Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Image: Lear21, CC BY-SA 3.0

East and West Berliners on top of the recently opened Berlin Wall, early November 1989.

Image: TD Architects

The rich world, developed world, first world or Western world by another name: the walled world.

Image source: Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han), CC BY 2.0

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

Image: ngel Gutirrez Rubio, CC BY 2.0

The 'Valla' in Melilla, where Europe touches Africa.

Image source: Duke Human Rights Center, CC BY 2.0

One of the 99 "Peace Walls" in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Image source: Cedric31, GFDL

The expansion of Morocco's Berm, in six phases from 1982 to 1987.

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Outer space capitalism: The legal and technical challenges facing the private space industry - Big Think

Image: Lear21, CC BY-SA 3.0

East and West Berliners on top of the recently opened Berlin Wall, early November 1989.

Image: TD Architects

The rich world, developed world, first world or Western world by another name: the walled world.

Image source: Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han), CC BY 2.0

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

Image: ngel Gutirrez Rubio, CC BY 2.0

The 'Valla' in Melilla, where Europe touches Africa.

Image source: Duke Human Rights Center, CC BY 2.0

One of the 99 "Peace Walls" in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Image source: Cedric31, GFDL

The expansion of Morocco's Berm, in six phases from 1982 to 1987.

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Deep learning nails correlation. Causation is another matter. - Big Think

The collaboration between Elon Musk-led SpaceX and NASA is getting bigger and broader. The latest is a $3 million contract by NASA to expand on the technology concepts of spacecraft fuel refilling in low earth orbits pitched by SpaceX.

This is mainly for new generation spacecraft and rockets being developed for Mars and Lunar missions.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recently had a joint press conference with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk where the impending SpaceX launch of Crew Dragon was discussed.

Bigger size and heavy payloads and hundreds of astronauts in the future will require orbital refueling as an important feature.

Musk is on record that SpaceX is developing the new technologies to dock two Starships together in orbit and transfer fuel to the one that will be going beyond low-Earth orbit, per SpaceX news.

According to Elon Musk, new generation spacecraft heading for the moon and other longer voyages like Mars the mission will need such mode of refueling in the low orbit around Earth.

Under the $3M contract, SpaceX will work with NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to build cryogenic fluid couplers. They are special nozzles Starship will need to refuel in orbit.

According to NASA news, SpaceX will work with NASA to build those nozzles Starship will use to mate and refuel in orbit.

The prototype of Starship being developed by SpaceX in Texas involves launching a stainless steel crewed craft atop a Super Heavy booster. Refueling that rocket around Earth orbit will be a high priority.

NASA announced a Tipping Point funding on September 27th with a corpus of $43.2 million that will be distributed among 14 companies.

The fund is focused on advancing important technologies necessary for the sustained exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Mars colonization plans intensified after the flow of data from Mars rovers sent by NASA.

In addition to SpaceX, AmazonBlue Origin also received funding. Fuel feed is required for Super Heavy as well as it must perform booster landings and needs propellant for a boost back and landing burns.

Starship is aiming to use an in-space propellant transfer to enable the delivery of over 100 tons of useful mass to the surface of the Moon or Mars. Pictured is the exterior of SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California as seen on July 22, 2018. Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

Main challenge

Orbital refueling has never been tested on a bigger scale, speed, or reliability. That calls for Starship needing numerous in-orbit refuelings.

The transfer of fuel will have to be in the scale of at least 150 metric tons (330,000 lb) of liquid oxygen and methane in microgravity conditions at the LEO.

SpaceX hadSpace Act Agreements with NASA to develop orbital propellant transfer technology. The September 27th award expands that relationship with direct funding from NASA.

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NASA, SpaceX Working On Refuelling Rockets In Space For Moon, Mars Mission - International Business Times

Pandasaurus Gamesthe board game publishers behind popular games like Machi Koro, Dinosaur Island, and The Mindis raising funds for a new tabletop adventure that redefines the space race. The Kickstarter campaign for Godspeed has already blasted past its goal of $30,000, and there is still time if youre interested in the latest offering from the publisher known for immersive experiences and a whole lot of fun.

