by Meyer Moldeven
Edited July 24, 2009
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1. INTRODUCTION
U S National Space Policy
Introduction
“More than by any other imaginative concept, the mind of man is aroused by the thought of exploring the mysteries of outer space. Through such exploration, man hopes to broaden his horizons, add to his knowledge, improve his way of living on earth.”
—President Dwight Eisenhower, June 20, 1958
“Fifty years after the creation of NASA, our goal is no longer just a destination to reach. Our goal is the capacity for people to work and learn and operate and live safely beyond the Earth for extended periods of time, ultimately in ways that are more sustainable and even indefinite. And in fulfilling this task, we will not only extend humanity’s reach in space—we will strengthen America’s leadership here on Earth.”
—President Barack Obama, April 15, 2010
‘ . . . and to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, . . . ***nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.'*** (President Barack Obama President, The United States of America, Inaugural Address, January. 20, 2009) [emphasis*** added]
(Link added: 5.7.2010) Sustainable Space Exploration. MIT Space Logistics Project. Sustainable space exploration will require appropriate interplanetary supply-chain management.
http://spacelogistics.mit.edu/about.htm
~~~
(Added Feb 3, 2010) NY Times, February 3, 2010 [WORLD BRIEFING | EUROPE]
No Plans for Moon
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/science/space/03web-brfs-001.html?scp=1&sq=space,%20cosmos,%20Feb%203,%202010&st=cse
~~~
(Added Oct 24, 2009) FINAL REPORT of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (released Oct 22, 2009)
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf
Para 3.0. FUTURE DESTINATIONS FOR EXPLORATION
quote What is the strategy for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit?
Humans could embark on many paths to explore the inner solar system, most particularly the following:
• Mars First, with a Mars landing, perhaps after a brief test of equipment and procedures on the Moon.
• Moon First, with lunar surface exploration focused on developing the capability to explore Mars.
• A Flexible Path to inner solar system locations, such as lunar orbit, Lagrange points, near-Earth objects and the moons of Mars, followed by exploration of the lunar surface and/or Martian surface.
A human landing followed by an extended human presence on Mars stands prominently above all other opportunities for exploration. Mars is unquestionably the most scientifically interesting destination in the inner solar system, with a planetary history much like Earth’s.
It possesses resources that can be used for life support and propellants. If humans are ever to live for long periods on another planetary surface, it is likely to be on Mars. But Mars is not an easy place to visit with existing technology and without a substantial investment of resources. The Committee finds that Mars is the ultimate destination for human exploration of the inner solar system, but it is not the best first destination. unquote
~~~
"Planetary science: Icy martian mysteries" by Victor R. Baker is at
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/planetary/documents/baker.pdf
Article Nature 426, 779-780 (18 December 2003)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v426/n6968/standfirst/426779a.html
Access: To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license … .
[The article's introductory excerpt only is quoted and is believed by this blog's writer to be consistent with excerpt 'fair use' concepts.) "Among the grandest of mysteries about planet Earth is the origin of its ice ages and related climate change. Human civilization developed during a warm, 'greenhouse' climatic interlude of several thousand years within the overall 'ice-house' conditions of a major ice age that became most intense during the past two million years."]
"Planetary science: Icy martian mysteries" by Victor R. Baker is at
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/planetary/documents/baker.pdf
~~~~~
Author’s Note: The original draft summary of this ‘future history’ was copyright-registered in 1984 and independently published in 2000 by the author as a novel ‘The Interstellar Slingshot.’ An updated edition, formatted as an e-novel, ‘The Universe or Nothing.’ is in the Project Gutenberg Library Archive Foundation where it may be freely downloaded at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18257
~~~
The hope of the author in creating this 'future history' is that readers will include youths and young adults who are contemplating their future careers, and will encourage them to explore opportunities that contribute toward sustainable civilizations and human rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
~~~
2. THE SOLAR COMMUNITY IN THE EARLY DECADES OF THE 21st CENTURY
'The increasing use of mineral raw materials from the beginning of the industrial era and the unprecedented high rate of mineral production development especially after World War II has often led to great concern that we shall run out of exhaustible resources. . . .'
http://www.hri.org/MFA/thesis/winter98/mineral.html
~~~~~
The concentration of production of rare earth elements (REEs) outside the United States raises the important issue of supply vulnerability.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41347.pdf
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=update-a-global-rare-earth-element
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‘Practice has shown us how difficult it is to establish intergenerational fairness for renewable resources, and developing such a concept for nonrenewable resources is even more challenging. To many people, sustainable development and the exploitation of nonrenewable resources is a contradiction in itself because limited resources are consumed. However, a closer examination of the paradox yields some surprising results. With human ingenuity and enough time, we as a society can find the necessary solutions for sustaining development on Earth.’ (’Sustainable Development and the Use of Nonrenewable Resources (F.W. Wellmer and M. Kosinowski, Geotimes, December, 2003)
http://www.geotimes.org/dec03/feature_sustainable.html
~~~
‘It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.’
– Dr. Robert H. Goddard, Rocket Pioneer
~~~
‘There is no way back into the past; the choice, as H. G. Wells once said, is ‘the universe — or nothing.’
– Arthur C. Clarke
~~~~~~~
GLOBALIZATION: ‘… integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. ‘
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
~~~
U.S. Finds It’s Getting Crowded Out There. Dominance in Space Slips as Other Nations Step Up Efforts (The Washington Post, July 9, 2008)
http://www.spacedebate.org/article/quotes/3564/
~~~
Graphic: Globalizing Space. Cooperation is as prevalent as competition in the new space age. (The Washington Post, July 9, 2008)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/07/09/GR2008070900004.html?hpid=topnews
~~~~
3. SPACEFARING SOCIETIES, RESOURCES, AND LOGISTICS
The 2004 study ‘The Limits to Growth’ repeats evidence that Planet Earth’s reserves of nonrenewable resources are not merely being exploited, they’re being ‘consumed,’ and at a very high rate. Figure in the wars of the 20th century and just the earliest decades of the 21st, plus striving to mitigate the effects of an approaching era of ‘climate change’ as well as repair or replacement of what may well be destroyed and otherwise ‘consumed’ and we had better think real seriously about ‘Beyond (mere) Globalization.’
http://www.mnforsustain.org/meadows_limits_to_growth_30_year_update_2004.htm
~~~
Globalization has given us a tiny footprint in the space realm. ‘Beyond Globalization’ has to reach out to where we can replenish the nonrenewables that we ‘consume’ and have carelessly wasted since the Industrial Revolution. The nearest place with the stuff we need is the Asteroids, and robotics can get us there and do the mining. It will likely take a century, minimum, to collect, prepare and launch Earthward a robot-mined stream of nonrenewable aggregate from the nearest (but constantly orbiting) point) along the Belt.
