Transcript colonists_need_ice

. . . the colonists need ice
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_resources_031114.html
Earthrise
from Clementine
the craters
in the
craters
have
craters
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/clem2nd/
LIFE
CARBON BASED
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
THAT OCCURS IN
water
on earth
human beings need
air
water
food
shelter
society
off earth
human beings need
shelter/technology
air
water
food
society
water & other volatiles for the moon base
• Earth
• in regolith from solar wind (ppm)
• permanently shadowed polar craters
• comets & asteroids
• Mars
from Table 12 - http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_resources/developmentofmoon.pdf
Although the plane of the Moon's orbit about the Earth is inclined
about 5o, it's equator is inclined about 6.5o, resulting in a 1.5o
inclination of the Moon's spin axis to its orbital plane around the
Sun. This means that the Sun always appears low, close to the
horizon at the poles of the Moon and areas within craters at the
poles can be in permanent shadow.
http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec96/earmoon.html
fortuitous circumstances
the permanently
shadowed
craters at the lunar poles
are so cold, the
temporary
atmosphere from
cometary
impact will condense and
then may take the rest of
the life of the solar
system
to sublime
The only possible way for ice to exist
on the Moon would be in a
permanently shadowed area.
The Clementine imaging experiment
showed that such permanently
shadowed areas do exist in the
bottom of deep craters near the
Moon's south pole. In fact, it appears
that approximately 6000 to 15,000
square kilometers (2300 to 5800
square miles) of area around the
south pole is permanently shadowed.
The permanently shadowed area near
the north pole appears on Clementine
images to be considerably less, but
the Lunar Prospector results show a
much larger water-bearing area at the
north pole.
Much of the area around the south pole is within the South Pole-Aitken Basin (shown at left in
blue on a lunar topography image), a giant impact crater 2500 km (1550 miles) in diameter
and 12 km deep at its lowest point. Many smaller craters exist on the floor of this basin.
Since they are down in this basin, the floors of many of these craters are never exposed to
sunlight. Within these craters the temperatures would never rise above about 100 K (280
degrees below zero F) (2). Any water ice at the bottom of the crater could probably exist for
billions of years at these temperatures.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/ice/ice_moon.html
physical properties of
asteroids and comets
• mass?
• rotation rate?
• solid or rubble pile?
• surface - crust, regolith, or solid?
• accessible Delta V?
bring back part of
an asteroid or comet
• robotic cargo ship
• manned cargo ship
mass driver cargo ship uses part of payload as reaction mass
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/spaceres/illus.html
bring back entire
asteroid or comet
• robotic mission
• manned mission
• manned w/
robotic precursor
Gravity Tug
• massive ship
• gravity as towline
• long duration low level ion thrust
• no direct contact, physical
properties of NEO unimportant
GRAVITY TUG
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051110.html
Gravity Tug Built from NEO
• seed ship (factory)
• build factory inside NEO
• build Tug at top of tower
• shift mass to Tug & launch
• use part of NEO as reaction mass
of course,
MARS
wants
water, too
http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/news_stories/news_detail.cfm?ID=212