Godspeed is a worker placement game. Expect between sixty to ninety minutes of playtime to finish a session, and two to five players can clamor for first place as the nations pursue extraterrestrial colonization. This is the 1960s space race in an alternate reality. The moon landing was a spectacle, but astronauts have traveled much further and found an exoplanet with ancient relics. These alien machines are worth everything. The pioneering space cowboys arent coming back. They will stay to secure these relics for their country. Whichever one that may be.

Three phases will take place each roundthe High Council Phase, the Supply Depot Phase, and the Action Phase. Diplomacy, power, and action all play a part in the efforts to colonize the exoplanet. Whoever wields their influence in the most strategic way will win.

The Kickstarter campaign for Godspeed will end Friday, October 18th at 11:59 PM CDT. If you want to secure a copy and take over the stars for your country, act now.

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Your Time Is Almost Out To Join The GODSPEED Kickstarter Campaign - GameTyrant

BOCA CHICA, Texas Elon Musk has a Starship, and one day he expects it will help SpaceX reach other worlds.

Standing beneath a towering Starship Mk1, a prototype for SpaceX's massive reusable launch system, Musk laid out his plan for interplanetary travel at the company's South Texas test site here on Saturday (Sept. 28) the 11th anniversary of the first successful orbital launch of SpaceX's first rocket, the Falcon 1.

The new version of Starship (and its Super Heavy booster) will be able to carry up to 100 people to the moon, Mars or other destinations in space or around Earth, he said. It will stand 387 feet (118 meters) tall and be completely reusable, with quick turnarounds.

This is the rocket that will launch the billionaire Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and a handful of artists on a trip around the moon in the 2020s. SpaceX unveiled that planned space tourist trip last year (but did not disclose how much Maezawa paid).

"This is, I think, the most inspiring thing I have ever seen," Musk told a crowd of about 200 SpaceX employees, guests and reporters at the company's site near Boca Chica Village, just outside of Brownsville. "Wow, what an incredible job by such a great team to build this incredible vehicle. I'm so proud to work with such a great team."

Musk later thanked Maezawa for his support. The billionaire has contributed an unspecified amount to SpaceX to aid Starship's development.

Related: SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy Mars Rocket in Pictures

Musk has long said that the main goal of SpaceX, since its founding in 2002, has been to help make humanity a multiplanet species. The company has developed reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, as well as reusable Dragon cargo capsules and a new Crew Dragon ship for astronauts. It has launchpads in Florida, California and now Boca Chica, where the company broke ground on its test site in 2014.

But Mars, Musk has said, has remained the true objective.

"This is the fastest path to a self-sustaining city on Mars," he said Saturday night, referring to the Starship-Super Heavy architecture.

SpaceX's Starship concept has undergone a kind of rocket evolution in the three years since Musk first unveiled it to the world in September 2016 at the International Astronautical Union meeting in Mexico.

At that meeting, Musk unveiled what he called the the Interplanetary Transport System, or ITS, for Mars colonization. The ITS called for a fully reusable spacecraft (with two fins) and booster that would stand 400 feet (122 m) high when assembled. Its first stage would have 42 next-generation Raptor engines, and the booster would be 40 feet (12 m) wide. The spacecraft would have nine Raptors. (SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets have nine Merlin engines on their first stage. Falcon Heavy first stages have 27 Merlins.)

Musk updated the design in 2017, calling it the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR for short. That plan called for a launch system that would stand 348 feet (106 meters) tall and 30 feet (9 m) wide. Its booster would have 31 Raptor engines, while the spacecraft atop it would have six.