~~~
The early decades of the 21st Century (Common Era 200x) increasingly focused the world’s governments, private sectors, industries, media, and scientific, academic and other institutions, and humankind generally on:
a. increasing the crowding and debris-generation by sub-orbital and orbital man-made objects in space, and globalization by participants utilizing the space environments,
b. exploitation of ’space’ beyond ‘globalization,’
c. the Earth’s steadily diminishing sources of accessible nonrenewable metals, ores, and other natural nonrenewable substances that are essential to sustain civilization’s industrial base into the future; the more immediate adverse effects of ‘climate change’ on trends in the planet’s reserves of essential renewable and non-renewable resources,
d. initiatives and commitments toward creating the means by which humankind will transform into realities its vision of evolving into spacefaring societies.
e. How America Can and Why America Must Now Become a True Spacefaring Nation. Spacefaring America at:
http://mikesnead.net/
and
f. http://spacefaringamerica.net/2007/10/11/16–the-space-show-appearance
g. progress toward broadening and deepening human capabilities and technologies to search for, find, access, identify, process and acquire essential industrial-base substances from ever-deepening wells in the Earth’s crust, and confident that, in time, from elsewhere throughout the Solar System and beyond. NASA Release 06-361 Dec. 4, 2006: NASA Unveils Global Exploration Strategy and Lunar Architecture, at:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/dec/HQ_06361_ESMD_Lunar_Architecture.html
h. studies and dialogues by the world’s peoples toward spacefaring objectives, deeper ventures and exploration, and security. Highlights in Space 2006 (PDF; 2.53 MB) Source: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, at:
http://www.spacesecurity.org/SpaceSecurityFactSheet.pdf
i. the 1972 Report to the Club of Rome: The Limits to Growth and subsequent 2004 edition ‘Limits to Growth-The 30-Year Update at
http://www.clubofrome.org/docs/confs/meadows_abstract_21_08_04.pdf
and
Earth System: History And Natural Variability, Non-Renewable Resources,
http://www.eolss.net/ebooks/Sample Chapters/C12/E1-01-02-11.pdf
j. exploratory evidence that, within the next century or so, unless worldwide corrective changes are made in time to change traditional physical, economic, or social relationships, society will run out of the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial base depends. According to the Report, when the world’s reserves of nonrenewable resources are exhausted, a precipitous collapse of the economic system, manifested in massive unemployment, decreased food production, and a decline in population will occur.
~~~
4. SPACEFARING CIVILIZATIONS, RESOURCES, AND LOGISTICS
a. Scientists, engineers, philosophers and other experts speculate on humankind’s future in the light of Planet Earth’s diminishing reserves of nonrenewable ‘industrial-base’ resources and an increasing threat of serious changes in the Earth’s climate. Vigorous technologies throughout the world’s industrialized nations suggest encouraging options, including replenishment from along ever-expanding frontiers in interplanetary space and, eventually, the interstellar realm.
b. ‘Spacefaring’ is obviously based on ’seafaring’, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as: ‘the use of the sea for travel or transportation.’ Thus, a simple definition for ’spacefaring’ would be: ‘the use of space for travel or transportation. ‘The term ’spacefaring nation’ appears, however, to imply much more. The Aerospace Commission linked this national capability to ‘our freedom, mobility, and quality of life.’ Simple travel and transportation capabilities appear to be insufficient for ensuring our freedom and quality of life.’ (Note: The following link will open the complete text (320-pages) of the ‘Final Report of the President’s Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry Commissioners’ and requires 20.4MB disk space. The report’s ‘Executive Summary’ precedes the full Report and is 20 pages.)
http://www.aia-aerispace.org/pdf/commission_media.pdf
c. ‘Space Logistics:’ is the science of planning and carrying out the movement of humans and materiel to, from and within space combined with the ability to maintain human and robotics operations within space. In its most comprehensive sense, space logistics addresses the aspects of space operations both on the earth and in space that deal with:
‘- Design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of space materiel
‘- Movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of people in space
‘- Acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities on the earth and in space to support human and robotics space operations
‘- Acquisition or furnishing of services to support human and robotics space operations.’
http://www.aiaa.org/tc/sl/index_files/SLTC_page0009.htm
http://mikesnead.net/resources/spacefaring/white_paper_america_needs_to_become_spacefaring.pdf
~~
d. Nonrenewable Resources
‘An ore is a mineral deposit containing a metal or other valuable resource in economically viable concentrations. Usually, it is used in the context of a mineral deposit from which it is economical to extract its metallic component. Ores are mined. Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes. ‘Mineral ore bodies have been formed in Earth’s crust by the action of erosion and plate tectonics. These ore bodies form concentrated sources for many metals and other useful elements.
‘Characteristics of nonrenewables: fixed endowment of given quality, stock declines over time. For minerals: costly process of discovery, costly process of extraction, technical change decreases costs of exploration and extraction over time. Key Results: physical stocks decline over time, price eventually increases with time, and technical change may cause prices to decrease initially.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-renewable_resource
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_metal
Solar System Mining
http://www.space.com/common/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22256
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/opinion/03iht-edbutikofer.html
~~~
e. From the ‘Background’ section of ‘U.S. Space Transportation Policy Fact Sheet, January 6, 2005′ (latest available)
at:
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-40.pdf
‘For over four decades, U.S. space transportation capabilities have helped the Nation secure peace and protect national security, enabled the Nation to lead the exploration of our solar system and beyond, and increased economic prosperity and our knowledge of the Earth and its environment. Today, vital national security, homeland security, and economic interests are increasingly dependent on United States Government and commercial space assets. U.S. space transportation capabilities - encompassing access to, transport through, and return from space - are the critical foundation upon which U.S. access to and use of space depends.’
So humankind has been to the Moon and returned and is preparing to go again, and we’ve got hi-tech robots exploring Luna, Mars, Venus, the Asteroids and the Outer Planets. When Mars is ready, it will be the stepping-stone to the Asteroids and their potentially enormous reserves of resources to replenish Earth’s depleted supply, perhaps for millennia. Well established in the Asteroids Belt explorers will likely prepare to explore and exploit the interstellar realm.
http://www.spacedebate.org/article/quotes/3564/
http://www.spacedebate.org/blog/
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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5. THE SOLAR COMMUNITY TWO MILLENNIUMS INTO THE FUTURE
‘Future History [includes]: ‘. . . stories or whole books purporting to be excerpts of a history book from the future and which are written in the form of a history book - i.e., having no personal protagonists but rather describing the development of nations and societies over decades and centuries.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_history
~~~~~~~
a. In the centuries that followed humankind’s giant leap to Luna, scientists, engineers and scholars in almost all of Planet Earth’s disciplines probed ever deeper into space. Explorers studied and charted the surfaces, depths and atmospheres of each of the Solar System’s bodies, and scrutinized the dynamics and constituents of space matter into the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Their probes searched the void for useful nonrenewables beyond the aphelion of Dwarf Planet Eris - but not yet the stars.
