Talk:Colonizing Outer Space

Good web resources:
 * Permanent (http://permanent.com/), an online resource introducing various concepts for space colonization.
 * The National Space Society's space settlement archives (http://www.nss.org/settlement/index.html) claim to be a "reference library of over 30,000 pages".

Some key papers: Nicknamed "rocket science meets the dismal science", the paper examines what is holding back cheap orbital launch capability. It concludes that there is significant inertia and barrier to entry, that overhead costs (insurance, pad costs) dominate launch costs, and that certain government policy changes are crucial. Paper arguing that capitalization is the major obstacle to very large space projects, e.g. a lunar mining colony or an O'Neil cylinder. Very large amounts of money are thrown around in the private sector (e.g. to build an offshore oil platform), but the lack of certainty in the space market means that initially, government is going to have to finance very large projects.
 * Jurist, J et. al. When Physics, Economics, and Reality Collide: The Challenge of Cheap Orbital Access. http://www.colonyfund.com/Reading/papers/phys_econ_leo.html
 * Hickman, J. The Political Economy of Very Large Space Projects. http://www.transhumanist.com/volume4/space.htm

Some key players currently in private space colonization: In my humble opinion, of course. The first three and the GLXP are easy to argue, however. I chose these companies either because they are shaking up an industry (e.g. SpaceX), creating one (e.g. Virgina Galactic, the suborbital launch firms), pioneering a concept (e.g. Reaction Engines or JP Aerospace), or attempting a historical mission. These are all "New Space" companies, because the old defense-aerospace sector is quite comfortable with expensive contracts and low launch rates and is unwilling to lead in changing that 1960's paradigm. They have demonstrated, however, a willingness to follow.
 * SpaceX, whose stated mission is to bring space to the masses and eventually offer transit to Mars. Has successfully launched the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, and orbited and recovered the Dragon capsule, all self-funded designs - a first for the aerospace industry. Has a contract with NASA to deliver cargo to the ISS. http://www.spacex.com
 * Bigelow Aerospace is commercializing NASA's Transhab concept for inflatable space station modules. Successfully launched two prototypes and are currently expanding their facility for production. They have created concepts for Lunar colonies using their modules.
 * Virgin Galactic, aiming to be the world's first commercial spaceline. While short-term plans are only suborbital, they intend to offer orbital flights in the near future.
 * Orbital Sciences, Inc. The other company to hold a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the ISS.
 * Shackleton Energy, led by renowned engineer and explorer Bill Stone, intends to conduct the first water mining mission on the Moon.
 * Stone's TED talk, announcing the venture to a standing ovation. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_stone_explores_the_earth_and_space.html
 * Shackleton Energy's website. http://www.stoneaerospace.com/news-/news-mining-moon.php
 * Recent (Jan 2011) interview with Stone. http://www.space.com/10619-mining-moon-water-bill-stone-110114.html


 * Paragon space development. Life support experts who are aiming to grow the first plant on another world.
 * Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP). Contest in the spirit of the Ansari X Prize to conduct the first privately-funded robotic lunar mission. Currently, 20 teams are enrolled.
 * Astrobotics. One of the front-runners in the GLXP, and a company with the stated mission of private robotic space exploration.
 * Sierra Nevada Corporation (SpaceDev) with their Dreamchaser orbital spaceplane, which received NASA CCDev funding.
 * Armadillo and Masten aerospace, winners of the NG Lunar Lander Challenge. Both are developing suborbital vehicles.
 * Reaction Engines Ltd. Are designing an air-breathing, single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. Plan to begin operation by 2020.
 * JP Aerospace. Hardly an influential player, but their concept is intriguing: a two stage airship to orbit. The second stage is a hybrid airship/aircraft/spacecraft that gets lift from buoyancy, aerodynamically, and finally from reaching orbital velocity, and thrust from a high-altitude propeller and then an ion engine.

Some more ideas for this book
Excellent adventure. I think this book has the potential to go the extra mile.

I would like to list some ideas:

1) Can we look at early colonization of regions on earth and infer from those what the potential problems may be. Many early colonizations on Earth failed through lack of planning, disease and sometimes for the simple reason that colonists don't always get on.

2) Is there anyway we can bring in some of the ideas proposed in sci-fi. I particularly like Outland with Sean Connery. Another area of interest may be the Eden project and their experiences in an enclosed isolated area.

3) Can we discuss building materials. Will colonization of the moon require buildings to be made of certain materials. It would also be interesting to review the power supply needed to run a small research station. Carbon fuels would not be suitable.

4) All of man's colonization on Earth involved a search for something exploitable or useful to man. I can't see any colonization of any body in our Solar system going ahead in a sustainable way without something beneficial or exploitable. If the moon is rich in ores that are useful to man then how do we mine, process and transport them.

