COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00008 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	Sections to be written - not necessarily in this order
C00003 00003	Maximally Austere Lunar and Asteroid Colonization (preliminary version)
C00007 00004	Relevant facts about the moon
C00010 00005	Extended summary of the mission
C00014 00006	Finance
C00019 00007	The asteroid variant
C00021 00008	Notes:
C00022 ENDMK
C⊗;
Sections to be written - not necessarily in this order
the basic plan, extended version of basic plan
relevant facts about the moon,
rocketry including resupply  and possible return (rah), survival, recycling,
use of lunar materials, exploration, the asteroid variant,
Maximally Austere Lunar and Asteroid Colonization (preliminary version)

by Roderick A. Hyde, John McCarthy and Lowell Wood

 
	Previous proposals for space colonization have been overly
optimistic about the availability of money - at least up to the present.
In this paper we go to the opposite extreme; we discuss the least
expensive approaches we can imagine that have a reasonable probability
of success.  These involve accepting risks and hardships like those endured
by explorers and pioneers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Such risks and hardships have not been considered politically
acceptable for NASA sponsored space exploration.

	However, if we adopt a maximally austere approach, our studies
indicate that the costs may turn out to be low
enough for private non-profit support.  Specifically the amount
required may be in the range commonly raised in major university
and other charitable fund drives.  Space will eventually be explored
and colonized by man, but we, and those who support such projects,
want it to begin in our lifetimes.

	We are tentatively calling it the Shackleton Project after
the English explorer whose help-wanted advertisement for
an Antarctic expedition mentioned
"hard, dangerous work at low pay - some chance of fame".

	There is a basic plan and variants.

Summary of the basic plan.

	1. The Shuttle is used to launch a two person one way mission
to the moon which is resupplied by unmanned rockets as required.

	2. The explorer/colonists establish a base permitting long
term survival and work given resupply.

	3. They work to reduce supply requirements by increasing
recycling of materials brought from the Earth and begin the use
of lunar materials.

	4. They explore the moon.  In particular a trips to one or
both lunar poles will establish whether useful materials such as ice
are available there as many scientists suspect and hope.

	5. If and when finances and reduced supply permit, the colony
is enlarged.

	6. The goal, if the moon proves to be a good place to live,
(or the Earth a bad place)
is a self-sustaining independent settlement.

Relevant facts about the moon

1. The gravity is 1/6 that of the Earth.  This makes possible
feats of weight lifting.  A critical question is its effect on
pick and shovel work.  Larger loads can be lifted but some kind
of tie-down may be required to keep the explorer from being
pushed away by reaction to his shovel or pick stroke.

2. The simple concept of temperature doesn't apply.  There is no
atmosphere, and a surface that can't see the sun is at a very
low effective temperature.  Consequently it may be possible to
control temperature during the day by suitably orienting reflectors
and black surfaces to a much greater extent than on the Earth.
This is aided by the fact that the sun moves 28 times
more slowly in the sky than on the Earth.
At night insulation is the key to survival, but there
will often be heat dissipation problems rather than heating problems.

3. Lunar rocks are all of similar composition.  There is plenty
of oxygen, aluminum and iron, but there is little hydrogen and
there are not useful amounts of carbon and nitrogen in the regions
explored by Apollo.   Extraction of elements from lunar materials
has to be done without the large excesses of reactants such as
air and water that are ordinarily used on Earth.  Moreover, materials
resembling lunar materials are not used as ores on Earth, because
materials of more favorable and simple chemistry are available
for the cost of shipping from where these materials are found.
Thus lunar mining is a different problem from Earth mining.
However, it is being studied.

	Such studies include ...
Extended summary of the mission

	1. The Pratt and Whitney RL-10 rocket engine burning hydrogen
in oxygen is used in a vehicle launched from the Shuttle.  A Shuttle
payload of 65,000 pounds is assumed and the weight landed on the moon
is 7.5 tons of which 6 tons is payload.

	2. The landing occurs at lunar sunset or early in the lunar night.
We now believe that activity not requiring large amounts of energy is
likely to be easier at night.  The Apollo mission used the evaporation
of water for temperature control during the day.  This method is not
available for extended stay.
There is enough earthlight for vision, and insulation-based temperature
control is easier than shedding heat from the sun.