The first landing on Luna in Year 1969 of the then Common Era was judged to be among humankind’s grandest achievements. At the Luna landing’s Tercentenary a universal calendar was ordained to commemorate the Event as the first day of Interplanetary Year 1, opening a new era for humankind.
Explorers became teachers and mentors. Initially in Earth orbit, later in lunar space and on Luna itself, they guided settlers in developing new lifestyles and colonizing skills, and showed them how to wrest and refine usable elements and minerals from nearby sources. They devised and tested methodologies to convert raw space matter into forms with which to create and integrate surface and sub-surface structures, and manufacture and operate machines and integrated networks of things that would sustain contiguous space and inter- satellite and interplanetary navigation and logistics systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining
b. Well-colonized Luna and Mars, by then, were well established. Human and robot construction cadre’s had ventured into and beyond the Asteroids. Their experiences, surface and strata tests and studies influenced the selection, creation and management of sites and traffic lanes for mining operations and strategic outposts along the space frontiers. Advance construction battalions built basic habitat and, having attained ’shirt sleeve’ environments, conceptualized, planned, gathered and often converted local materials, and designed and built infrastructure and industries that, in time, blossomed into enormous encapsulated cities, social orders, cultural adjustments, and civilizations. Space mining throughout the Asteroids and transport of semi-refined product to Mars, Luna and Earth orbit was operational and economically reasonable, considering the few alternatives.
The emigrants procreated and populated their cities in the void. Their disparate ancestries blended through a natural vitality that accelerated human evolution so as to survive in a radically new environment. In so doing, they turned away from traditional conventions still deeply ingrained in their common species.
Adjusting over time to the novel experience of space, they conceived new ways or adapted their ancient qualities and prospered in wholly enclosed artificial worlds. General acceptance of tissue and organ modifications, genetic engineering and cloning gave impetus to the speed of human transformation. Instinctively, humankind-in-’solar’-space prepared for an eventual voyage into the interstellar realm.
In the final centuries of the Second Interplanetary millennium that shaped and launched The Great Migration to Space the original emigrants’ progeny had become an indigenous population. Seven centuries into the Interplanetary Era’s second millennium the Solar System included more than five hundred populated colonies and outposts, and more than three times that number of robot stations for interplanetary and inter-satellite dynamic ’space lane’ navigation, communication relay, and space rescue. Populated by humans and their robots, colonies extended from the voids above Mercury and Venus through the Asteroids, the satellites of the gas planets, to Dwarf Planets Eris and Pluto and generally throughout the Kuiper and Oort zones.
As colonies multiplied and spread across the vast interplanetary realm the solar community became impatient with time consumed in normal point-to-point space communications and transport. The excessive transmission and portage time was especially irritating for space communications, priority cargo, and human travel across distances from bodies orbiting along on opposite sides of the Sun. Hyperspace technology solved the problem.
[National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)]
Stacking the deck: Single photons observed at seemingly faster-than-light speeds
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/nios-std012610.php
http://www.gdnordley.com/KL_Glossary.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel
‘Spunnels’ in the public’s jargon, came into being, the term compressed from the phrase ‘hyperspace tunnels,’ a universal phenomenon once suspected and eventually confirmed. In the centuries preceding The Great Migration the phenomenon had been generally referred to as a ‘wormhole’, an archaic and irrelevant expression, even in those ancient times.
Spunnel networks reduced transmission time between the most widely separated points in the system from hours to real-time. Successful in communications, scientists and engineers concentrated on the technological leap from spunnel communications to spunnel teleportation, a capability urgently and clearly essential to move raw materials, finished goods, machines, and eventually, humans, across interplanetary distances. (Lengthy download.)
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technovel_teleport_041103.html
~~
The flood of emigrants to space colonies and outposts exceeded tens of thousands each year over several centuries, leaving behind a still over-crowded Earth that had long since cried ‘enough.’ Among the migrants were artisans and technicians, minimally to highly skilled administrators, sociologists, medical and mental health professionals, teachers, scientists and engineers and, scattered among them, contemporary philosophers who preached the metaphysical. Together, they represented all of Earth’s peoples and a cross-section of their cultures.
Technology, Mining And Resources
Technology, however, imposed constraints. The insatiable appetite for metals, minerals, precious earths and other nonrenewable substances increased inexorably. They remained the foundation for the Solar System’s industries, driven by the constant clamor of indulgent lifestyles. Fully aware that vital nonrenewable minerals and other substances were beyond replenishment from within the Solar System, the solar community nevertheless squandered its rapidly diminishing resources. In time, reserves of nonrenewables dropped from residue to gleanings.
Recycling, salvage, ever-deeper tunnels, and mine shafts repeated sweeps of the Earth’s sea beds and planetary and satellites’ crusts, trenches, beds and craters offered ever diminishing returns. Scouring the Asteroid Belt, sifting the Kuiper-Oort regions, and intense competitions for substitutes provided inadequate and merely temporary relief. The solar community’s population, on Earth and in space, had exploded to more than twelve billion people. The search for substance to support humankind’s needs ranged throughout; there were no more sources, nor were there sanctuaries. Certainly, there would not be enough for voyages to the stars. (POWER POINT, Lengthy presentation)
~~
At long last, humankind confronted its reality. Net yields from nonrenewable reserves, residues and substitutes had dwindled until exhaustion was certain and a timeline predictable. The choice among grim options could no longer be postponed. In the end, there were two:
- Remain in place, ration, recycle and redistribute minerals, metals, ores and other usable substances and substitutes with Draconian discipline, and take the consequences, or
- Chance the most awesome venture in humankind’s long history: reach out to a distant star and tear from it the raw matter that would preserve and perpetuate the grandeur of the human experience.
The second option would be the ultimate gamble: winning would bring the cornucopia sought throughout the ages. Failure, even at an early stage, would dissipate what little remained. Vitality drained, humankind would slip back into the pits and the mud from which it had so laboriously crawled.
The decision was to reach for the stars.
