CDZ Four Coming Phases of Colonizing our Solar System

The Colonization of our solar system is very feasible and one day I think most human beings will live in space instead of on Earth. The key is allowing private corporations to do most of the heavy lifting, so to speak, while governments will regulate and supervise what is done instead of managing it for everyone.

So here are some rough ideas I have on four distinct phases to the exploration of our Solar System and its development.

We are now in Phase 1, basically establishing a presence in Earth orbit. This phase is marked by the high cost of getting out of Earth orbit, but that does not mean that there is no profitability to doing so.
The potential profitability of this phase is lies in the following:
  • Space tourism - wealthy people will pay serious money to go into low Earth orbit and see the stars unfiltered by our atmosphere. Early efforts toward building low Earth orbit vacation stations are very plausible.
  • Space manufacturing -
    • perfectly spherical ceramic ball bearings to make molds from on Earth
    • 3D printing that exploits the zero gravity for unique production.
    • telecommunications across the planet; internet literally available on every spot of the Earth and cheap.
  • Military contracts - obvious benefits.
  • Cleaning up debris from orbital 'accidents' will be profitable. Just build mobile satellites that can deflect crap into re-entry where they will burn up in the atmosphere. They would be approached from behind to decrease impact and built very solid with Tungsten carbide tile shells and have replaceable tiles.
  • Private exploration and prospecting of the Solar System will grow quickly as laws pertaining to mineral rights and claims are firmly affixed and initiate commercial mining operation planning and execution with robots and other forms of unmanned exploration and testing.
Phase 2 will commence when we have a functioning Space Elevator. This will dovetail with more practical and efficient methods of flying into orbit and launching packages that will self guide their way to proper position. The activity area will be mostly between the Earth and the Moon with considerable activity directed toward Mars and the Asteroid belt where the real Motherload of resources are.
  • Space tourism will explode with activity and tours to the moon and large vacation stations will be like luxury tourist sites on Earth.
  • Space manufacturing will expand more quickly as we develop early moon bases that will harvest minerals on the Moon to use in colonization efforts and building space construction facilities. Early space vessel prototypes will be manufactured and sold to corporations to further prospect the moon, Mars and the Asteroid belt.
  • Military and policing contracts to oversee space activity among the nations involved will be an ever growing source of revenue. Nations involved in space exploration and development will number in the dozens and be from every continent.
  • Space reclamation of metal parts, debris and lost vessels will grow into a major industry, in further efforts to reduce the likelihood of space collision.
  • Unmanned posts on Mars, the moon, and larger asteroids will be created. These will be automated repair facilities and testing stations for mineral composition of samples returned by unmanned drones.
Phase 3 will be initiated when we have active production on the Moon, with delivery of goods by magnetic rails that will launch products into space from the lunar surface. This will be an exponential increase in Space manufacturing and will eventually see space manufacturing become the majority of manufacturing used in space, displacing more expensive Earth manufacture.
  • Permanent Moon vacation spots will be built, and most of the earlier vacation stations repurposed into manufacturing stations.
  • Early, simpler O'Neil colonies that will evolve the technology and be mostly manned stations that produce high demand items like space adapted alloys, robots and ships. These will be austere and functional, but greatly reduce costs of space manufacture.
  • Early mining of the asteroid belt will have to be tightly regulated to allow the economy on Earth to adapt. Too much too soon will see a huge collapse in the markets of many commodities that are rare on Earth but possibly abundant in space, like gold, platinum and other precious metals and gem stones, and fuels like Uranium and Thorium.
  • other industries from Phase 2 will grow exponentially.
Phase 4 will be initiated when we have active production on Mars to greatly open up mining operations in the Asteroid Belt. By the time we are able to do this in practical terms, we should have energy sources that will allow constant 1G acceleration/deceleration, which would reduce travel to Mars to a matter of days and open up the Solar System to more exploration.
  • The commercial exploitation in this phase will resemble the earlier phases except that O'Neil colonies will become primarily vacation destinations and permanent space colonies that will be Utopian and have ideal environments. Some zero Gravity production will take place in their core areas, but mostly the purpose of these colonies will be to house people and be HQ to corporate interests, not production itself so much.

Any productive responses are appreciated.

Not sure if you find it constructive or not. But unless you find something to extract from Mars, what is the point of going there?
 
The Colonization of our solar system is very feasible and one day I think most human beings will live in space instead of on Earth. The key is allowing private corporations to do most of the heavy lifting, so to speak, while governments will regulate and supervise what is done instead of managing it for everyone.

So here are some rough ideas I have on four distinct phases to the exploration of our Solar System and its development.