Then, in 2018, Musk unveiled yet another design (and the Starship name): a sleek, stainless-steel spacecraft with three tail fins that would stand taller than its 2017 precursor, with a height of 387 feet (118 m). The spacecraft would still be powered by six Raptor engines, with up to 37 Raptors powering the booster (now called Super Heavy).

The switch to 301 stainless steel from a lightweight, but expensive, carbon fiber composite material, was a turning point, Musk said. The steel gets stronger the colder it gets, making it perfect for flights in the cold depths of space. It also has a higher melting point, making it more resilient during the fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere.

It's also way cheaper, about 2% the cost of carbon fiber, he added.

"Steel was the best design decision on this whole thing," Musk said.

This latest design has held to the present day; SpaceX is still shooting for a 387-foot-tall Starship-Super Heavy stack, with six Raptors on the spacecraft. The number of engines on Super Heavy could vary from flight to flight; Musk said the rocket has space for up to 37 Raptors, and each mission will probably require at least 24.

"Starship will allow us to inhabit other worlds," Musk wrote on Twitter Friday (Sept. 27). "To make life as we know it interplanetary."

With the design nailed down, SpaceX plans to move fast.

"This is going to sound totally nuts but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months," Musk said. "Provided the rate of design improvement and manufacturing improvement continues to be exponential, I think that is accurate to within a few months."

.And people could start flying aboard the vehicle in the next year or so if the test program continues to go well, he added. That appears to be an extremely accelerated program, given that SpaceX has not yet launched astronauts on its Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA.

While Musk and SpaceX have been lauded by their ambitious push for a Starship capable of deep-space travel, the road has not always been smooth.

As the company ramped up its testing with a smaller rocket, called Starhopper, frequent road closures, launch hazard advisories and other side effects of the program sparked ire among some residents of Boca Chica Village, a nearby beachside community. SpaceX's Starship Mk1, for example, is just dozens of feet from a main travel route, Boca Chica Boulevard, that leads to the village.

Earlier on Saturday, the boulevard was the scene of a rotating gallery of onlookers and SpaceX fans posing for selfies and photos with the Starship Mk1, even as SpaceX put the finishing touches on the 165-foot (50 m) vehicle.

"I can sum up my first impression like this: 'Ooo, Shiny!'" said Roy Paul, 78, of Mebane, North Carolina, who flew to Houston and drove over 7 hours with a niece, nephew and their five children from Beaumont to see the Starship Mk1. He's a dedicated space fan who goes as IonMars on NASASpaceflight.com forums.

This month, SpaceX offered to buy out some Boca Chica Village residents after a short 500-foot (150 m) test sparked a brush fire at the test site, according to Business Insider.

On Saturday, Musk confirmed that SpaceX has sought to buy out some Boca Chica residents. If SpaceX's flight test rate holds, then Starship launches may become more disruptive to the hamlet's residents, he said.

Then there are SpaceX's other customers.

NASA is still waiting for SpaceX to complete the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The space agency has picked SpaceX (and another company, Boeing) to provide commercial crew flights to the station.

While SpaceX did launch an unpiloted Crew Dragon test flight to the space station this year, a subsequent abort system test failed, leading to the destruction of the vehicle. SpaceX aims to resume abort system tests later this year ahead of the first crewed test flight.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, it seems, is not happy with the years-long delays of Crew Dragon, as well as Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, especially after seeing SpaceX build Starship Mk1 this year ahead of its own test flight.

"I am looking forward to the SpaceX announcement tomorrow," Bridenstine wrote on Twitter Friday. "In the meantime, Commercial Crew is years behind schedule. NASA expects to see the same level of enthusiasm focused on the investments of the taxpayer. It's time to deliver."

On Saturday night, Musk assured that SpaceX is focused on Crew Dragon for NASA, as well as flights for other customers. Only about 5% of SpaceX's resources are devoted to the Starship program, he said.

Meanwhile, the city of Brownsville, remains hopeful that SpaceX's presence and future launches from Boca Chica could be a boon for the community.