~~
c. Interstellar Teleportation
The Concept: Program Definition for an Interstellar Mining and Teleport System, henceforth referred to as: ‘Slingshot.’
The Objective: To draw from Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, 4.35 light-years distant, its minerals, metals, elements and whatever useful substances could be moved across space, and store them nearby in the Solar System, accessible to all humankind.
The Task: Increase the Solar System’s spunnel range, capability and capacity to teleport matter across interstellar space in a continuous stream and in sufficient quantities to satisfy the purpose of the Objective:
Construct and dispatch an advance fleet of drone scouts to the Alpha Centauri star system at the earliest possible time to survey, sample, analyze and report via spunnel on the availability, locations and accessibility of resources specified generally in the Objective;
Concurrently, design, construct and position an interstellar spunnel portage system consisting of two terminals, each of which would include an integral, fully self-sufficient facility for command-and- control, self-service and repair, logistical and other operations essential to its unique mission. Designate the terminal at ’star’ destination the Extractor and the terminal that remains fixed along the solar rim, the Collector:
- The Extractor selects and draws usable non-organics from the Alpha Centauri star system, and collects, converts and channels the product into its teleport processing center for point-to-point spunnel transfer to the Collector.
- The Collector receives the product, converts it to original form, (or refines it) and classifies, identifies and ejects the product for storage along the solar rim or at a point Authority determines to be more appropriate.
Construct the terminals four million kilometers beyond the orbit of Dwarf Planet Pluto (henceforth ‘Pluto.’) During construction, secure the terminals to each other and separately, to Pluto, employing mass attractors and position stabilizers, as required.
Disengage the Extractor from Pluto at launch employing Pluto’s outbound orbital momentum in a manner that the combined fleet retains its integrity in perpetuity.
Deploy the Extractor to include a ‘velocity boost’ from Dwarf Eris, if necessary, and on to Alpha Centauri. Position the Extractor in orbit above a point commensurate with data provided by the drone scouts. Maintain constant surveillance and exercise control over operations and maintenance via spunnel analyses of the Extractor’s functions, structures and equipment.
Position the Collector along the solar rim, or elsewhere as determined by Authority, and orient it to receive and process Extractor shipments consistent with the Extractor’s position and operations in the Alpha Centauri star system.
d. Stages
The Extractor, in position at destination, analyzes, selects and draws up substance from proximate asteroids, comets, satellites, planetoids, swarms, star surface and wells and other accessible bodies and strata, reduces the substance to spunnel-teleportable constituents, loads the mass into the spunnel capability and dispatches the product.
The Collector, positioned in the Solar System oriented to the Extractor, receives and converts the Extractor’s transmissions, processes substance into its original or a refined state, classifies and ejects the mass for positioning in the storage zone. Maintains accountability of product receipts and distribution.
6. EVENTS AND SCHEDULE
The Task requires an estimated six Earth centuries to design, construct, equip, test, deploy and activate. The millennia of delay in initiating the Task impose inescapable hardships on the Solar Community.
Accordingly, when justified as essential to the Objective, solar governments divert work forces, systems, and material resources from throughout their jurisdiction to the Task. The consequences of these diversions are expected to significantly curtail construction, activities, lifestyles of Earth and space colony populations, the distribution of the solar system’s residual resources and, possibly, the independence of governments, organizations, and individuals throughout the solar realm.
Critical to the program’s success is timing the Extractor’s launch. Piggy-backed to Pluto during construction and tests, the Extractor exploits the planet’s orbital momentum for launch. This factor applies should an en route ‘velocity boost’ from Dwarf Eris become vital to the mission. The window for each, if it presents itself, is precise and short- lived along outbound orbits of both Pluto and Eris; there will be only one mission launch opportunity for the Extractor.
Disengaged initially from Pluto, the Extractor fleet accelerates along its course to optimum velocity through integrated thrust of multiple thermonuclear burst-propulsion systems or other, more advanced propulsion systems, that are or become available for the Task.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
7. POLITICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF THE TIMES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
a. The Interplanetary Era’s second millennium was tumultuous. The harsh austerity imposed by the increased deficits in metals, minerals and other industrial-base materials and their substitutes created one set of problems; human cloning augmented with genetic engineering and their societal and cultural effects, especially beyond the Asteroids created others. Human survival in scores of widely scattered and unaffiliated space colonies, loosely called ‘tank towns,’ encouraged scientific and social experiments that altered traditional cultures as well as human physiological and psychological characteristics. Cumulative genetic and accelerated evolutionary alterations to the human body along with the effects of unique, often hostile, environments plus sheer distance from the familiar transformed humans-in-space into something else. The unifying forces that had survived the Great Migration withered. In time, the once shared interests of peoples, and allegiances to a home planet, sundered.
Varied and increased rates of change among populations, widely separated by interplanetary distances, opened doors to pretenders among a colony’s populace. Opportunists promoted a multitude of causes, often self-serving. Anticipating advantages to themselves, the pretenders, in time, combined forces and became influential advocates for disengagement from political, cultural and judicial dominance by the totally foreign ‘open sky’ government of Earth, billions of kilometers distant.
Disengagement, the opportunists agitated, was long overdue; Earth inhabitants would never really understand what life in deep space was about. The crisis came in the middle centuries. Bureaucrats representing the central government on Earth were isolated from the affairs of the colonies they administered. The indigenous populace ignored their authority, their credentials were challenged, and they were invited to return to their home planet - with no options.
The central government on Earth, weakened by shortages and distracted by agitators at home and in space, was neither vigilant nor prepared. Early in the second millennium of the Interplanetary Era, several colonies in the Outer Region declared their independence of the original United Planetary System and of each other. Other colonies and outposts joined, formed groups, and within a decade, proclaimed themselves as newly constituted nation-states. Each reserved exclusive rights to negotiate with other nation-states of their common (natural) satellite or planetary Region. New agreements were implemented on matters of common interest, such as credits, industry, a judicial system, trade and commerce, science and technology, space traffic control, education and cultural exchange, and creation and management of infrastructure and management of life-support resources within their territories and jurisdictions.
The Outer Region’s proclamations panicked the central government. On the one hand, Earth ethicists argued, were the rights of the inhabitants of the space colonies. As members of distant societies they had modified their bodies, their environment and their cultures, therefore, they had a right to seek their own destiny unfettered by well-intentioned, but obviously impotent laws that originated on Earth.
The advocates of this philosophy emphasized the Outer Region’s right to their own physical, technological and cultural development and evolution. As unique civilizations, evolving at an unprecedented rapid pace, they were already radically different from the humankind that had remained on distant Earth.