We are now in Phase 1, basically establishing a presence in Earth orbit. This phase is marked by the high cost of getting out of Earth orbit, but that does not mean that there is no profitability to doing so.
The potential profitability of this phase is lies in the following:
  • Space tourism - wealthy people will pay serious money to go into low Earth orbit and see the stars unfiltered by our atmosphere. Early efforts toward building low Earth orbit vacation stations are very plausible.
  • Space manufacturing -
    • perfectly spherical ceramic ball bearings to make molds from on Earth
    • 3D printing that exploits the zero gravity for unique production.
    • telecommunications across the planet; internet literally available on every spot of the Earth and cheap.
  • Military contracts - obvious benefits.
  • Cleaning up debris from orbital 'accidents' will be profitable. Just build mobile satellites that can deflect crap into re-entry where they will burn up in the atmosphere. They would be approached from behind to decrease impact and built very solid with Tungsten carbide tile shells and have replaceable tiles.
  • Private exploration and prospecting of the Solar System will grow quickly as laws pertaining to mineral rights and claims are firmly affixed and initiate commercial mining operation planning and execution with robots and other forms of unmanned exploration and testing.
Phase 2 will commence when we have a functioning Space Elevator. This will dovetail with more practical and efficient methods of flying into orbit and launching packages that will self guide their way to proper position. The activity area will be mostly between the Earth and the Moon with considerable activity directed toward Mars and the Asteroid belt where the real Motherload of resources are.
  • Space tourism will explode with activity and tours to the moon and large vacation stations will be like luxury tourist sites on Earth.
  • Space manufacturing will expand more quickly as we develop early moon bases that will harvest minerals on the Moon to use in colonization efforts and building space construction facilities. Early space vessel prototypes will be manufactured and sold to corporations to further prospect the moon, Mars and the Asteroid belt.
  • Military and policing contracts to oversee space activity among the nations involved will be an ever growing source of revenue. Nations involved in space exploration and development will number in the dozens and be from every continent.
  • Space reclamation of metal parts, debris and lost vessels will grow into a major industry, in further efforts to reduce the likelihood of space collision.
  • Unmanned posts on Mars, the moon, and larger asteroids will be created. These will be automated repair facilities and testing stations for mineral composition of samples returned by unmanned drones.
Phase 3 will be initiated when we have active production on the Moon, with delivery of goods by magnetic rails that will launch products into space from the lunar surface. This will be an exponential increase in Space manufacturing and will eventually see space manufacturing become the majority of manufacturing used in space, displacing more expensive Earth manufacture.
  • Permanent Moon vacation spots will be built, and most of the earlier vacation stations repurposed into manufacturing stations.
  • Early, simpler O'Neil colonies that will evolve the technology and be mostly manned stations that produce high demand items like space adapted alloys, robots and ships. These will be austere and functional, but greatly reduce costs of space manufacture.
  • Early mining of the asteroid belt will have to be tightly regulated to allow the economy on Earth to adapt. Too much too soon will see a huge collapse in the markets of many commodities that are rare on Earth but possibly abundant in space, like gold, platinum and other precious metals and gem stones, and fuels like Uranium and Thorium.
  • other industries from Phase 2 will grow exponentially.
Phase 4 will be initiated when we have active production on Mars to greatly open up mining operations in the Asteroid Belt. By the time we are able to do this in practical terms, we should have energy sources that will allow constant 1G acceleration/deceleration, which would reduce travel to Mars to a matter of days and open up the Solar System to more exploration.
  • The commercial exploitation in this phase will resemble the earlier phases except that O'Neil colonies will become primarily vacation destinations and permanent space colonies that will be Utopian and have ideal environments. Some zero Gravity production will take place in their core areas, but mostly the purpose of these colonies will be to house people and be HQ to corporate interests, not production itself so much.

Any productive responses are appreciated.

Not sure if you find it constructive or not. But unless you find something to extract from Mars, what is the point of going there?
Set up holding cell for liberals.
 
On a planet maybe, yes. But NOT IN SPACE. They don't need fertilizer in space. They need shielding. I've told you that TWICE now, why can't you understand that?
Um, human manned ships will go to and from planets, lol, and their shit will be gold.

Why cant you understand that?
 
Long periods of time in confined environments: people don't cope well.

They seem to cope quite well...

crowded-mall.jpg
 
Seems the X-37B is an early foreshadowing of the next phase of space exploration as laun ching things into orbit becomes cheaper and more routine.

The Space Elevator will seal the transition, methinks.
 
But unless you find something to extract from Mars, what is the point of going there?

And we have yet to pierce the Earth's crust. Maybe the future lies within?

