientific and technological knowledge within vast ranges, in addition to the formative space sciences: and extraordinary developments in the fields of architecture, civil engineering, sociology, economics, psychology, biology, agriculture, … All disciplines where we will eventually add the “exo” prefix.
On these topics, of vital importance for humanity and for all nations, while continuing the search for new industrial development lines, a public discussion should presently arise. Governments should discuss such types of forward looking dynamics, adopting policies to support the new civil astronautics industry, hold international summits, similar to the gatherings recently held for the climate change mitigation. The environmental issues took 45 years, since the first publication of the Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth”, to gain the attention of the political leadership… but we don’t have 40 years! Civilization needs to kick off a genuine international expansion into space before 2025, if we are to avoid economic implosion and further generations of confrontation and aggression. Therefore we need the pro-space movement to develop cooperation worldwide, and political and lobbying activities and to spread these vital proposals to the Earthlings!
The Space Renaissance is blooming everywhere!
Join the Space Renaissance!
The springtime of 2016 is seeing an incredible growth of the SRI presence on the social media, Facebook mainly. Join the SRI springtime!
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceFrance/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceIndia/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceItalia/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceRussia/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceUSA/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceUK/
https://www.facebook.com/spacerenaissanceinternationalnepal/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceEspana/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceNederland/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceCanada/
https://www.facebook.com/spacerenaissancebosniaherzegovina/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceGermany/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissancePoland/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceMexico/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceSwitzerland/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceAustralia/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceBrasil/
https://www.facebook.com/SpaceRenaissanceMorocco/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/space.renaissance/
Do you believe in the space renaissance? Then Join the Space Renaissance Initative!
If your country does not have a national SRI chapter already, you can register as a member of Space Renaissance International, here:
https://spacerenaissance.space/build-sri-with-us/membership-2/membership/.
If you like to keep on receiving our analysis, newsletters and updates about our initiatives, please subscribe to the SRI newsletter here:
https://spacerenaissance.space/build-sri-with-us/space-renaissance-newsletter-registration/.
If you have already subscribed once, there is no need to subscribe again.
[English editing by Arthur Woods]
Voir aussi la version française (pdf)
Space Renaissance France (French Chapter of SRI) 
Space Renaissance USA, Inc. (USA Chapter of SRI)
Space Renaissance (Italian Chapter of SRI)
Space Renaissance India (Indian Chapter of SRI)
African Space Renaissance (African Chapter of SRI)
Space Renaissance Academy
Space Renaissance Initiative Group