On the other hand, claimed others, the Solar System-wide scarcity of natural nonrenewable sources vital to the survival of the species was a shared crisis. The crisis would be solved, if at all, only through the most concerted application of humankind’s intellectual and collective genius. In one context, they were indeed unique civilizations: robust, sophisticated and divergent, nevertheless, on the other, instinctively taking nourishment from a common fealty to humankind’s ultimate destiny among the stars. Humankind would be far stronger and effective together, they argued, than it would be, divided within a common species.
The debate raged across the System. The separatists won. Earth’s General Assembly acceded to the demands for self- determination. The new status of the outer and inner regions was confirmed in The Treaties on the Separation of Jurisdictions for the Planets and Satellites of the Inner Region and the Independent Nations of the Outer Region.
The outer periphery of the Asteroids Belt became the boundary. The United Planetary System was dissolved and reconstituted as the United Inner Planetary System (UIPS). The natural and artificial colonies that orbited the planets and satellites of the Outer Region, or the central sun, retained their original identities (Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, etc.) The former colonies beyond the Belt formed a loose federation: Independent Nations of the Outer Region (INOR).
The United Inner Planetary System insisted that Dwarf Planet Pluto, its moons and its contiguous space remain within the UIPS Slingshot Special Zone of Operations until the Extractor and the Collector were both safely away from Pluto’s jurisdiction, as so judged by the UIPS. The Plutonian government refused. The other INOR nations, immersed in their own problems, were indifferent. The issue was left to the UIPS and the government of Dwarf Planet Pluto to resolve.
The UIPS continued, without prior consultation with INOR and Planet Pluto, to construct and operate Slingshot logistics sites and facilities on Pluto’s surface, in contiguous space, and within and along the Planet Pluto orbit. The UIPS, interpreting traditions and treaties that had evolved from Earth’s ancient Laws of the Seas and Space, exercised and defended free and unencumbered travel and passage by its citizens and vessels in deep space and throughout the INOR claimed jurisdictions.
The UIPS took steps to ensure the security of Slingshot construction and logistics support sites and space-ways.
~~~
8. SLINGSHOT CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATIONS
a. The Slingshot Advance Cadre arrived in the Neptune-Pluto orbit- crossing sectors in the fading Interplanetary Era, and before the breakup of the old United Planetary System. Colonizing Pluto and constructing space construction kits that would be transformed into surface habitat and supply depots had been under way centuries earlier when Planet Pluto was barely past aphelion but within economical range of deep space transports. The cadre’s vessels carried and towed communications gear, specialized construction rigs, platforms and infrastructure kits which had been fabricated or assembled in the industrial tank towns above Luna, Venus and Mars, and by cooperating governments of satellites in the outer region. Spunnel capabilities had not yet developed sufficient to teleport the massive loads and dimensions of Slingshot infrastructures.
~~
The Cadre’s primary mission was to establish a base of operations on Pluto. The program called for the planet to support a colony of forty thousand specialists and construction workers - and their families - for the assembly, construction and testing phases, plus ten thousand transients and temporary residents. The latter would comprise ‘rest and relaxation’ visitors, liaison and special missions staff from a nearby logistics depot and the construction sites, and agricultural and food processing-robot overseers from Planet Pluto’s moon Charon. Also expected were cargo handlers and ship’s personnel from transports entering and departing Pluto from-and-to points throughout the system.
About eighty percent of Pluto’s permanent adult population would work on the two terminals. The specialized professions for the initial phase ranged from scientists and engineers to artisans, skilled and semi- skilled workers in all of the disciplines and industrial skills required to construct and operate a complex station in space and service and maintain a permanent habitat and population on Pluto’s surface.
Children would be born on Pluto, natural or cloned. They, as well as the general population, would be cared for and supported by a host of administrative, health care, educational, recreational, life support and community services.
The Cadre’s mission was in phases. The first task of the initial phase was to land on Pluto’s surface, seek out stable surfaces or create them by fusing subsurface strata to sufficient depth for support of massive structures.
Gravity enhancement surface panels and their energy sources would be installed wherever enclosed communities or special purpose structures were to be constructed. A detachment of the Cadre would land on Charon, Planet Pluto’s moonlet, and fuse and seal sections of the moonlet’s surface and subsurface same as on Pluto, but tailored for agriculture and protein production.
On the solidified, stabilized surfaces of Pluto and Charon the Cadre would erect a tank town dome. The dome would have a ten-kilometer radius on Planet Pluto and a one-kilometer radius on Charon. Construction would proceed concurrently on surface and subsurface utility and life support facilities essential to human habitation. When enclosed areas were shirtsleeve ready for occupancy, the Cadre would erect essential life support, residential and recreational facilities. These would be followed by technical, communications and transport networks for Slingshot scientists, industrial technicians, and staff, followed by enclosed living areas for the remainder of the general populace that would train and do the work during the subsequent phases.
The tanktown on Planet Pluto would be named Coldfield; its counterpart on Charon would be Lamplight.
An On-site Project Management Team (OPMT) directed the Advance Cadre. The OPMT formed the nucleus of upper level managers, scientists and engineers, and other experts charged with organizing and guiding the functional task groups. The functional staffs would bring into being the on-site technical and administrative support facilities, install and operate its equipment, and govern the communities within which the populace worked and resided.
The OPMT was organized into three groups: Group One: Planet Pluto: Group Two: Charon, and Group Three: Logistics Depot. Each Group had its mission:
Group One (Dwarf Planet Pluto) Mission
Construct and operate a sophisticated fusion-based energy generating and power transmission system to provide sufficient output to support all anticipated power and network requirements of the planet and its support entities; Beneath and adjacent the Coldfield dome, construct, organize and operate encapsulated surface and subsurface laboratories, manufacturing and overhaul plants, space and surface transport and traffic routes and controls, surface roadways, utility and communications systems, landing and mooring facilities, energy hubs for gravity enhancement grids, and other essential utilities and facilities;
Acquire and encapsulate water from Neptune’s moons to meet Slingshot requirements and store it proximate to Pluto, Charon and the Slingshot Logistics Depot and the Slingshot Construction Site.
Establish and administer activities for law enforcement, judicial, public health, education and other community affairs.
b. Group Two (Charon) Mission
Convert the satellite into a food growing and processing plant capable of feeding the entire Plutonian permanent and transit populations, and on-site personnel at the Logistics Depot and the Terminals Construction Site. Encapsulate the surface in an impermeable radiation-resistant plastic membrane and introduce and maintain constant temperature and air- moisture and other agriculture-supportive atmosphere and environment that meet prevailing deep space colony or equal standards;
Install, maintain and operate a capability to divert, neutralize, or destroy natural objects, such as meteors, comets, etc., determined to be a threat life and property in the Special Zone.
