In order to develop and utilize space, we must have a plan
which shows how this can be done, step by step, while still showing
a profit all along the way. Governments of free peoples will be
loathe to finance extremely costly projects which have no more value
or potential than scientific curiosity.
1. Build a profit-making infrastructure based upon two
businesses - hydroponics and androids. Profits from these
businesses will help finance the subsequent projects.
2. Enlist the financial support of several major electric
utilities and/or oil companies around the world. The utilities will
be getting desperate trying to find new power sources for two reasons.
First, the public will not allow them to build nuclear fission plants
due to their hazards. And second, they will not be allowed to build
coal fired plants because of the problem of global warming. The oil
companies, on the other hand, will eventually begin running out of
oil and helium-3 (from the moon) would be the perfect substitute.
3. Finance and develop inexpensive launch capabilities for
placing small payloads in LEO. Three technologies in particular
should be examined. Those are conventional powder guns,
electromagnetic projectile launchers, and hydrogen gas guns.
4. The cheap LEO launch capability will be used to establish
several orbiting fuel supply stations. They will be refueled
from the earth with water or ice. The water will be separated into
oxygen and hydrogen in orbit using solar power.
5. Slowly expand each of the fuel supply stations into full scale
space stations - perhaps into the space hotels envisioned by
Shimizu Corp. This would be done with automatic rendezvous and
docking as the Russians now do and via remotely controlled assembly.
6. Encourage the development of cheap space planes such as Hotol
or the "space bus". Promote tourism to all space stations
via the space planes. The goal is to expand the number of space
planes through tourism.
7. Develop the dozen or so machines described in section 7.6
for deployment on the moon. Funding of this project can be a
combination of the profits from hydroponics and android sales.
8. Use the Energia HLV to lift the lunar equipment to LEO.
There, the fuel tanks will be filled with propellant from the
orbiting fuel depots. The lunar equipment will then be soft
landed on the moon - carrying no people. Alternatively, a smaller
load could be lifted directly to the moon without the need for
the orbiting fuel depots, thus moving up the start date for the
first lunar base by 3 to 5 years.
9. Finance and construct an EMPL capable of throwing projectiles
from the earth to the moon. This facility will cost about $6
billion - about the same as the Alaskan oil pipeline. The
utilities and the oil companies will finance this project.
(The lack of this facility is not a show-stopper, it merely
delays progress of other projects).
10. The lunar base will be established by the androids and
controlled from earth. The lunar facilities will grow both
from the use of indigenous materials and from additional
supplies delivered via EMPL and a lunar slide lander at the
lunar base (see section 7.2.3) - if and when step 9 is completed.
11. Begin producing lunar products: solar arrays, iron, oxygen,
titanium, hydrogen, and helium-3. Continue to expand the production
facilities.
12. Construct a small EMPL (750 meters) at the first lunar base.
This EMPL will be constructed up the side of a convenient lunar
crater. It will be capable of throwing projectiles all the way to
Earth - much easier than the reverse.
13. Begin shipments of helium-3 to earth via the small EMPL using
projectiles sent from earth and landed on the lunar slide lander.
The utilities can then begin full scale pilot plant development
and we can begin to pay off our debts. Sales of helium-3 will help
finance subsequent projects.
14. Construct an electrified railroad from the first base north
to the north pole of the moon. This activity is expected to take
five years to complete.
15. Construct the primary EMPL at the north pole of the moon.
This EMPL is the heart of our new propulsion system which is based
on momentum transfer (see section 6.4). This project is expected to
take another five years to complete.
16. Railroad construction will continue south from the north
pole down the back side of the moon after the construction of the
circular tracks for the primary EMPL. The goal will be to establish
large solar arrays on the far side so we will have continuous solar
power.
17. Develop the lunar projectile manufacturing plant during
construction of the primary EMPL. The projectiles would be
designed, developed, and perfected on earth. If the earth-to-moon
EMPL is built, they can even be tested by throwing them to the Moon.
18. Begin manufacturing the components of the first spaceship.
The spaceship's EMPL will be basically the same as the primary EMPL,
only shorter. The unique components will be those comprising the
crew's quarters, the fuel production facilities, the Mars landing
and observation equipment, and so on (see section 10.3).
19. Bring the primary EMPL to operational status.
20. Our plan for the manned exploration of Mars requires an
unmanned precursor spaceship to be sent to Phobos. This ship will
establish a fuel production facility on Phobos and will also land
human support facilities etc on Mars. First, we must assemble
the Phobos spaceship at L4 (or L5). This effort is expected to take
two to three years.
21. Bring the ship to operational status. First, the ship will be
spun up to 3 revolutions per minute. Then the ship's EMPL will be
checked out and made operational. It will then catch projectiles
from the primary EMPL to verify that we can make momentum exchange
work. The Phobos spaceship can then be outfitted for its trip and
sent on its way.
22. The Phobos ship will take a slow route to Mars and, upon
entering the system, will rendezvous with Phobos. After locating
an appropriate site, it will land on Phobos and the androids on
board will deploy the fuel manufacturing equipment, observation
equipment, power supplies, etc on Phobos.
23. A number of interesting landing sites will be selected. Crew
members will be asked to choose the sites they would like to visit.
Final sites will be chosen by those people who will be going.
24. The crew support modules, i.e. crews' quarters, hydroponic
facilities, fuel production facilities, observation equipment,
communications equipment, power supplies, etc., will be landed at
the selected sites accompanied by at least one android to set up
everything.
25. Meanwhile, the manned spaceship will be constructed in HEO
at L4 or L5, using primarily lunar materials thrown from the
primary EMPL at the lunar polar base. It will take three or four
years to build the ship and make it ready for departure.
26. The crew will be lifted via space planes to fuel depots in
LEO, where the space planes will be refueled. From there they will
be lifted directly to the ship in HEO.
27. The Mars ship will take a direct trajectory and will arrive
in about 45 days. The ship will rendezvous with Phobos but not
land on it. The crew will transfer to landing modules on Phobos
and, from there, descend to Mars, landing at several different
sites simultaneously.
28. The crew will have 2 years to explore Mars before returning,
via Phobos and the still orbiting spaceship back to HEO. From there
they will be returned to earth by space planes. Total trip time
will be about 824 days, not counting the time to HEO and back.
29. Meanwhile, the unmanned precursor spaceship to be sent to
Callisto will be assembled in HEO. It will be much the same as the
Phobos ship, except that it will have 4 times the nuclear power to
enable it to throw projectiles twice as fast. Power for the primary
EMPL will also be quadrupled, so that it too can throw projectiles
twice as fast.
30. The Callisto ship will be sent on a slow trajectory to
Jupiter, where it will rendezvous with Callisto and assume a useful
orbit around it. Crew support modules will be separated from the
ship and landed at the north pole of Callisto.
31. The Mars ship will be refurbished and its nuclear power
supplies quadrupled. Another crew will be lifted to the ship and
it will be sent off to Jupiter. The enhanced power supplies should
allow the ship to reach Jupiter in about 6 months.
32. Since Jupiter orbits the sun so slowly, launch windows
occur about every 399 days instead of every 779 days for Mars.
Thus, the crew will have 12 - 13 months in the Jovian system before
their 6 month trip back to earth. Total expedition time will be
about 750 days, or about 74 days LESS than the Mars expedition.
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