5) We also have the extended stays on Mir. Didn't astronauts on Mir lose some muscle conditioning. Obviously this was in zero-gravity but exercise would be fundamental to healthy colonists on any planet without Earth's gravity. Serious medical problems would need to be considered. If someone needs major life-saving surgery immediately then obviously the right equipment and doctor would be needed.

Should be an interesting book.

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 00:39, 29 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Since early this year I have been working on another Wikibook: Space_Transport_and_Engineering_Methods which will cover the technical engineering side of space projects. Rather than duplicating content, I suggest making this book (Colonizing Outer Space) address the history of human settlement as enabled by technology (your item 1), the history of the idea of space colonies (your item 2), and the motivations for it (your item 4).  Construction materials (item 3) and human factors (item 5) more properly belong to engineering and I would place them in the other book.  "Human Factors" includes all of the requirements that humans impose on a design.  For a space colony that would include atmosphere composition and pressure, temperature, water, food, gravity, and radiation levels as absolute requirements, then health maintenance, living space, entertainment, and other things as variable requirements.  For example, the Space Station (which I helped build, by the way), has "Crew Health" equipment at about the level of a doctor's outpatient office - they can measure heart rate and blood pressure, bandage wounds, and dispense drugs, but they are not set up for major surgery.  How they expect to deal with surgery is to evacuate the crew back to Earth.  So the issue was considered, but the choice made not to attempt to deal with it in orbit.


 * If there is a consensus that this is a good way to divide the content of the two books, I can start making edits along those lines, but I will wait a bit to hear from others. Danielravennest (discuss • contribs) 15:45, 29 August 2012 (UTC)


 * I have been cleaning this project for sometime, I'm not the initiator and even if I'm interested in the subject I have my plate full at present to get into yet another project full time. Danielravennest has done a marvelous job at Space_Transport_and_Engineering_Methods and I think I first posted there about the collision of content and we had a bit of a dialog about it.
 * My view is that this project subject is more strictly defined (less abridgment, and should be more accessible to readers), that is, when a reader comes here there is the expectation to find some content that should not be the same that is present on a Space_Transport_and_Engineering_Methods (and vice-versa). I can see some benefit in Space_Transport_and_Engineering_Methods covering historical and existing propulsion and construction technologies but I would prefer that it remained focused more on science facts and moved all the futurology and speculation and considerations (social, legal and economical) here where the scope is dedicated to it if regarding this project subject. I do not see as a rational choice to have a section regarding colonization on Space_Transport_and_Engineering_Methods but I would accept that past and near future space habitats (in realistic planing stage) should be clearly covered there in more detail especially the technical side of it.
 * I see the books benefiting from a cross-linking of the information and reducing duplication by sticking to their declared subject, for consistency of the works and the benefit of the readers. --Panic (discuss • contribs) 19:45, 29 August 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the information. If you don't mind I'm going to proof read this. Just mainly looking for minor corrections. I'll detail each edit for others to review. so feel free to reverse any edits I do. Not an expert proof reader but from doing the book on guitar I've learnt a few things about when to hyphenate, capitalization, etc. I won't add any content and basically will restrict myself to structure and corrections. Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 07:48, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for any help you can give to this project. Since you are not interested in providing content but you will be reading it, you could easily use the transwiki function and repurpose some of the content already present on Wikipedia were relevant and needed (not a direct copy of the encyclopedic articles but of the bits that make sense in to support the subject in the book). In case you do not want to do that you can use the TODO box and tag the articles that you see as beneficial to the work. --Panic (discuss • contribs) 09:56, 1 September 2012 (UTC)


 * My main interests are history and music. It was reading history books about the Ancient Greeks and Romans that led to me developing a small interest in astronomy. This book is about modern astronomy and I don't think I'm that "up" on the subject. Didn't even realise there was so many studies and sites dedicated to space colonization. Will investigate some of the links provided. I like reading about early astronomers like Kepler and Ptolemy. I have messed around with Kepler's law of planetary motion:

"the square of the sidereal period is proportional to a planet's mean distance from the Sun"


 * from which you can work out the distance of any planet from the Sun. So I sat down with a piece of paper and tried to work out Kepler's law which was made easier by knowing that the sidereal period of the Earth is 365 days and the distance is 93 million miles. Took the ratio from this Earth to Sun calculation and then applied that to Mar's sidereal period to get the Mars - Sun distance. I suppose I just wanted to get into Kepler's way of thinking being a history buff and that's about as far as I can go with maths. I'll leave the new stuff and maths to guys who are better acquainted with modern technology and maths and with that in mind I don't imagine I'll be able to add anything to this book. Reading this book has been an eye-opener and I've never heard of the term "generational" space ship or even thought about what it would mean to be born on a space ship that's attempting travel longer than the human life span.

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 13:37, 1 September 2012 (UTC)