The city's mayor, Trey Mendez, a lawyer and native of Brownsville, said that in the five years SpaceX has been at the Boca Chica site, the area has seen some tourists come to gawk at the rockets, but such visits have not had a significant impact on the city's economy.

That could change, Mendez said, if SpaceX sets up regular space launches from Boca Chica. But if the area just stays a test site, then it may not be as big an impact as the city would like.

"Definitely I can say that the community is overall excited with the opportunities that the space industry brings. And we're excited to learn more about SpaceX's plans out here," Mendez told Space.com just hours before Musk's presentation. "I certainly hope that it is something that will have a measurable impact for our city, because I would definitely love to have that."

Space.com Senior Space Writer Mike Wall contributed to this story. This story has been updated to include new comments by Elon Musk from his Starship update.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@SpacedotcomandFacebook.

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Elon Musk Unveils SpaceX's New Starship Plans for Private Trips to the Moon, Mars and Beyond - Space.com

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Over the weekend, Elon Musk unveiled the first Starship prototype SpaceX has built. The company has set an ambitious test schedule for itself, with the vehicle possibly making a limited flight as early as November. The so-called Starship is actually the second stage of a two-stage rocket. The first stage is called Super Heavy. Combined, the two are known as BFR, or Big Falcon Rocket.

Image of the Mk 1 Starship engine, with three mounted Raptors. Credit: SpaceX

The 50-meter tall Starship, with its 9-meter payload fairing, is a significant step forward for SpaceX. Musks Starship is the vehicle he intends to use for Mars colonization and for pushing the boundaries of manned space exploration. Initial testing will be done with three Raptor engines, but the Starship vehicle is designed to mount up to six Raptors and may be tested with all of them depending on how the program evolves. The Mark 1 prototype unveiled over the weekend is not the only launch vehicle SpaceX is building; the Mk 2 prototype is already under construction in Florida.

Musks plans for Starship, if fully realized, would represent nothing less than a wholesale shift in how the human race approaches space travel. Starship is theoretically designed to hold up to 100 people, though Musk himself acknowledged that the life support systems required to support that many individuals in a trip to Mars do not yet exist. The rocket is designed to be reusable, and SpaceX wants to recover its prototype launch vehicles so it can conduct further testing on them over time, in order to better learn how to push the flight envelope and to improve the various landing and flight systems.

The prototype Starship. Image Credit: SpaceX

This thing is going to take off, fly to 65,000 feet about 20 km and come back and land in about one to two months, Musk said, in reference to the Mk 1 prototype. So that giant thing, its gonna be pretty epic to see that thing take off and come back.

The Starship has two steerable fins on its forward and aft sections, as well as four smaller fixed fins on the aft section, with two on each side. The tweet below contains an artists conception video of Starship taking off, with the first stage returning to Earth while the second stage approaches and docks with a Starship already in orbit. The maneuver is a demonstration of how fuel might be transferred between two craft; Musk has also drawn up plans for a Starship cargo vessel that would deliver fuel in this fashion. Refueling the Starship in space would allow the ship to fire its engines twice once to reach orbit, and once to set its trajectory for Mars orbital injection (or whatever other location might be used).

Starship will be lofted into orbit on the Super Heavy, which has up to 37 Raptor engines and an estimated payload capacity of 150,000 kg to LEO. This exceeds even the final expected Block 2 configuration of the Space Launch System (SLS), which is expected to be capable of 130,000 kg to LEO and wont be ready until 2029. The first block version of the SLS should be ready to fly by late 2021. Starship may make its first test flight in November, with full testing in 2020.

While Starship is expected to fly in 2020, this doesnt mean Elon Musks Mars colonization effort will be kicking off next year substantial work remains to be done in designing life support systems, not to mention the research and development required to support colonization.

