SPACE STATION WITH GRAVITY
Galactic Mining Industries,
Inc.
|
Richard Westfall - President 303-433-1978 |
William C. Jenkin 330-867-3628 |
United Societies In
Space, Inc. Declan
J. O’Donnell PC 303-688-1193 |
This paper will discuss the need for and manufacture of rotating space stations with artificial gravity. This paper also examines the construction of industrial capacity in earth orbit and beyond.
The need for
artificial gravity recuperation:
Colonizing, mining, manufacturing and other activities in space will require a large workforce in space. The provision of an artificial gravity recuperation habitat for these space employees will be an essential part of an employer’s responsibility to its employees in the colonization of Earth orbit and beyond. Space business, to be profitable, must have manned space stations to take advantage of extraterrestrial space resources such as Near Earth Asteroids (NEA), and destinations of great distance, such as Mars.
History of space
station dreaming:
Space Stations in Earth orbit have been considered by mankind for a long time.
The first reference to a space station is mentioned in a story by Edward Everett Hale – “The Brick Moon” – written after the American Civil War.
In 1895, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote a science fiction story about a space station.
In 1903 he updated his story with the addition of rotation for artificial gravity, solar energy, and a space greenhouse with a closed ecosystem.
Hermann Oberth in 1923 coined the term “space station” for an orbiting outpost and jump off location for trips to the Moon and Mars.
In 1928 Guido von Pirquet planned for a group of three stations, one near earth, one far away, and a cycler orbiter to link the close and faraway stations.
In 1929 Herman Noordung in his Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums ( The Problem of Space Flight ) spoke of a 30 meter diameter rotating station called “Wohnrad” ( Living Wheel ) that he placed in geostationary orbit. Wernher von Braun worked with Collier’s magazine (see Collier’s Space Program) and with Walt Disney Studios on presenting to the public concepts about space travel. He proposed an updated Noordung wheel of 76 meter diameter. Space stations have actually been built from the fifties to today. Programs of importance include stations such as Skylab, Mir, and the International Space Station. None of these space stations had the facility for artificial gravity. We propose here large Noordung/Von Braun Wheel configurations which can support humanity’s colonization of the heavens. Gerard K. O’Neill must be mentioned as one of the futurist thinkers who designed space stations. Many other groups have considered space station construction and operations.
Space Law and
Liability concerns for space society deployed to out of this world locations:
Space Law:
Space society will begin with the deployment of the first space stations with gravity. There are many considerations involved in establishing law in space. United Societies In Space is an organization founded by Declan O’Donnell. Declan has gathered together leaders in space law and policy. To see the space law concepts of USIS – go to http://www.space-law.org
Employer Liability:
Employer liability issues need to be addressed. Issues such as crew health, crew rescue, tort law, and other considerations need to be considered. Three treaties address responsibilities of countries and organizations which carry on extraterrestrial operations.
The treaties are; Outer Space Treaty of 1967, Liability Treaty of 1972, and Rescue and Return of Astronauts Treaty of 1968.
Nations who sponsor space objects and astronauts are liable for damages or injury caused by them, or suffered by them. Article 5, par. 5 of the Rescue Treaty of 1968 provides the launching authority is responsible for the costs incurred by others in returning space objects. Under the assumption that Astronauts are space objects, the launching authority is responsible for their term of duty in space. Waivers signed by astronauts may not be valid under the practices established under the three above mentioned treaties.
Business insurance coverage for space operations will be important. The ability to have crew members return to Earth rapidly in case of emergency can be accomplished from an Earth orbiting space station easier than from the surface of the Moon or from distant locations such as on Mars or on the trip to or from Mars. Insurance for Earth orbiting manned space stations will be easier to buy than for other mission profiles. It is important to have crews stationed in zero gravity locations such as Earth orbit and the Lagrange points around the planet. When a crew is on the Moon they are in a gravity well where they must first attain orbit to have a trajectory to Earth in a rescue vehicle or pod.
Certain companies with satellite operations have recently decided that it is not affordable to get insurance. The companies are PanAmSat and Echostar. Ann Deering has written an excellent article on the launch insurance business. In Ann’s article it is noted that space insurers are reluctant or unwilling to write policies for greater than one to three year periods. Manned space stations will have on orbit lifetimes of 30 to 50 years, so it will be necessary to look into such things as self-insurance funds that could be established by corporations who carry on such operations.
The Space Governance Model:
There is a legal theory that in the venue of outer space every “station” is really a “nation.” The premise is that there are no physical, historical, or legal boundaries so a small government would have larger meaning.
To the contrary, our current legal paradigm in outer space is determined by the 3 treaties mentioned above: nation states are legally responsible and equally privileged. Usually this authority is defined by mission agreements, waivers of liability, and military style practices. Stations sponsored by several nations are designed with separate component parts, each governed by its own national sponsor. This is the International Space Station (I.S.S.) Model.
