Importance of space colonies
Posted 05-22-2008 at 04:25 AM by Moontanman
Developing orbiting space colonies is important for several reasons. first and foremost is the idea of allowing mankind to avoid natural disasters on the Earth of a magnitude large enough to seriously impact the entire ecosystem of the earth.
Humans as a species have already been through the eye of the needle of mass extinction once. Sometime around 75,000 years ago the species Homo sapiens was nearly wiped out by an event so wide spread that somewhere in the neighborhood of only 2000 people survived! It was a very close call, in modern times most people would think the possibility of another disaster big enough to seriously challenge or place on planet Earth is impossible but in reality we are just a very small step away from the same fate as the dinosaurs.
We are fast approaching the possibility of being able to stave off an asteroid or cometary impact. But there are other possibilities we cannot stop or even influence in our favor.
A widespread lava outflow similar to the one that contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs is still a possibility and global warming, either man mad or natural could cause a mass outgassing of methane hydrates from the ocean and tundra areas of the Earth. Such an out gassing was responsible for the largest mass extinction to complex life on record.
Super volcanoes like the one currently under Yellowstone national park http://armageddononline.tripod.com/volcano.htm could destroy most of North America and disrupt the ecosystem of the earth to an extent that would make world wide nuclear war look like a routine event.
Then of course there are man made disasters to contend with. Nuclear war, even a limited exchange by smaller countries could destroy the ozone layer resulting in a massive disruption of th Earths ecosystem. Then there is the possibility of man made or even natural plagues.
Just because none of these things have happened in recorded history doesn't mean they cannot happen again or even soon. Orbiting space colonies would be insurance against the human race disappearing forever.
Then there is the industrial applications of the exploitation of the resources known to exist in space. Stabilizing the Earths Ecosystem would be much easier if we stopped destroying the planet for the resources that allow or civilization to flourish.
Resources that are mined in space or on moons and asteroids are not that difficult to bring to the earth and materials that can be made in space that cannot be made on the earth have the potential to revolutionize our civilization in ways we can only guess at now. Zero Gee bearings, metal foam, super pure crystals, unique alloys. these things are more than valuable enough to justify industrialization of space.
Aneutronic fuels, aneutronic fusion is the only really safe form a nuclear power. The only place to find the helium three that would make this possible is in the regolith of airless space bodies, our own moon contains enough helium three to power or civilization for thousands of years with no radioactive waste at all.
These things are just the tip of the ice berg, no doubt many new and wonderful things Will be found once we start to exploit space and in doing so we will make saving the planet easier and longer lasting.
Humans as a species have already been through the eye of the needle of mass extinction once. Sometime around 75,000 years ago the species Homo sapiens was nearly wiped out by an event so wide spread that somewhere in the neighborhood of only 2000 people survived! It was a very close call, in modern times most people would think the possibility of another disaster big enough to seriously challenge or place on planet Earth is impossible but in reality we are just a very small step away from the same fate as the dinosaurs.
We are fast approaching the possibility of being able to stave off an asteroid or cometary impact. But there are other possibilities we cannot stop or even influence in our favor.
A widespread lava outflow similar to the one that contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs is still a possibility and global warming, either man mad or natural could cause a mass outgassing of methane hydrates from the ocean and tundra areas of the Earth. Such an out gassing was responsible for the largest mass extinction to complex life on record.
Super volcanoes like the one currently under Yellowstone national park http://armageddononline.tripod.com/volcano.htm could destroy most of North America and disrupt the ecosystem of the earth to an extent that would make world wide nuclear war look like a routine event.
Then of course there are man made disasters to contend with. Nuclear war, even a limited exchange by smaller countries could destroy the ozone layer resulting in a massive disruption of th Earths ecosystem. Then there is the possibility of man made or even natural plagues.
Just because none of these things have happened in recorded history doesn't mean they cannot happen again or even soon. Orbiting space colonies would be insurance against the human race disappearing forever.
Then there is the industrial applications of the exploitation of the resources known to exist in space. Stabilizing the Earths Ecosystem would be much easier if we stopped destroying the planet for the resources that allow or civilization to flourish.