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Elon Musk Unveils His Starship, Plans to Fly It in a Matter of Months - ExtremeTech

Terraforming the Red Planet should be done ahead of mankinds visit to Mars to help establish a better living environment on the barren plane, biological scientist has claimed. Terraforming is the process of transforming a planet to make it more similar to Earths conditions and thus more habitable for humans. Dr Jose Lopez, a professor at Nova Southeastern Universitys (NSU) Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, has said that microbes which helped make Earth a suitable place for living could also work on Mars.

Dr Lopez said: Life as we know it cannot exist without beneficial microorganisms.

They are here on our planet and help define symbiotic associations - the living together of multiple organisms to create a greater whole.

To survive on a barren (and as far as all voyages to date tell us) sterile planets, we will have to take beneficial microbes with us.

This will take time to prepare, discern and we are not advocating a rush to inoculate, but only after rigorous, systematic research on Earth.

In a paper titled Space Colonization Beyond Earth with Microbes First, which was published in the journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Dr Lopez argued that sending microbes first will save humanity money, can be life-sustaining and boost microbiological understanding.

However, he does concede that a lot more research will need to be done.

Dr Lopez continued: Life on earth started with relatively simple microorganisms which have the capacity to adapt and evolve to extreme conditions, which defined earths habitats in the ancient past.

Cyanobacteria for example provided most of the oxygen we now breath more than two billion years ago.

READ MORE:Alien' life discovered underground point to subterranean Galapagos'

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Life on Mars: Scientist suggests sending microbes to the Red Planet to terraform Mars - Express.co.uk

Wanna prove your worth as a space-savvy Guardian? Then find the NASA emblem in Destiny 2's new Shadowkeep expansion.

Shadowkeep has brought a bunch of new stuff to Destiny 2. There's a totally new intro to the game, a brand new introductory quest system, a new battle pass system, and of course, tons of new loot. But there are also a bunch of new easter eggs that have been planted into the new content to give intrepid explorers something to do in between bouts of furious murder.

One of those little easter eggs is a new emblem that can show everyone in The Tower just how much of a space nut you are. It's called the "Orbital Cartographer" emblem, and it will let everyone around you know just how much you're down with NASA.

Getting to it isn't a walk in the park if you're a new player, but veterans shouldn't have too much difficulty. You can find the Orbital Cartographer emblem in the K1 Logistics Lost Sector in Archers Line on the Moon. The boss area will have a shielded Servitor, but around the side is a little building with a mysterious device laying on top of it. Examine that device and you get yourself an emblem.

RELATED: Going Free To Play Saved Destiny 2

That device just so happens to be the Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper, a proposed NASA satellite that will look for hydrogen deposits around the moon's poles in 2021. The idea here is to find hydrogen beneath the lunar surface. Lots of interesting things have hydrogen in it, but the most important one is water. Finding a bunch of water would mean that a colony on the moon is that much more feasible.

And that emblem? It's based on the LunaH-Map Mission's official logo.

Judging by the Destiny lore, it sounds like humanity will get lucky with this little satellite probe and indeed find some water. Then well send out a colonization team to the moon followed by a bunch of other planets. Then a giant space sphere will arrive and provide us with even more technology before terrifying darkness descends and blows it all away.

But hey, then you get to play Destiny 2 and have a sweet emblem.

NEXT: Think Twice Before Claiming This Item In Destiny 2: New Light

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Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Needs To Address Y1 & Y2 Loot Drops

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Destiny 2: How To Find The Secret NASA Emblem | TheGamer - TheGamer

SpaceX's highly anticipated foray into spacesuits that will be worn by astronauts en route to the International Space Station has finally arrived. Wochit

The first image of SpaceX's new spacesuit, released by CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday, shows the company's foray into the hardware, which will be worn by astronauts traveling to the International Space Station.(Photo: Elon Musk / SpaceX via Instagram)

SpaceX's highly anticipated foray into spacesuits that will be worn by astronauts en route to the International Space Station and possibly beyond has finally arrived.