For the Space Station with gravity the size, design, and essential mission may require a “middle model” of governance: a station city with condominium quarters for the participating nations. This is something less than a nation in space and much more than a contractual structure. The essential mission of administering artificial gravity, rendering medical services, and providing technical support for workers during the “Space Development Phase” augers against the I.S.S. Model. Instead, the common areas where these things occur should be managed by a traditional municipal government. This allows participants to conduct themselves under a single venue wide rule of law and be subject to equal treatment.
Condominium style governance in collateral quarters allows participating nations to maintain their special governance in those suburbs. International cooperation would be promoted by having the city central government manage the condominiumized suburbs also and maintain certain agreed upon and minimal standards, particularly as to construction of quarters, management of common areas, and personal behavior.
Municipal governance is universally understood. Every UN member nation has many cities within its borders. More recently every large city also has very large buildings and each of these has a self-government paradigm that utilizes city resources as needed. The Space Station With Gravity may be compared to such a building; the municipal services are provided by the city and the individual suites are managed by the owners.
This unique space station with gravity is similar to the following skyscrapers in larger cities:
1. A.T.&.T Headquarters in New York City; completed in 1984; 197 meters high; made of steel, granite, bronze, and glass.
2. National Commercial Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; completed in 1983; 122 meters high; made of steel, travertine, concrete and glass.
3.
4.
5. Maybank Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; completed in 1988; 244 meters high; made of concrete and glass.
These buildings are components of the cities they occupy; over 400 feet high (122 meters); over 15 years old; commercially traditional; and internationally acceptable. The stress of gravity on earth would be replaced by tension in space. Rotation for gravity will require new engineering standards but the fully enclosed living technology is not at all new or novel. Also notice that the typical building materials here can be mimicked by similar materials on the moon.
Lastly, and the point of this section of the paper, is that the space station “middle model” of governance is like that of a large civilian building within a municipal governance venue. A larger paradigm outside may be decreed by treaty and a contract structure may intertwine inside by tradition. But this station will need the solid and proven governance regime of a cit in a building as we appreciate universally for business purposes on earth.
Zero gravity and
artificial gravity rotating working shifts:
Launch costs for workers to get into space, make long duration (months to years) working shifts inevitable in the colonization of space. For example, if the cost to launch a pound of payload into orbit is $10,000, then a 200 pound man will require a $2 Million investment to locate the employee in space.
Space employees will work rotating shifts in zero-G and artificial gravity environments. In space, employees who have worked in zero gravity (G) for extended periods (a few weeks or more) will need recuperation (a few weeks) in artificial gravity conditions to reverse decalcification and other physiological degradations of zero gravity exposure.
Earth orbiting space
stations – vs. – Moon and Mars bases:
Employees stationed onboard Earth orbiting space stations can use Emergency Return Vehicles to return to Earth for medical care and protection against radiation storms in space. Employees stationed at bases on the Moon and Mars are not able to do this as they are in deep gravity wells. In order to obtain insurance for missions in space it is more cost effective to station employees on space stations than in deep gravity wells.
Radiation protection
and the construction of Earth orbiting space stations:
With rotating space stations capable of providing artificial gravity, it is possible to ameliorate the degradations of Zero-G exposure. This makes the danger from ionizing radiation in orbit the major design challenge for long-term work cycles in space. The space station must have significant radiation protection for employees.
Spaceflight Radiation
Health Program @ JSC (
The Spaceflight Radiation Health Program at the
GCR originates from outside the solar system. Typically the GCR is composed of ionized charged atomic nuclei such as hydrogen (87%), helium (12%), and other atomic nuclei. With solar maximum activity, the sun’s interplanetary magnetic field provides a limited amount of protection from the GCR. Integral GCR dose rates are near 2.5 times larger at solar minimum than at solar maximum times. For solar minimum exposure to GCR, the unshielded dose to the blood forming organs (BFO) is near 60 rem/year.
For GCR shielding it can be shown that as shield thickness increases the shield effectiveness drops. Hydrogen shielding provides better protection on a g/cm2 basis. This is due to the production of secondary particles and x-rays by the interaction of GCR with the shield nuclei. Hydrogen does not undergo fissile events in the presence of GCR.
For comparison, a table on pp. 7 of (8), gives the following examples. The annual limit of BFO dose is assumed to be 50 rem/year. Liquid hydrogen has a density of 0.07 g/cm3, while aluminum has a density of 2.7 g/cm3. To provide a 20 g/cm2 level of shielding, it will take a layer of liquid hydrogen 285 cm thick. A layer of aluminum 7.4 cm thick provides a comparable 20 g/cm2 level of shielding . 20 g/cm2 thickness of hydrogen shielding can limit GCR BFO exposure levels to 13 rem/year. 20 g/cm2 aluminum shielding thickness results in a 39 rem/year GCR BFO exposure.
In terms of SPE (Solar Particle Events) solar flare exposure, it is stated in ref. (8) that a modest “storm shelter” with 20 g/cm2 of water shielding provides sufficient protection for the crew.
Inner nickel high
strength shell with outer iron coating for radiation protection:
In the carbonyl digestion process iron, nickel and cobalt are converted to volatile metal carbonyls. Nickel carbonyl readily lends itself to vapor deposition of coatings of nickel. The inner pressure vessel of a space station module is produced by the vapor deposition of nickel metal through the thermal decomposition of the nickel carbonyl vapor. Iron carbonyl vapor deposition is less reliable and the deposits are brittle.