Resources that are mined in space or on moons and asteroids are not that difficult to bring to the earth and materials that can be made in space that cannot be made on the earth have the potential to revolutionize our civilization in ways we can only guess at now. Zero Gee bearings, metal foam, super pure crystals, unique alloys. these things are more than valuable enough to justify industrialization of space.
Aneutronic fuels, aneutronic fusion is the only really safe form a nuclear power. The only place to find the helium three that would make this possible is in the regolith of airless space bodies, our own moon contains enough helium three to power or civilization for thousands of years with no radioactive waste at all.
These things are just the tip of the ice berg, no doubt many new and wonderful things Will be found once we start to exploit space and in doing so we will make saving the planet easier and longer lasting.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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excerpt from Space Nanotechnology | Space Generation Advisory Council
i meant that magnetic fields effect the formation of the nano tubes using the nickle/cobolt teqnique, so garavity is a weak force where as magnetism is a strong force
being on the planet
our magnetic field has enought force at the surface that is not uniforn to cause the nano-tube to deform in the production process
hence
being away from the magnetic field with all its inconsitinces (see gravity and megnetic field flux)
may make the industrial process for forming cnt a more conducive envyroment in space, and the lagrange point
is a good place to set up shop because of its nuetral gravitational value
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ok on the sam eleve using this teqnique along with carbon deposition
we could manufacture crystal chips with a printed surface as a 3d architecture
then use carbon deposition ( methane , hydrogen, 1350 F, microwave kiln,) to make diamond chips
thus increasing the potential processing power of the technology we have to a multiple of at 10 to 100 times
although i donot know the tolerances of the transistors we use now for heat, but the substate diamonds is more efficient than scillica
(heat tolerances)
but in another way we could produce a wafer of diamonds
and then imprint the chip on them in the same fashon we use for the current tek, but if we could build a 3d architecture and then use carbon deposition, we could have radically more advanced systems built into one chip.. like the whole motherboard, cpu, video, sound and network into one crystal,
that could be hooked up into a lcd or the plastic diode thats in the making, basically increasing operating power and decreasing weight of the computer
just another idea,
i have thousands
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as far as what i'm talking about
i am saying that using the 0-g of space we can make the arcitexture more efficinet using this teck
diamonds are a good soure\ce considering their heat resistance
plus they are easy to make using the eccess carbon from a colony/space station
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plus if we assemble in 0 g,
then we can make 3d architexture easier
considering the lack of gravity (this will sound easy be in practice be very complex)
say we have floating points
all these can be stationary in the 0g envyroment
so the whole structure could be formed before the crystal is formed
then we could bring the frozen methane from the earth (oceans/ice) and use the carbon from that source to make the diamonds, then we have a remaining hydrogen source, this could be used for radiation protection or fuel for ion engins
so after we would have 0 waste
although the whole process of making the 3d architexture would be very hard
it would take major calculations for the machines to allow the whole structure to move as one, and move as little as possible
then add a seed diamond and allow to grow
this would establish a economically viable solution for constant space trips
plus you would need a manned station to keep the production facility online
then as a lunar way station we may even be priducing enough
hydrogen to be fueling trips
depends on the amount of these "chips" we make
"crystals"
but even in this situation for more hardcore industrial processes (on the nano level)
we would have to have a facility that is in itseld micro magnetically nuetral
that is to say
all materials have a magnetic field
so depending on the materials each exerts a different magnetic field
so making this field stable is like getting better at measuring things
meter, centimeter, micro meter, nanometer
althought at this moment we are like at the terra meter point, but in the next hundred years, we will advance on this concept alsoPosted 01-09-2009 at 11:01 PM by belovelife
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should i say more?Posted 01-09-2009 at 11:16 PM by belovelife
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There are a great many things that could be done better in "zero g" We simply don't know what we will be able to do in zero g. What we know now isn't even the tip of the ice berg. I have no doubt that zero g industry will be as big a revolution as the industrial age was.
By rotating a torus you can get pseudo gravity for processes that require gravity. The Lagrange points of Jupiter are a huge depository of metals, rock, and volatiles. Once we get there we can built anything we need.Posted 01-10-2009 at 09:57 AM by Moontanman
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i agree, the idea is getting there
i wish we could shrink space-time
and have a immune shell, so we could
basically take a step there
same energy used to shrink space
but it alleviates the time factorPosted 01-10-2009 at 11:44 AM by belovelife