Constructively use Slingshot surplus by-products, and human waste generated throughout the Pluto and near space sectors. Conduct research and develop drip, hydroponics and other agricultural stimulant systems, protein synthesis and manufacture, and ship to Coldfield, the Slingshot work site and the Logistics Depot high-quality foodstuffs suitable for storage and consumption. Charon operations are fully automated and robotically maintained.
In support of the Charon agricultural mission, Planet Pluto, the Slingshot Logistics Depot, the Terminals’ construction site, and ships moored or in transit within the Special Zone constitute an integrated ecological entity. All organics and all mineral and chemical plant growth stimulants, such as discarded or excess food and fluids, bio- waste, usable industrial and community waste, and cadavers are committed to processing as fertilizers or for specialized application to the creation of foodstuffs. Organic waste and cadaver parts unsuitable for constructive purposes (fertilizer) on Charon will be fully sterilized and reduced as close as practicable to zero residue.
c. Group Three (Logistics Depot) Mission
Construct a space station to specification above Coldfield and designate it ‘Slingshot Logistics Depot.’ Arrange for the depot to serve for central receiving, warehousing and shipping center for materiel committed to the Slingshot Terminals, and for processing materiel through all active Planet Pluto surface and sub-surface technical and servicing facilities;
Provide the Depot with facilities and train its personnel for emergency backup in manufacturing and servicing capabilities redundant to those on Pluto;
Create a highest level technical capability to synthesize materials, and manufacture, fabricate, test and calibrate those precision parts, tools and accessories which are best made in the micro-gravity and pollution-free conditions of deep space and/or safely distant from Pluto’s and Charon’s surfaces and their gravitational influences; Augment the Depot’s security with a gated force field that fully encapsulates and protects the Depot and all vessels engaged in loading and off-loading personnel and materiel; patrols contiguous space and keeps the Slingshot Logistics Depot and UIPS citizens and property optimally self-sufficient and safe from disease, harassment and harm;
Install on the Logistics Depot and at the Terminals Construction Sites independent communications, cargo, living organism teleport centers, each capable of receiving and dispatching authorized cargoes, passengers, dispatches and communications via conventional, spunnel, and specified non-conventional channels.
~~~
The Terminals’ Construction Site is the focal point of UIPS operations. The Construction Site’s mission is to research, design, fabricate, test, assemble and, ultimately, launch, position at destinations and operate, monitor and maintain the Slingshot Extractor and Collector terminals en route and at destinations.
9. GOVERNANCE
Slingshot planning did not anticipate the dissolution of the United Planetary System, the creation of independent and estranged Regions in their place, and indifferent or hostile governments throughout the Outer Region.
Military forces had been non-existent for more than fifteen hundred years when the colonies of the Outer Region seceded from the United Planetary System. Weapons of mass destruction had been an anathema and outlawed since the birth of the first World Federation in the fourth century of the Interplanetary Era.
In place of an organized military, the succeeding World Federation had created an Interplanetary Constabulary to protect lives and property, investigate crimes, control traffic, and maintain general order. Their charter extended to all planets, satellites, colonies, outposts, stations, and all places throughout the void into which humankind had ventured.
The mission of the Constabulary remained unchanged during political reorganizations within the first World Federation and its successors. Its agents ranged the Solar System, and performed their duties quietly and efficiently. Few dared challenge their authority. When challenges did occur, they were quickly and ‘objectively’ adjudicated.
War, and the effects of war on people and things were forgotten. It was inconceivable, in those times, that the region beyond the Asteroids would become politically and culturally alienated from the unified community that humankind had created to guide them into the future. History, the citizens of the world concluded, had demonstrated the impotence of the ancient, long-discarded array of adversarial nation-states and come-by-chance leaders to govern an intellectually advanced species.
No one expected a return to the old, long-discarded ways. When separation of the Inner and Outer Regions became inevitable, scholars in both Regions explored the possible and the probable relationships that might develop under the new order. The studies predicted that politically independent nation-states would create multilateral alignments and conflicting societies, lifestyles and philosophies.
They took into account evolving technological and industrial capabilities, prevailing energy and declining reserves of industrial metals, minerals, and other usable substances and related them to the Solar System’s demographic trends and resources predictions. In time, he United Planetary System dissolved, and the successor UIPS had no choice but to assume and continue the Slingshot program.
The conclusions of humankind’s most distinguished scientists and philosophers suggested that two independent orders in space would bring with them a heightened likelihood of social and technological dislocations and disruptions. There would be interregional and, within INOR, international competition that would increase the rate of depletion in resources. There would be a multitude of disputes, often intentionally misinterpreted, to resolve territorial and jurisdictional differences that were already caught up in and molded by the dynamics of orbiting planets, their satellites, and constantly changing laceworks of space-ways.
The effects on Slingshot could be catastrophic. Stability and security of space infrastructure were paramount. Immediately following separation of the two Regions the President of the newly constituted UIPS directed the creation of a powerful Military Space Force.
~~~
The UIPS scrounged the ancient archives of Earth’s military history and designed weapons of defense and offense. Ships of war and their supporting systems were brought back into being, and spunnel gateways expanded to accommodate them. A militant phoenix rose from its ancient ashes.
The Military Space Force was charged with patrolling the space-ways beyond the Asteroids to protect UIPS’ vital interests. Their responsibilities included protecting the lives of UIPS citizens and private and government property throughout INOR wherever they happened to be, in space or on the surfaces of planets and satellites.
The role and intent of the UIPS military was explained to all INOR governments. ‘The Military Space Force,’ proclaimed the President of the UIPS, ‘would remain until INOR’s member Nations were sufficiently stabilized to participate in ensuring peaceful coexistence and passage along space-ways and at moorings throughout the Outer Region, and separately and collectively agree to participate in and support the Slingshot Program.’
INOR, as a Federation, interpreted the formation of the UIPS Military Space Force and the President’s proclamation on its role as contemptuous of their social and political maturity. The outcome was predictable.
Local INOR Defense Forces were hastily organized and equipped. Dozens of ships of war were built and many space transports were converted into armed vessels. Each INOR government, using self- defense as justification, established controlled corridors extending hundreds of thousands of kilometers into its contiguous space, often far beyond their legitimate jurisdictions. Passengers and crews of foreign space transports, passenger liners, and utility and pleasure craft, whatever their points of foreign origin or destination, required visas, local pilots, and armed escorts upon arrivals and departures. Suspicions festered on all sides.