Well, I fully expect that one day we will exhaust Earth’s resources unless there is a fundamental shift in the way we eat and travel. So in the strictest sense of the word, it makes sense to be come multi-planetary as a species. But the idea that you go up to Mars and live in pods is pretty absurd….you could just do the pod thing here on Earth and not have to worry about the logistics of traveling and not having a breathable atmosphere.
 
The Space economy is already nearly $400 billion, and we have just begun.

Topic: Space exploration

The global space economy, valued at around 383.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, includes a range of activities involved in the researching, exploring, and utilization of space. There are several ways the industry can be divided for analysis, all of which have some overlap. One such way is to distinguish between the utilization of space for communications purposes, and the research and exploration of space for scientific or commercial purposes. In 2016, communications activities (related primarily to consumer television) comprised around 29 percent of the total space economy. By 2040, this share is predicted to grow to over 50 percent as the use of satellite and other space-based technology for internet infrastructure come into use.
 
A tethered satellite with a landing pad at 31 miles up would cost something like less than a millionth of the cost of a skyhook. Landing on a tethered satellite with a landing pad 62 miles up would cost about a trillionth as much as a skyhook. The major skyhook costs are trash pick up, a canal monopoly as with Egypt and Panama and terrorism. With a lower cross sectional area, an orbit that makes sure everyone can cash in the political risks and therefore costs go way down fast with tethered satellite.
th


1. There's no material today that could hold up to the stresses such a structure would put on it.

2. How and where are you going to anchor it to the earth?
(Note: The structure can only be anchored at the earths equator)

*****SMILE*****



:)
 
1. There's no material today that could hold up to the stresses such a structure would put on it.

Actually there are but industrialized production of them isn't here yet.

Carbon nanotube - Wikipedia

Graphene - Wikipedia

Carbon nanothread - Wikipedia

2. How and where are you going to anchor it to the earth?
(Note: The structure can only be anchored at the earths equator)
You can build sea platforms in international waters, but that increases the length required. Ecuador, Brazil, Kenyas, and Sumatra are land based plausible places to build the elevator.
 
1. There's no material today that could hold up to the stresses such a structure would put on it.

Actually there are but industrialized production of them isn't here yet.

Carbon nanotube - Wikipedia

Graphene - Wikipedia

Carbon nanothread - Wikipedia

2. How and where are you going to anchor it to the earth?
(Note: The structure can only be anchored at the earths equator)
You can build sea platforms in international waters, but that increases the length required. Ecuador, Brazil, Kenyas, and Sumatra are land based plausible places to build the elevator.

th


Those materials 'may' hold up. The dynamics of the situation will be pretty nasty. Might make the building of the Panama canal look like child's play when it comes to hazards.

Anchoring the elevator would require some serious drilling to keep it in place and most the mountains available have the slight problem of being in volcanically active regions.

*****SMILE*****



:)
 
The economic calculations of the enterprise will need to be heavily subsidized by the government(s).

It will be an interesting political question that gets asked at that point in time. Almost certainly, alternative energy will be the order of the day in outer space if humans ever become a multi-planet species. Will conservatives still have their reflexive kyniption (sp?) fits to such things if it’s not done in the name of screwing someone else? Will liberals ever get over themselves in trying to solve all of society’s ills before we do anything that is expressly necessary to prolong the timeline of the species?
 
1. There's no material today that could hold up to the stresses such a structure would put on it.

Actually there are but industrialized production of them isn't here yet.

Carbon nanotube - Wikipedia

Graphene - Wikipedia

Carbon nanothread - Wikipedia


Those materials 'may' hold up. The dynamics of the situation will be pretty nasty. Might make the building of the Panama canal look like child's play when it comes to hazards.

Anchoring the elevator would require some serious drilling to keep it in place and most the mountains available have the slight problem of being in volcanically active regions.

I think that the carbon nanotubes are proven sufficient with a taper of 1.6 to hold its own weight plus three times the estimated weight of a launch pad/space anchor.

The graphene and carbon nanothread is even stronger than the nanotubes.

As to drilling, the weight should balance out with little need for a firm anchor, and if needed the total weight of a seaborn platform is probably sufficient or can be made so.

My primary concern is with the static electricity, which I hope can be used to fill capacitors along the cable and then atpped to recharged the elevator climber.

As to volcanoes and Earthquakes,
1) San Francisco and California are still there,

2) If we build five we wont have to worry about it. Just rebuild like everywhere else.
 
Extraterrestrial habitation on any scale is a pipe dream. In addition to time and distance impediments, there is no reason to believe anywhere else in the universe would be an improvement over living on Earth.

If we do not have the ability to utilize Earth's resources for our survival, why would we do any better elsewhere?

Unless you believe in Unobtainium...
 

Forum List

Back
Top