CEO Elon Musk took to Instagram early Wednesday morning to release the first teaser image of the company's futuristicspacesuits, which appear tofeature a mostly white palette that sharply contrasts with gray segments and accents.

Musk said it was "incredibly hard"to balance function and aesthetics for the hardwarethat will fulfill one of SpaceX's core obligations to NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

"Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup)," Musk, also CEO of energy company Tesla, said."Already tested to double vacuum pressure."

[NOAA satellite launched from Space Coast captures incredible eclipse video]

[Reminder: NASA sonic boom testing begins near Kennedy Space Center]

More photos and detailsare expected over the next few days.

If timelines hold, SpaceX could launch astronauts on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral as soon as 2018, marking the first time humans have launched from U.S. soil since the final flight of space shuttle Atlantis in July 2011.

SpaceX could also use the spacesuits or at least portions of them for trips around the moon and, eventually, the company's ultimate goal of Mars colonization.

SpaceX was selected by NASA as a commercial crew partner under a $2.6 billion contract and has successfully delivered supplies and science experiments to the station under the separate Commercial Resupply Services program 11 times.

Aerospace giant Boeing, also contracted for the Commercial Crew Program at $4.2 billion, announced its version of a spacesuit earlier this year. Named Starliner, the modern suits feature plenty of blue, sneaker-like boots and Velcro.

Boeing could also launch astronauts to the ISS on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral as soon as 2018.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

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Elon Musk shares first photo of SpaceX's sleek new spacesuit - Florida Today

NIOTA - Talk of eclipse history and possibly living on the moon were highlights from a presentation in Niota Monday afternoon.

Michael Genest, a Niota resident who has worked at NASA's Johnson Space Center, spoke to those gathered at the Niota Solar Eclipse Festival prior to the eclipse totality.

Genest opened his comments talking about references of solar eclipses in history, citing instances such as India in 1400 B.C. and China in 1302 B.C. He then moved into the science behind the eclipse, noting that there's a "plane of the ecliptic" that is "defined by the Earth's orbit around the sun."

"The moon is not exactly in the ecliptic plane," he said. "That's why every time the moon rotates around the sun, we don't get a total eclipse."

He said on Monday there was a "seventy-mile wide swath of totality" in Monday's eclipse.

Genest added that total eclipses are very rare, as the most recent time before Monday that you could see a total eclipse from Tennessee was 1869 and "that time it just clipped the northeastern part of the state."

Seven years from now he said a total eclipse will be viewable from around Illinois and the next time one will be viewable from this area is 2153.

"It's a cosmic coincidence or the fingerprint of God," he said, noting that the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun but is the exact right distance from the sun to make the total eclipse viewable from Earth.

"It's exactly the right size and distance to blot out the sun," he said. "It's a pretty interesting thing."

He noted that Monday's eclipse "came ashore in a little beach town in Oregon" earlier in the day and then reached totality in Niota at 2:32:33 p.m., lasting for two minutes and 38 seconds.

Discussion of the eclipse led Genest to talk about possibly inhabiting the moon and he said that one day it may become the Earth's eighth continent.

"We are right on the verge of returning to the moon," he said. "We're going to go there, stay there and begin using it for different things."

He said right now, the belief exists that there are large amounts of water currently on the moon.

"There's a lot of water ice in comets," he said, noting that many of those comets have made contact with the moon. "That water hasn't had the chance to evaporate and go away."

He said a pair of satellites have confirmed the existence of this water ice on the moon.

Genest also noted that our progress of making it to the moon is being hastened by the entrance of private companies into the goal of reaching the stars.

"Someday, going to the moon will be no harder than going to Antarctica," he noted, adding that it takes about three days to travel to the moon.

As for a timeline for that, he said there could be small habitations on the moon by 2030 and around 100 years from now there could be "full blown lunar colonies."

Email: dewey.morgan@

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NASA's Genest discusses eclipse, moon colonization at Niota event - The Daily Post-Athenian