It was an era of international and interregional political tensions and harassment, and military, technological and industrial sabotage and espionage. The history of Earth’s ancients had returned to haunt the solar community. The rates of depletion in the Solar Community’s reserves of vital, nonrenewable substances rose rapidly.
~~~~~~~~~~
10. DRAFT: PRINCIPLES TO GOVERN RELATIONSHIPS AMONG INDEPENDENT SOLAR and STELLAR CIVILIZATIONS (ISaSC)
NOTE: Added April 6, 2009) An early draft of an ‘in principle’ conceptual framework for a future united solar civilization’s direction, governance and oversight of construction, acquisition, collection, transport/teleport, accounting, storage, distribution control and other internationally recognized processes and powers exercised by nations and other ‘recognized’ solar system entities governing nonrenewable minerals and other substances, and resources that will be eventually acquired by spacefaring governments and other recognized entities from the interplanetary/interstellar realms to replenish the Solar System’s diminished reserves, and for other putposes.
Source: President Barack Obama, United States of America, speech at Hradčany Square
Prague, Czech Republic
April 5, 2009
http://prague.usembassy.gov/obama.html
Excerpt: [from President Obama's remarks] ‘And we should build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so that countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation. That must be the right of every nation that renounces nuclear weapons, especially developing countries embarking on peaceful programs. No approach will succeed if it is based on the denial of rights to nations that play by the rules. We must harness the power of nuclear energy on behalf of our efforts to combat climate change, and to advance opportunity for all people.
We go forward with no illusions. Some will break the rules, but that is why we need a structure in place that ensures that when any nation does, they will face consequences. This morning, we were reminded again why we need a new and more rigorous approach to address this threat. North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long range missile.
This provocation underscores the need for action - not just this afternoon at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons. Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons. Now is the time for a strong international response. North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons. And all nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime.’
[End NOTE]
~~~~~~~~~
DRAFT: PRINCIPLES TO GOVERN RELATIONSHIPS AMONG INDEPENDENT SOLAR and STELLAR CIVILIZATIONS (ISaSC)
PREAMBLE
In order to:
Create and foster political, societal, economic, and cultural environments throughout the Solar Community, which will preclude or minimize acts of international and inter-regional aggression, economic warfare, cultural disruption, and other forms of active hostility between or among the Independent Nations of the Solar Community;
We hereby establish and agree to the following:
This framework for peaceful coexistence within which all Nations respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of each other;
Recognize the mutuality of interests among all peoples and Governments of the Solar Community in sharing the benefits of The Interstellar Mining and Teleport System,
and to
Prepare for and extend the human experience into interstellar space and toward the coming Interstellar Era,
ARTICLE ONE
We reject and renounce economic, cultural, military and any other warfare, and the threat of warfare to attain regional, national and cultural objectives. We will settle all disagreements and disputes through peaceful means.
ARTICLE TWO
We affirm that the peoples of all nations, states, colonies, settlements, communities, howsoever they may be designated now and in the future throughout the Solar System and, eventually throughout the Interstellar Realm, have ecological unity. Their harmony is such that none are truly independent of the others.
ARTICLE THREE
We affirm that the Solar System is the common heritage of humankind, and all the resources of the Solar System, now and in perpetuity, are part of that common heritage. We agree that each Government representing the people of a planet, satellite, independent space entity or a legally constituted part and/or collective thereof, is entitled to its fair share of the natural resources originating within the Solar System or acquired from other star systems. Such resources will be available, proportionately, from the Common Reserve in conformance with a nation’s, government’s, or people’s verified needs and technological capabilities to utilize the resources for peaceful and beneficial purposes.
ARTICLE FOUR
In furtherance of ARTICLE ONE, we most solemnly declare that continuance of organized military forces by any Government or other entity within the Solar Community can serve no useful purpose. We manifestly recognize that the existence of military mass destruction weapons and their supporting agencies and facilities increase the likelihood of their utilization to resolve differences or jurisdictional disputes, with consequent harm to human life, properties, societies and civilizations.
We, independently and collectively, agree, without reservations except for the EXCLUSION stated in this ARTICLE, to the phased reduction of all military spacecraft, weapons, facilities, human or robot training and other support systems and technologies to the point of their complete elimination not more than five Solar Standard Years from the date affixed to this Declaration of Principles.
EXCLUSION
We exclude from this ARTICLE specified accords which are, or will be, required by a legally constituted Government to exercise normal internal constabulary powers and authority on, and in space contiguous to, their planet, satellite, independent community or zone, and between and among Governments, as mutually agreed to among the Parties concerned. All signatories to this Declaration will be kept informed of such constabulary agreements prior to implementation and their views considered.
ARTICLE FIVE
We recognize that precise delineation’s of spatial jurisdictions are essential for the orderly processes of government. We agree that jurisdictions to be defined and delineated include:
a. the outer limits of any one nation’s spatial control and administration. Such delineation shall take into account the irrevocable right and obligation of any Government which exercises legitimate influence or control over a non-hazardous natural or artificial planet, satellite, planetoid, space station, outpost, spunnel node, link, net or booster; transiting comet, asteroid, meteor swarm, planetary or satellite ring, or other astrophysical body to ensure absence of human interference to that body’s or phenomenon’s free and unencumbered passage through that Government’s spatial jurisdiction.
b. control and operation of space communications booster, relay, and terminal stations and their supporting research, development, manufacturing, and logistics systems and technologies. The intent of this delineation is standardized and economically operated and serviced conventional and hyperspace communications systems throughout the Solar System and in interstellar space.
c. traffic control, flight safety, and management of UIPS and INOR approved inter-regional, interplanetary, inter-satellite and other space- ways. Acceptance of responsibilities shall not exceed the Party’s existing technologies, resources and capabilities.