	3. The shelter is inflated and covered with lunar material
for insulation and protection from the solar wind and solar flares.
The lunar material is handled with shovel and basket.
This task must be completed during the first lunar night.

	4. The solar energy collection and storage system is set up.
Solar energy is used to split water which is recombined using a fuel
cell when energy is required.

	5. Water recycling equipment is set up.

	6. Resupply from the Earth is minimized by recycling.  The
priorities for recycling are water, oxygen and food in that order in
terms of mass saved, and that also happens to be the order of ease.

	7. Developing recycling is the first major task of the
colonists.  Equipment for that purpose will be supplied, but their
survival depends on their ability to make it work and keep it working.

	8. A second task is to extract lunar materials.  Oxygen is
available in large supply.  Hydrogen from the solar wind is present
at about one STP.  This requires processing 2000 cubic meters of
material to get the hydrogen for one cubic meter of water.  The
processing is apparently just heating.  This may or may not be feasible.
It obviously requires the ability to handle lunar material on a large
scale.  Carbon and nitrogen are not available in interesting quantities
at the Apollo sites.

	9. An expedition to a lunar pole seems feasible.  Materials
that are too volatile for stability elsewhere on the moon may be
available there.  It may be possible to salvage a lunar rover or
to bring a new rover on either the original mission or a resupply
mission.
Finance

	As we have explained in the section on costs, the requirements
are initially in the low hundreds of millions of dollars and about
$50 million per year for the resupply effort.  Much larger efforts
have been proposed for U.S. Government and for profit making purposes.
We are all for both, and if they occur soon, the Shackleton Project
may be redundant.  If their time-scales overlap ours, collaboration
is indicated.

	However, if present NASA tradition continues, a Government
effort may be planned on such an expensive scale that Congress
won't support it.  In any case Congressional and Administration
support is not presently available and its future availability
is not presently predictable.

	The same is true of proposed profit making schemes to
use lunar materials to build solar power satellites or for other
purposes.  They may be supported, but investors don't seem to be
lining up.  We can't now predict when attitudes will change.

	Our proposal is to raise the money by private solicitation
from individuals and foundations.  We also hope for Government
and commercial subsidies of various kinds.  In addition we hope
to get much of the required engineering from volunteers employed
by companies with relevant facilities, and we expect that many
companies will take a favorable attitude towards employees using
their free time and some company facilities for this public
service activity.

	In addition to American private money, we hope for support
from other individuals and institutions in the Free World.  This
may even include governments.  Present U.S. manned space activities
like the Shuttle attract great world-wide interest and enthusiasm,
but there is no worldwide opportunity for participation.

	All the usual methods of fund raising are to be used, but
we hope that within companies, there will be formed Shackleton
Project committees to co-ordinate fund raising and volunteer
engineering activity.

	Naturally, the Project will welcome media support and
will cheerfully sell broadcast and film rights for whatever the
traffic will bear.  Some of us think this can be a major source
of funds and others are doubful.

	The largest single cost will probably be Shuttle launches.
Perhaps Congress will donate the Shuttle launches and also
Government surplus materials and the use (on a non-interfering basis)
of such Government owned equipment as environmental test facilities.
Permission to use Government financed technology and to buy
equipment from manufacturers developed at Government expense is
essential for the Project.
The asteroid variant

	Colonizing an asteroid has the following disadvantages:

1. Less is known about asteroids than about the moon.

2. There is no salvagable equipment.

3. Communication requires more power.

4. Solar energy is more dilute.

5. Getting around the the extremely low gravity of an asteroid
is even more unfamiliar than getting around on the moon.

6. The time and energy requirements for the initial journey and
resupply are larger so the payloads are smaller.  Missions must
be launched at certain times of the year, so that launch windows
are approximately at one year intervals.  Actually somewhat longer
corresponding approximately to the synodic period of the asteroid.

	Colonizing an asteroid has the following advantages:

1. The colonists may be able to claim it for themselves.

2. It is a prototype of colonizing other asteroids.

3. Some asteroids may have a better selection of materials than the moon.

4. Their low gravity permits exploration with low thrust (e.g. ionic) rockets
of the asteroid belt.
Notes:

Rod: Do Tributsch or Miller and Ward estimate the mass inventory
requirements of their proposals?  It might be worthwhile to ask
them, e.g. by phone.