So NASA wants a fuel depot. It’s interesting that Boeing is looking at putting one up since I work for them. Not the same org, but that’s ok. A fuel depot would be a great resource considering that it would save weight on the satellite launches. However, it seems to me that launching fuel for the sake of having the depot and keeping it in orbit would be fairly expensive. Perhaps it would be cost effective separating the costs. This kind of project reminds me of the other projects like the launch loop or the space tether. With a relatively cheap way to launch goods, a fuel depot seems a lot more reasonable.

The launch loop could possibly be used for humans, but the structure would have to be absolutely massive. A smaller circular track could be used to launch fuel, food, water and other goods that could undergo large g forces. I like the idea of a space tether since it doesn’t have to be nearly as large as a space elevator. The tether would orbit the earth spinning as it goes. There would have to be a launch vehicle that is capable of rendevous with the tether tip. This rendevous is a bit of a technical problem, but should be solvable given enough work. If nothing else, this would give some easy abort options…just don’t rendevous. The launch cost could be reduced drastically. While current launch costs are around $2000/lb (soyuz), lauch cost with a tether could be reduced to as much as $6/lb (very optimistic number).

A space elevator would be nice, but we’ve got some issues with the required material strength.

Similar to a lot of other geeks, I’m interested in space. I’d love to get on the space shuttle and take it up to the ISS for a while and a trip to the moon would be great. Unfortunately, by the time I’d be able to apply, get a job and train to become an astronaut, the shuttle will be out of service, retiring in 2010. Ok, so that leaves me with the follow on options. I could train and get a ride on the new Ares rocket in the Orion capsule. Supposedly this is going to be going to the moon and then lead to follow on missions to Mars. Now, I’m all for going to Mars, that’d be really cool, but it seems to me that with the current method of space exploration that it would be a money pit. We’d probably spend billions of dollars to go to Mars, plant a flag and come home. Great, why don’t we just put a flag on our next rover…that way we don’t have to pay for the fuel to bring it back.

I hate to be a pessimist, but I just want the next century of space exploration to be done right. If space is just a money pit, it’s never going to be used for more than communications and maybe a little research. We need to fully exploit the commercial possibilities in space. Tourism seems to be on the right track, lots of people are lining up for trips on Virgin Galactic. Bigelow Aerospace is developing an inflatable module that Bigelow plans to turn into a space hotel. SpaceX is developing several new rockets that promise to bring launch costs down. What I think we need is some more companies that tie these pieces together and more money-making ventures into space.

There are a number of popular ideas for making money in space. One of those ideas is to mine the moon for Helium-3. That’s great, but it’s most useful purpose would be in support of commercial fusion power generation. Last I heard, there aren’t any operating fusion generators. Another idea is to put up solar power generaters and beam the power back down to Earth. This has a lot of potential, but has some obstacles in the way of implementation. First, it costs a lot to put anything in orbit, so any satelite would have to be very efficient. Second, the power would have to be transported back to earth. Lasers or microwaves could be used for this purpose, but this process needs to be refined. There is a lot of potential energy there, there is not much in the way of creating solar cell arrays that are many kilometers square. The transfer of the power would require some pretty large antennas.

My favorite idea is to mine asteroids. There are thousands of near earth asteroids, and many of them contain metals such as platinum and volitiles that could be used as rocket fuel. The coolest part of this is that many of these asteroids are actually easier to get to (energy-wise) than the moon is. The delta v is actually lower, which means that you can use less fuel to get there. If the processes can be developed, you could actually generate enough fuel to get back. This means you don’t need to have as much fuel to get there. Boo-yaa! This leaves the obvious problems of being able to actually mine the materials from the asteroid. Wikipedia has some info on mining asteroids.

I figure that a company could come in that takes rockets from SpaceX, habitation modules from Bigelow and develop the processes for mining. I’m sure that it is techologically possible to do the mining, some remaining questions are who to sell the products to and how much you can get for it. Well, assuming the processes for welding and manufacturing can be brought to space, the mining products can be directly manufactured into satelites or space craft. The price of manufactured goods from space on Earth will probably remain too high to be economical. I would imagine most manufacturing would be used directly in space or on the moon. If the end product is simple metals that are transported back to Earth, well, that could be profitable too.

If only I had a few billion dollars to spare on a couple of projects…oh well.