The iron vapor deposited material is deposited on top of the nickel inner pressure vessel, and serves to provide radiation and micrometeorite protection to the inhabitants of the space station. An article on the Beneficiation of Asteroidal materials is posted at this web address - http://www.space-mining.com/beneficiation.html . Bill Jenkin is the scientist who developed this carbonyl vapor plating method. In this article there are details of the carbonyl process as applied to the use of asteroids in space and as feed stock for the manufacture of space stations with in-situ resources.
Conventional and High
Temperature Superconductor shielding against radiation:
In order to protect the crew from radiation it is proposed that we utilize a combination of three types of radiation shielding.
- Conventional shielding involves significant quantities/thicknesses of matter used to absorb or deflect radiation. From best to worst, typical radiation shielding materials are liquid hydrogen, lithium hydride, water, aluminum, iron, lead, etc.. In some cases no radiation shielding is superior to a little shielding due to the byproducts of hard radiation exposure. In the scenarios which are planned for here, the thickness is provided by a combination of fuel tanks containing liquid hydrogen and/or water, thick deposits of vapor deposited iron, and an inner nickel metal shell. The liquid hydrogen tanks are on the outer contours of the space station.
- Active radiation shielding uses high strength electromagnets to deflect charged particle trajectories. Design of magnetic lenses for use as radiation shielding shares similar design parameters with the design of magnetic confinement enclosures as used in nuclear fusion research (magnetic bottles – tokamak – etc.). Articles such as the one by Spillantini discuss the use of such magnetic lens configurations. It is shown that protection from energetic protons, by use of magnetic lens technology, can be achieved with between 1/4th to 1/100th of the weight of a comparable conventional shielding arrangement. Magnetic lens technology can provide protection from charged particle flux, but is ineffectual towards electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays.
- Protection from electromagnetic radiation can be achieved by the use of technologies based on the concept of the Faraday cage. A Faraday cage is a conductive enclosure where the conductive walls of the enclosure reflect, redirect and absorbs the electromagnetic radiation. We propose incorporation of multiple layers of high temperature superconductor in the walls of a Faraday cage enclosure. Superconductors exhibit the Meissner effect, whereby magnetic fields are excluded (perfect diamagnetism), giving the superconductive Faraday cage an advantage over a conventional conductor Faraday cage which uses the conductivity of conventional conductors to exclude electromagnetic energy. The layering of normal conductor and superconducting layers has the promise to attenuate exposure to high energy electromagnetic radiation in space.
Raw materials brought
from Earth in the beginning, then mined from asteroids, comets and debris in
space:
In the beginning, we will produce space station components and industrial capacity with materials brought from the Earth into orbit. The dependence on supplies from Earth will diminish as the industrial-infrastructure / space-mining infrastructure becomes a reality in space. The long-term supply of raw materials in space involves Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) rendezvous, landing, mining and resource utilization to produce pressure vessels (cylindrical and spherical habitats), tethers, mirrors, framing networks and other components.
Artificial gravity
and space station design:
Space station rotation will provide artificial gravity. The initial space station consists of two or three cylindrical habitats, symmetrically attached to and rotating about a central hub. Artificial gravity within the cylindrical habitats results from rotation about the central hub. Tethers, structural mesh and framing networks attach the habitats to the central hub.
Examples of space station dimensions and rotation rates are given here in order to give the reader an idea of the radius versus revolution per minute (RPM) rotation rates of rotating wheel space stations.
These dimensions and rotation rates are for near 1G (9.8m/sec2) accelerations:
100 meters radius @ 2.96 RPM
200 meters radius @ 2.1 RPM
400 meters radius @ 1.5 RPM
600 meters radius @ 1.24 RPM
800 meters radius @ 1.05 RPM
1000 meters radius @ 0.95 RPM
Various sources set 2.5 RPM as the maximum rotation rate acceptable to personnel, while the lower 1 RPM is superior for the comfort of the crew.
Manufacturing in
space:
We will be using carbonyl digestion-deposition processes to produce custom shaped components. Metals deposited on the inner surfaces of cylindrical and spherical inflatables produce the cylindrical and spherical habitats. Kevlar/graphite cables are coated with metals to produce the tethers. Framing networks, mirrors and other custom shaped components are produced using custom shaped inflatables and other form surfaces.
Financing the
colonization of space:
Telepossession of resources will be employed to leverage financing for Space Station construction. For information on Telepossession of space resources, please go to http://www.space-mining.com/Telepossession.htm. Telepossession of resources is absolutely essential for the commercial development of space. Establishing free markets and trade in space will require the same type of ownership/property rights laws we use on the Earth.
Growth of the space
station:
The Space Station will grow through the addition of new sets of cylindrical habitats and other equipment/facilities. Eventually a continuous ring of cylindrical habitats forms a wheel.
Conclusion:
Space mining and industrial capacity produced from extraterrestrial resources will facilitate the colonization of space by humanity.
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23.