ARTICLE SIX
Context:
http://www.iaass.org/pdf/IAASShq9.pdf
We commit our Governments to accept financial, fiduciary, material and technological assessments for our utilization of the common space-ways. We agree that these assessments are for the purpose of defraying the expenditures of any one Government or entity toward maintaining and upgrading those common space and traffic management systems that fall within their borders, or other mutually agreed upon jurisdictions, and for performing such services for the common good as:
a. removal of hazards to innocent passage;
b. traffic control;
c. search and rescue;
d. acquisition, deployment, operation and servicing of communications and navigational aids;
e. construction, operation and maintenance of space and surface ports of entry and departure for the common use of all spacecraft;
f. trained, equipped and ready investigation teams to assist Governments of Primary Concern in determining the facts of ‘incidents- in-space’ which occur in proximate international areas, and
g. emergency logistical support capabilities for performing urgent essential repairs to damaged spacecraft of other Nations in peaceful transit. Such repairs shall be to internationally accepted standards that will permit the craft to continue its flight to a location designated by the Government having legal ownership, or authority to repair or dispose of the spacecraft.
h. We agree that spacecraft, spacecraft parts, man-made or otherwise artificial bodies and parts thereof greater than [to be determined] in size/mass, pollutants, or otherwise potentially hazardous, shall be stipulated in an amendment hereto not later than_(to be agreed upon), wreckage, and generated excess materials and human waste, will not be discarded or abandoned in space. Derelicts and unattached parts thereof, rubbish, waste matter, and all human-made objects in space are considered to be hazards to traffic or are unsafe for other reasons. They will be collected or tagged with an active signal and towed or transported to where they will not be a hazard to traffic or may pollute the space environment. The Government of the nearest surface or human habitat to initiate and follow up on actions for the objects’ reduction to harmless residue or its temporary or permanent removal to a location where it will not cause harm to people or things.
i. Deliberate destruction of a natural or artificial body or object anywhere in space in a manner that creates new debris of which components, shards, bits-and-pieces, residue that escape the collection/control of the party that caused the ‘destruction’ may have caused or may [likely] yet become a serious hazard to traffic or habitat. The creator of such destruction shall expeditiously justify the ‘act of destruction’ within the Regional judicial system.
ARTICLE SEVEN
We announce the formation of an international apparatus, with representation from all Governments, colonies, or other populated entities to assemble within three Solar Standard months from the date affixed hereto. The primary purpose of this Assembly is to facilitate implementation of this Declaration. They shall also create and ensure support for an interplanetary citizen’s volunteer group to review and resolve complaints and suggestions from the populace that may contribute to recommendations for improvements to this Declaration that will:
a. promote the free and unencumbered passage of transports, vessels, people and commerce between and among the Nations of the Solar System;
b. encourage cultural, economic, and scientific research, and exchanges of scholars, students, and information for the benefit and betterment of humankind;
c. enhance the understanding of all peoples regarding the positive values, which have evolved over the millennia since the beginning of the Great Migration from Planet Earth,
and,
d. organize and begin the planning for humankind’s exploration and migration into the Interstellar Realm.
ARTICLE EIGHT
We declare and affirm we act in concert with the spirit and letter of this Declaration of Principles in the interests of international cooperation, interplanetary peace and security, mutual understanding among our far-flung peoples, and the survival of our species.
ARTICLE NINE
We encourage all Parties to expand on these accords through their initiatives and agreements for mutual benefits to themselves and to all Governments and peoples in the peaceful use of space.
[end 'ARTICLES']
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
BACKGROUND TO THIS ESSAY
a. In the post-Sputnik 1950’s and at the height of the Cold War, the United States Air Force invited the nation’s leading aerospace contractors to present ‘pre-program definition’ proposals on a study ‘Space Logistics, Operations, Maintenance and Rescue’ (PROJECT SLOMAR). An Air Force preliminary review of the contractors’ proposals was conducted in 1961 at Headquarters, Air Force Logistics Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
b. I was at that time the Chief of the Plans Branch, Plans and Programs Division of the Directorate of Materiel Management, [of the then designated] Sacramento Air Materiel Area (SMAMA), McClellan AFB, California. SMAMA was the focal point for managing USAF worldwide logistics support to specific weapons and support systems, commodities, and equipment that were unique to the ’systems’ that they (SMAMA) managed and specific Air Force property sub- classifications of standardized and cataloged parts and assemblies.
c. SMAMA was one of eight U.S. Air Force major logistics centers in the continental United States, each of which performed generally comparable management functions for their assigned weapons/support systems, commodities, equipment and parts unique. SMAMA’s major command was the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC), Wright- Patterson AFB, Ohio. Research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) responsibilities were assigned to another major command, the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC). Hqs AFLC had assigned to SMAMA responsibilities for logistics support to AFSC and contractors engaged in the RDT&E of space systems.
d. Among my responsibilities as Chief of the SMAMA Materiel Management Plans Branch was to participate in the ongoing analysis of Hqs AFLC’s mission and workload assignments to SMAMA in terms of the McClellan AFB evolving strategic location, airfield facility, industrial capabilities, and manpower resources. In addition to SMAMA’s worldwide logistics management functions, the installation on which the SMAMA Hqs was situated (McClellan AFB), was also a major USAF supply and maintenance depot capable of highest level (fourth echelon) overhaul of aircraft and support systems, major repair of aircraft, equipment, electronics, and other commodities; and supply storage, warehousing, packaging and shipment of a wide range of materiel to U S Air Force, other Department of Defense and U. S. government entities, and allied military assistance programs worldwide.
e. Consistent with my responsibilities, I was one of several logistics (civilian) analysts assigned to the Hqs AFLC SLOMAR logistics panels to analyze and report on the logistics support implications of the ‘private sector industry’ pre-program definition proposals for a possible future U.S. Air Force in space. My interest at the SLOMAR review was to analyze implications in contractors’ SLOMAR proposals in the context of SMAMA’s logistics management functions and McClellan AFB industrial depot-level maintenance and supply capabilities. SMAMA and McClellan AFB managers would consider the analyses in meeting higher headquarters requests for input toward Command decisions on assigning, balancing, and accomplishing future workloads.
f. It had become evident by the early-1950s that the Department of Defense was considering extensive consolidations of military ‘logistics’ missions, mission assignments, and their existing, programmed and long range workloads in order to reduce the number of government installations and corresponding military and civil service personnel. Out-sourcing to the private sector had become an increasingly influential option.
g. A civilian or military moon base did not follow the enormous investment of the nation’s resources toward the Apollo Program’s successful landing of humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. During one of my subsequent business trips to Hqs AFLC in the early-1960s I met one of the headquarters logisticians that had served on one of the SLOMAR review panels. He mentioned that, as far as he knew, the SLOMAR archives had been passed along to the Lunar Expedition Project (LUNEX). By then, LUNEX was a private sector extension of the International Space Station (ISS).
h. Further Internet search for the Air Force SLOMAR study as a ‘link’ in this essay was unsuccessful. Relevant indirect background on the reassignment of civilian and military space systems to NASA and DOD is included in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Oral History Collection, Transcript: James E. Webb Oral History Interview, Space Program, Pages 9-12, I, 4/29/69, by T. H. Baker at:
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/Johnson/archives.hom/oralhistory.hom/WEBB-J/webb.pdf
also
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1649.pdf
i. The May 1961 declassified lunar expedition plan (LUNEX) is at:
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/lunex.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, July 24, 2009
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